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☆ Factbox: Global banks take axe to jobs as cost pressures mount
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Banks typically trim jobs towards the end of the year, but 2022 has seen a bigger wave of redundancies and layoffs. Rising cost pressures as a result of inflation and shrinking revenues in many core business lines amid volatile markets are making bank bosses nervous about profitability in 2023. CITIGROUPCiti (C.N) eliminated dozens of jobs across its investment banking division, as a dealmaking slump continues to weigh on Wall Street's biggest banks, Bloomberg News reported on Nov.8. CREDIT SUISSECredit Suisse (CSGN.S) is accelerating cost cuts announced just weeks ago, Chairman Axel Lehmann said on Dec. 2, confirming a Reuters report, as the bank races to slash its cost base by around 2.5 billion Swiss francs ($2.68 billion). DEUTSCHE BANKDeutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), Germany's largest bank, cut staff in its investment bank's origination and advisory teams in October, in a move than affected mostly junior bankers.

The global job cuts at the London-headquartered bank will fall across several business units and geographical locations and result in the loss of at least 200 positions, mostly with the title of Chief Operating Officer (COO), the sources said. HSBC, which used to position itself as the world's local bank, employs many COOs because country and business lines have their own separate COO, the sources said. The lender has been shrinking its sprawling global business for several years, downsizing in many regions and exiting some countries entirely as it tries to improve shareholder returns. The initiative, codenamed Project Banyan, follows HSBC's last major redundancy plan in 2020, which targeted up to 35,000 job cuts globally across all staffing levels. Three separate sources confirmed job cuts were underway, as HSBC joins a chorus of other western banks axing staff as a bleak global economic outlook weighs on business, consumer and investment banking revenues.

☆ HSBC to close 114 branches in Britain from April 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - HSBC (HSBA.L) will close 114 branches in Britain from April 2023, the British lender said on Wednesday, the latest in a string of such announcements by retail banks in the country as they slash their networks to try and cut costs. HSBC, in common with peers such as Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) that has also closed branches in recent months, blamed changing customer behaviour for the move, saying customers are increasingly banking online. HSBC said it will invest tens of millions of pounds in updating and improving its remaining 327 branches. Reporting by Lawrence White, Editing by Louise HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Britain will change its rulebook to allow banks to take more risks in order to keep the City of London a leading global financial centre, a government minister said on Tuesday. Next week the EU will set out a new law to force banks in the bloc to shift some of their euro derivatives clearing from London to Frankfurt. "The overall thrust of things is to allow more risk... You get reward from taking risks, you shouldn't be risk off, we just need to manage that in an appropriate way," Griffith told a Financial Times event. "There is nervousness about the UK overall," Nunn said, referring to the period of political instability and concern over the nation's finances. Alison Harding-Jones, head of EMEA M&A at US bank Citi, told the event that Britain remained a strong place and open for business.

[1/2] HSBC logo is seen on a branch bank in the financial district in New York, U.S., Aug. 7, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File PhotoLONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - HSBC (HSBA.L) has agreed to sell its business in Canada to Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) for $13.5 billion Canadian dollars ($10.04 billion) in cash. Chinese insurance company Ping An Insurance Group has been pushing HSBC to split off its Asian business to boost returns. "We decided to sell following a thorough review of the business, which assessed its relative market position within the Canadian market and its strategic fit within the HSBC portfolio," Chief Executive Noel Quinn said. Analysts had valued HSBC's Canada business in the range of C$8 billion to C$10 billion.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) for example had risen more than 10% in the last month and almost 20% since September. "Some of this is just a bit of consolidation from the last few weeks," she said, noting that stocks had taken a leg lower when Treasury yields gained and oil prices switched from red to green on Monday as the prospect of higher oil prices brought inflation concerns back to the forefront. Along with inflation trends, investors are also monitoring Federal Reserve commentary for any clues on its future rate hiking path. Earlier, U.S. crude oil futures had fallen to December 2021 levels on concerns about demand in China - the world's biggest crude importer. A view of a giant display of stock indexes, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Shanghai, China, October 24, 2022.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) slipped 0.50% and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) shed 0.71%. Emerging market stocks (.MSCIEF) dropped 0.94%. In currencies, the safe-haven Swiss franc and Japanese yen gained, while the Aussie dollar and Chinese yuan underperformed. CHINA FEARSIn Treasuries Benchmark 10-year notes were down 2.8 basis points to 3.674%, from 3.702% late on Friday. The 30-year bond was last down 2.7 basis points to yield 3.725%, from 3.752%, while the 2-year note was down 3.9 basis points to yield 4.4402%.

☆ Barclays CEO Venkat to undergo cancer treatment, prognosis 'excellent'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Lawrence White | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Barclays PLC (BARC.L) said on Monday that Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan would undergo treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer, adding that the condition is treatable and that he would keep working when possible. The CEO, known inside the British bank as Venkat, said in a regulatory filing that doctors have said his prognosis is "excellent", with the treatment in New York expected to last 12 to 16 weeks. Barclays has not appointed an interim chief executive, with Venkat and the lender's executive committee expected to continue running the company, said a spokesperson for the bank. A former JPMorgan banker, Venkatakrishnan has endured a difficult first year in charge of Barclays since taking over from Jes Staley last November.

☆ Britain's Nationwide warns of rising bad loans as outlook sours
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Nationwide Building Society said bad loans are likely to rise as pressure on household finances squeezes its customers, even as it reported profits ticking up from rising interest rates. Nationwide's results come a day after Britain's budget forecasting office warned the country faces a record hit to living standards this year, as surging inflation erodes income. Britain's second biggest provider of home loans said profit for the six months rose 13% to 969 million pounds from the same period a year ago, but said bad loans had risen and would continue to do so. Nationwide said credit impairment charges rose to 108 million pounds from a net release of 34 million pounds set aside for potential loan losses in the first half of last year. ($1 = 0.8401 pounds)Reporting by Lawrence White; Editing by Mark Potter and Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Any crunch for Britain's small businesses, which often lack the scale to pass on cost rises to customers as easily as bigger rivals, could deliver a new economic body blow. "How are we going to get out of this hole if it's not small businesses? "But there's no question that small businesses now have less capacity to increase their borrowing because you've got a slowing economy." Indeed small companies in Britain see their access to credit at its worst level since 2015, according to a quarterly survey by the FSB of 1,383 small business owners. Many small companies have also yet to repay state-backed loans extended to prop them up during COVID lockdowns, making their credit profiles increasingly unattractive.

☆ Europe's banks face 'direct hit' to profits from house price slide
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Europe's banks risk a significant hit to their profits if house prices across the region begin to slide, regulators and ratings agencies have warned. While banks' robust balance sheets mean declining house prices are unlikely to pose a systemic risk, the scale of lenders' exposure to the property sector means they could face a hit to earnings, S&P Global Ratings said on Tuesday. "Rising credit risk in mortgage portfolios will lead to a commensurate rise in bank provisioning [for defaults], and a direct hit to their earnings prospects," the agency said. Banks have "substantially" increased their exposure to mortgages in recent years, and are seeing some early signs of asset quality deterioration, the EBA said. A senior executive at Britain's Nationwide Building Society earlier this month told lawmakers the mortgage lender's worst-case scenario was for house prices to fall by 30% next year, though its central forecast was for an 8% drop.

☆ Shares and bonds chastened as Fed, ECB urge care
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Lawrence White | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Meanwhile dovish comments from European Central Bank policymaker Fabio Panetta saw European bond yields ease, but short-dated rates remained within striking distance of multi-year highs. Panetta said the ECB needs to avoid overtightening as that could destroy productive capacity and deepen a recession. The benchmark European STOXX index rose 0.26% (.STOXX), and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) added 0.6%, after jumping 7.7% last week. The dollar index was last seen on Monday at 106.86, still well short of last week's 111.280 top , while the euro eased a touch to $1.032 , after climbing 3.9% last week. The firming dollar also dragged down oil prices, despite the hopes of a demand boost from China's hints at reopening.

☆ Shares and bonds chastened as Fed urges caution
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Lawrence White | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The benchmark European STOXX index rose 0.15% (.STOXX), and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) added 0.5%, after jumping 7.7% last week. EYES ON CHINAChinese stocks gained on reports that regulators have asked financial institutions to extend more support to stressed property developers. The support for China's property sector, which consumes a vast amount of metals, boosted copper towards a five-month high. The dollar index was last seen on Monday at 107.15, still well short of last week's 111.280 top , while the euro eased a touch to $1.02875 , after climbing 3.9% last week. The firming dollar also dragged down oil prices, despite the hopes of a demand boost from China's hints at reopening.

Charles Roe, director of mortgages for banking industry group UK Finance, told lawmakers that lenders were reintroducing mortgage products at lower prices. However, Ray Boulger, senior mortgage technical manager at broker John Charcol, said he was disappointed at the slow progress lenders were making. PRICE FALLS FORECASTAverage two-year and five-year fixed mortgage rates have fallen around 0.2 percentage points from their recent peak, but still remain above 6%, Moneyfacts data shows. "It was 2008 the last time mortgage rates were at 6%, there's a whole cadre of people who have never experienced this...and are very worried," said Joanna Elson, Chief Executive, The Money Advice Trust. The lender has started to reduce fixed mortgage rates for existing customers, while rates for new customers were under review, he added.

☆ NatWest reports flat profit as economic outlook dims
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Iain Withers | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - British bank NatWest (NWG.L) reported flat quarterly profits on Friday, as bad loan charges from a worsening economic outlook took the shine off income boosted by rising interest rates. NatWest posted pre-tax profit of 1.1 billion pounds ($1.27 billion) for July-September, slightly below the 1.2 billion pounds average of analyst forecasts compiled by the bank, and unchanged on the prior year. The bank set aside an additional 247 million pounds in the quarter to reflect the deteriorating picture, denting its profits. Britain's economy is facing recession at a time when the Bank of England is hiking interest rates to curb double-digit inflation, squeezing the finances of households and businesses. Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC earlier all reported solid profits but discomfited investors with higher bad loan charges.

LONDON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Having hiked mortgage rates after political turmoil drove up the cost of borrowing, British banks are now cutting home loan prices, albeit slowly, as markets calm since Liz Truss's government collapsed and Rishi Sunak took power. But as markets have stabilised and borrowing costs have fallen, the trickle of mortgage rate cuts has lagged behind. By contrast, average rates on two-year and five-year fixed-rate mortgages have fallen just 0.16 percentage points, Moneyfacts data shows. Reuters GraphicsFIXED RATESMortgage brokers say fixed-rate mortgage rates typically lag changes in swap rates, a trend which could be exacerbated this time as lenders focus on reintroducing products. Five-year mortgage rates have followed a similar pattern, Moneyfacts data shows.

LONDON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) reported a slide in quarterly profit on Thursday, as the lender braced for a potential rise in loan defaults as inflation squeezes borrowers. Market turmoil sparked by Truss' tax-cutting plans pushed up the country's borrowing costs and led lenders to ratchet up mortgage rates, piling further pressure on households. Despite its lower profit, Lloyds said the strength of its underlying performance meant it could raise its forecast on several performance metrics for the year. However, Lloyds said asset quality - measuring potential loan defaults - was expected to be slightly worse this year. Actual loan defaults remained low for the time being, it added.

The British bank made a profit before tax of 2 billion pounds ($2.3 billion) in July-September, up from 1.9 billion a year ago and above analyst forecasts. European rival Deutsche Bank said fixed income trading revenues rose 38%. Barclays' advisory fees including merger and acquisitions (M&A) fell 45% in the third quarter to 533 million pounds. Despite the higher loan loss charge - including 381 million pounds taken in the quarter - Barclays' chief financial officer Anna Cross told reporters this had been taken ahead of time. Barclays said the net loss arising from the error over the year to date was 600 million pounds.

The British bank made a profit before tax of 2 billion pounds ($2.3 billion) in July-September, up from 1.9 billion pounds in the same period a year ago and above analysts' average forecast of 1.8 billion pounds compiled by the bank. Income in the fixed income, currencies and commodities business (FICC) doubled to 1.6 billion pounds from a year earlier as volatile markets saw heavy trading by clients. European rival Deutsche Bank saw fixed income trading revenues rise 38%. Barclays said the net loss arising from the error over the year to date was 600 million pounds. Barclays set aside 381 million pounds in the quarter to cover potentially soured loans – topping up its provisions for the year to 722 million – to reflect the deteriorating outlook.

SINGAPORE, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Standard Chartered (STAN.L) reported a 40% increase in quarterly profit as higher interest rates boosted the emerging markets-focused bank's income and gave it ammunition to upgrade its revenue outlook. The bank expects income to grow 13% this year instead of a previously forecast 10%. "We remain confident in the delivery of our 2024 financial targets," CEO Bill Winters said in a statement on Wednesday. "Our performance this year has been strong, and the pace of economic recovery in many of our footprint markets is encouraging, notwithstanding increasing recessionary pressures in certain Western markets," Winters said. StanChart's statutory credit impairment charges more than doubled to $227 million from a year earlier, reflecting weakness in key economies.

[1/2] Chief Financial Officer of HSBC Georges Elhedery poses for a photo in this undated handout picture. It’s also surprised investors and raised questions about HSBC’s direction. Known at HSBC (HSBA.L) for his strategic vision more than for his accounting skills, Elhedery has climbed the ranks of HSBC’s investment bank since joining in 2005. "It was a surprise to us,” said Hugh Young, Asia chairman of Aberdeen Standard Investments, one of HSBC's top 25 shareholders. CEO Noel Quinn has done a good job but investors are impatient for faster progress, Young said.

And Italy's UniCredit (CRDI.MI) raised its 2022 profit goal, helped by higher interest rates and lower loan loss provisions that also drove quarterly earnings above forecasts. For years, banks bemoaned ultra loose monetary policy, but now higher interest rates means banks can start to benefit from the increased gap between what they charge borrowers and what they pay savers. Standard Chartered's third-quarter profit surged 40% as higher interest rates boosted the emerging markets-focused bank's income, giving it ammunition to upgrade its revenue outlook despite a weakening global economy. For Santander, higher loan loss provisions in key markets like Brazil and the United States overshadowed better than expected third-quarter earnings. While benefiting from higher interest rates, banks also face the unwinding of a scheme that buoyed their profits for years.

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.

A logo of HSBC is seen on its headquarters at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China August 4, 2020. The London-headquartered bank posted a pretax profit of $3.15 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30. That was down from $5.4 billion a year ago, but well above the $2.45 billion average of analyst estimates compiled by the bank. "We remain on track to achieve our cost targets for 2022 and 2023," said Noel Quinn, HSBC's Chief Executive Officer. It said it would do this by the first half of next year by increasing revenue and managing costs.

"Policy stability is absolutely critical," Miles Celic, chief executive of finance lobby group TheCityUK told Reuters. Finance chiefs want Sunak to balance spending on infrastructure with easing immigration policy for skilled workers and investing in education, Celic added. Sunak confirmed on Tuesday that he was keeping Hunt as his finance minister, after he was appointed late in Truss' brief premiership to shore up confidence in Britain's finances - and tear up much of her planned tax-cutting agenda. Britain's 164 billion pound ($185 billion) financial industry was largely locked out of directly serving EU customers after Brexit. Any moves to extract more tax from banks are likely to be met with industry opposition.

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