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[1/2] Chairman Anthony Thomson (L) and Vice Chairman Vernon Hill pose with a dog outside the first branch of Metro Bank in Holborn in central London July 29, 2010. Metro declined to comment on Tuesday. A Starling spokesperson said the lender was making inroads into the big banks' market dominance. Metro is not the only smaller bank to have faced problems. One option is for smaller banks to gain scale through mergers and acquisitions.

Persons: Anthony Thomson, Vernon Hill, Toby Melville, John Cronin, Caius Capital, Monzo, Starling, We've, Morgan Stanley, Gary Greenwood, Rupak Ghose, Shore Capital's Greenwood, Ghose, Shawbrook, Jaime Gilinski, Dorita, Iain Withers, Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Anousha Sakoui, Huw Jones, Amy, Jo Crowley, Sinead Cruise, Chiara Elisei, Alexander Smith Organizations: Metro Bank, REUTERS, Yorkshire, Lloyds, NatWest, HSBC, Barclays, Metro, Caius, Varde Partners, Finance, Bank of England, London Stock Exchange, The Bank of England, Prudential, Authority, Shore Capital, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Shore, Financial, Bank, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Holborn, London, Starling, Metro, Colombian

Persons: Anthony Thomson, Vernon Hill, Toby Melville, John Cronin, Caius Capital, Jaime Gilinski, Dorita, Gilinski, Monzo, Starling, We've, Morgan Stanley, Gary Greenwood, Rupak Ghose, Shore Capital's Greenwood, Ghose, Shawbrook, Iain Withers, Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Anousha Sakoui, Huw Jones, Amy, Jo Crowley, Sinead Cruise, Chiara Elisei, Nelson Bocanegra, Alexander Smith, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Metro Bank, REUTERS, Yorkshire, Lloyds, NatWest, HSBC, Barclays, Metro, Caius, Varde Partners, Harvard, Forbes, Finance, Bank of England, London Stock Exchange, The Bank of England, Prudential, Authority, Shore Capital, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Shore, Financial, Bank, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Holborn, London, BOGOTA, Starling, Colombian, Latin America, Metro, Bogota

☆ Metro Bank shares jump after deal to bolster finances
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-09 | by ( Iain Withers | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Signage is seen outside of a Metro Bank in London, Britain, May 22, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSummaryCompanies Metro Bank shares up as much as 26%Colombian billionaire Jaime Gilinski to take majority controlMetro backers face 'very painful rescue' - analystLONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Shares in Metro Bank (MTRO.L) jumped in early trading on Monday, after the embattled British lender struck a fundraising deal overnight to bolster its balance sheet following urgent weekend talks in the wake of volatile trading. Metro Bank shares were up 26% at 56.9 pence by 0800 GMT. As part of the deal, Metro has agreed to a capital raise comprising 150 million pounds of new equity and a 175-million-pound issuance of bail-in debt known as "MREL". Metro shares remain around 97% down from when it first listed on the London stock exchange in 2016 at 20 pounds a share.

Persons: Hannah McKay, Jaime Gilinski, Gary Greenwood, John Cronin, Iain Withers, Louise Heavens, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: Metro Bank, REUTERS, Metro, Shore Capital, Bank of England's Prudential, Authority, Lloyds, HSBC, Metro's, Spaldy Investments, Thomson Locations: London, Britain

People walk outside the Bank of England in the City of London financial district in London, Britain, March 23, 2023. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File PhotoLONDON, Aug 15 (Reuters) - A handful of small UK commercial lenders are offering interest-free loans to high-risk borrowers, as part of a government-backed scheme to support people through the cost of living crisis. Reuters has confirmed that Social Credit, a collaboration between commercial startup lender Plend and two nonprofit organisations, has been delivering interest-free loans as part of the scheme. A hole in the credit market, caused by the collapse or exit of many payday lenders such as Provident and Quickquid, has left millions unable to access loans. HARD TIMESFair4All told Reuters a portion of the 45 million pounds would be used to fund no-interest loans, and the rest allocated to other financial support measures.

Persons: Henry Nicholls, Fair4All, TotallyMoney, Tom Lake, John Cronin, Cronin, Rishi Sunak's, Martin Coulter, Muvija, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Bank of England, REUTERS, Fair4All Finance, Reuters, South Manchester Credit Union, Provident, Quickquid, Customers, Conservative, Thomson Locations: City, London, Britain, British

Virgin Money (VMUK.L), Britain's sixth largest bank, said in a statement it had also seen "net business deposit inflows in recent days". That means SVB UK's customer deposits are safe and their loans supported, HSBC's top bosses have said. Franklin told Reuters a number of CEOs and startup execs had started researching other banks with which to park cash in addition to SVB UK this week, citing Barclays as a favourite among some. But the collapse of SVB has intensified scrutiny of the business models of all lenders, including specialists with smaller balance sheets to fall back on. "The UK banking system remains safe and continues to operate as normal."

LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - Zodia Custody, a crypto custodian owned by Standard Chartered (STAN.L), said on Friday it has registered its Irish unit with Luxembourg's financial regulator. The registration will allow Zodia to provide digital asset custody services for financial institutions in Luxembourg, the company said. According to the regulator's website, Zodia will be subject to supervision from the watchdog for compliance with rules around anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism. "There is a massive opportunity for financial institutions to offer a range of products and services related to cryptoassets," John Cronin, chief executive of Zodia Custody Ireland, said in a statement on Friday. Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft; Editing by Shounak DasguptaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The S&P 500 banks index (.SPXBK) dropped 6.6% on Thursday and was set to open lower again on Friday. The crisis at SVG was feeding growing investor concerns that banks will be vulnerable to the rising cost of money. In an unusual step, Commerzbank, one of Germany's largest banks, issued a statement, playing down any threat from SVB, saying it did not see "a corresponding risk for us". "The market is treating this as a potential contagion risk," said Antoine Bouvet, senior rates strategist at ING in London. A spike in interest rates has led to a sell-off in bonds, leaving banks exposed to potential losses on the securities they hold.

Instead, despite reporting robust profits, banks' shares have broadly stumbled as they forecast margin pressure, suggesting intensifying competition for customers' deposits and mortage business to come. "It may be that we've seen the peak of margin," said William Chalmers, finance chief of Britain's biggest domestic bank Lloyds (LLOY.L) on Wednesday. Lenders say they have started to pass on higher rates to savers, adding that profitability is rebounding after years of low margins. Pressure to immediately increase the rates banks pay savers has been intensified by the digital offerings from U.S. entrants into the market such as JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, executives at the top British lenders said. In contrast to floating rates, which broadly track the Bank of England benchmark, fixed mortgage rates have started to fall as competition intensifies.

Bloomberg had earlier reported that FAB had been exploring an offer for Standard Chartered as part of a plan aimed at building an emerging markets bank, driving StanChart shares up as much as 20%. The Abu Dhabi lender said it had been in "the very early stages of evaluating a possible offer" for the emerging markets-focused bank. Furthermore, the mooted combination of FAB and StanChart would have been subjected to more onerous capital requirements that would burden the resulting lender, a banking source said. FAB was created via a merger between National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank in 2016. The lender sources around half its deposits from the Abu Dhabi government and reported total assets of 1.15 trillion AED ($313.1 billion) as of end-September 2022.

A logo of HSBC is seen on its headquarters at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China August 4, 2020. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterSince his return to HSBC in September, Elhedery has been working on projects for Quinn. He is one of several Lebanese bankers to rise to the top ranks at HSBC, including his predecessor heading the investment bank, Samir Assaf. Shares of Hong Kong-listed HSBC, which makes the bulk of its sales and profit in Asia, fell 2.5% in a firm broader market (.HSI). "This is about how the group executive committee is positioned with potential succession options for the future," Quinn told Reuters.

Banks are finding the home loan market stacked in their favour after years of low mortgage rates, but are also aware that bigger mortgage bills could spell trouble for cash-strapped customers. But the higher rates will hit borrowers hard. Mortgage payments as a proportion of gross household income were on average around 20% in June, according to BuiltPlace, a property market consultancy. They could rise to around 27% - the highest since the early 1990s - if mortgage rates were to rise to 6%, the consultancy said. The rise in mortgage rates will be a blow for millions of households' finances, Sue Anderson, head of media at debt charity StepChange said.

"The mortgage crisis is going to be bigger than energy now," said Richard Murphy, professor of accounting practice at Sheffield University, warning of a drop in house prices that could leave many with debt greater than the value of their home. This comes on top of a cost of living crisis driven by rising food and energy prices which is already biting many hard. CALL FOR CALMBeyond the immediate squeeze this will have on consumers' ability to spend, rising borrowing costs also have the potential to send the years-long house market rally into reverse: HSBC analysts predict house price falls of 7.5% into next year. Some top mortgage lenders are calling for calm, stressing they are still signing mortgage deals and that the pullback in lending among smaller rivals is in no way indicative of a broader, exodus of lenders from the mortgage market. Chris Huddleston, chief executive of international brokerage company FXD Capital, said he expected the mortgage market to remain in limbo in coming weeks as investors watch currency markets and how the Bank of England reacts.

Tech stocks generally carry more risk than other stocks, but they also promise significantly more growth. Throughout much of the 21st century's historic bull market, tech stocks have been at the forefront of the rise, with the biggest tech stocks all outperforming the S&P 500 over the past five and 10 years. There's a fundamental reason why tech stocks tend to attract more investor demand than other kinds of equities. This has added to optimism that tech stocks, in particular stocks which have already seen big gains, will still be a safer longer-term bet," Streeter says. If an investor wants the highest possible appreciation, they would do well to devote a segment of their holdings to tech stocks.

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