Financial news

• It would be useful to know what Corbyn really thinks of Lloyds | Nils Pratley

  21-02-2018 20:16
  Is it the Labour leader’s kind of bank or is it one that he would prefer to break up?Lloyds Banking Group’s profits are back at pre-crisis level, there’s a new, digital-heavy three-year plan and enough surplus cash to spend £1bn buying back shares. Very good, but the chief executive, António Horta-Osório, has a more interesting boast. Lloyds, he said, is “completely aligned” with Jeremy Corbyn’s vision that banks should serve the “rea
  
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• Bank of England governor says Brexit has made us poorer - as it happened

  21-02-2018 18:00
  Mark Carney has told MPs that household incomes will be 5% lower because of Brexit, as he clashes with his own chief economist about the merits of devaluationLATEST: Carney says Brexit hurt growth and household incomeBank of England governor Mark Carney is being questioned by MPsHaldane and Carney split over merits of weak pound
  Earlier:Young women bear brunt of unemployment riseReal wages have shrunk for 10 monthsBreaking: UK unemployment rate rises to 4.4% - first rise since 2016 5.00pm GMT Ti
  
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• What is the Windsor hum and is it really US Steel’s fault?

  21-02-2018 16:09
  An intermittent rumbling similar to a case investigated on The X-Files has been driving some residents berserk for years – with similar noises heard around the world. The truth is out there ...Name: The Windsor Hum.Age: About seven years old. Continue reading...
  
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• Lloyds to hand £3bn to shareholders as profits jump 24% to £5.3bn

  21-02-2018 15:52
  António Horta Osório, chief executive of Britain’s largest bank, gets bumper £6.4m payoutLloyds Banking Group is to hand more than £3bn in dividends and surplus capital to shareholders and has awarded its chief executive a bumper £6.4m payout just nine months after returning to full private ownership following its taxpayer bailout in 2008. The group, the largest bank in Britain with 27 million customers, posted a 24% jump in pretax profits to £5.3bn. I
  
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• GKN takeover bid under review over security concerns

  21-02-2018 15:26
  Ministers are assessing blocking Melrose’s £7bn offer for British firm, MPs told Ministers are undertaking an assessment of whether the proposed takeover of GKN should be blocked on national security grounds, a senior civil servant told MPs.
  Business department permanent secretary Alex Chisholm said the assessment was not complete and an announcement on the result could come before or after the end of the bid process. Continue reading...
  
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• Is this the beginning of the end for cash? Readers on the rise of digitised payments

  21-02-2018 15:17
  We asked you about the UK’s declining cash usage and the difference it makes to your lives. Here’s what some of you saidWhat do barber shops, buses, street markets, shisha bars and grandchildren at Christmas all have in common?They are some of the last hold-outs of the cash economy, small pockets of activity that still deal in notes and coins despite the surge in digital payment systems that threaten to drive cash out of business altogether. Continue reading...
  
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• British Games Institute cements UK cultural hub for video games

  21-02-2018 14:31
  BGI merger with Nottingham’s National Videogame Arcade creates ‘centre of gravity’ for the UK’s £1bn-plus games industry – but it’s still seeking government supportThe recently formed British Games Institute, which aims to become a video game equivalent of the BFI, is merging with the National Videogame Foundation to create a new body dedicated to supporting and promoting game development and culture in Britain. The British Games Institute will be housed
  
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• Hundreds of KFC shops closed as storage depot awaits registration

  21-02-2018 14:25
  DHL has been storing all KFC chicken at an unregistered cold-storage facility in RugbyThe storage depot at the centre of the KFC chicken crisis had not been registered or inspected before problems emerged this week, and could have been closed down for breaching safety rules, a local council has revealed.Hundreds of KFC outlets remain closed as the fast food chain tries to recover from a disastrous start to a new delivery contract. On Tuesday night KFC said delivery drivers had been working aroun
  
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• NatWest Bank tests Cora, an AI bot that will answer customer questions

  21-02-2018 14:11
  Bank promises life-like experience with artificial intelligence systemNatWest is testing an artificial intelligence-powered “digital human” called Cora that will converse with customers in branches – raising fears that bank tellers could be replaced by avatars.Cora, described by the bank as “highly lifelike”, is the result of a link-up with a New Zealand tech company whose co-founder was involved with creating digital characters in the blockbuster films Avatar, King
  
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• UK borrowing at lowest level since financial crisis - BBC News - BBC News

  21-02-2018 13:10
  BBC News
  UK borrowing at lowest level since financial crisis - BBC News
  BBC News
  Government borrowing is at its lowest level since January 2008, official figures show.
  UK borrowing at lowest level since financial crisisBBC Newsalle 16 nieuwsartikelen »
  
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• AA shares fall by nearly a quarter after profits and dividends warning

  21-02-2018 13:07
  Profits and shareholder payouts fall as breakdown firm undergoes strategic £45m overhaulShares in the AA plunged by almost a quarter after the firm warned profits would be lower than expected and slashed dividend payouts to shareholders.Revealing a new strategy, the company said plans to invest £45m to improve the business would weigh on profits for the year ending January 2019. It expects profits over the period to be in the range of £335m to £345m, below City expectatio
  
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• UK unemployment rises at fastest rate in almost five years

  21-02-2018 12:16
  Official figures reveal 1.47 million out of work as young people struggle to find jobsThe number of people out of work in Britain rose at the fastest rate in almost five years, official figures showed on Wednesday, fuelled by an increase in unemployment among young people under the age of 24. After an almost two-year period of continuous declines in unemployment to the lowest levels since the mid 1970s, the number of people out of work rose by 46,000 to 1.47 million in the three months to Decemb
  
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• Who presided over the RBS scandal? | Nils Pratley

  21-02-2018 11:17
  FCA must find a way to bring to book those who orchestrated a systematic and endemic culture of screwing customers Choose your own best illustration of the underhand and devious techniques employed by Royal Bank of Scotland’s Global Restructuring Group to gouge small business customers via fees, made-up penalties and punitive interest rates. There are dozens in the regulatory report that – finally – has been put on public display. Here’s a contender from the infamous &ldq
  
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• Barratt considers shifting production from Germany to UK

  21-02-2018 10:08
  Britain’s biggest housebuilder could make construction blocks domestically as Brexit loomsBritain’s biggest housebuilder, Barratt Developments, is considering moving the production of blocks used in construction from Germany to Britain, an example of the steps some businesses are taking to mitigate against risks from Brexit. London and Brussels hope to agree a deal this month to protect the free movement of goods between Britain and the EU until 2020, but many companies are developin
  
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• Ripple price news LIVE: XRP falling today - crypto in the RED as prices plunge

  21-02-2018 09:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  RIPPLE has plunged again today as all other cryptocurrencies are also in the red. Here are the latest updates and live on Ripple's price.
  
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• Roads to nowhere: how infrastructure built on American inequality

  21-02-2018 08:30
  From highways carved through thriving ‘ghettoes’ to walls segregating black and white areas, US city development has a long and divisive historyIt’s a little after 3pm in Detroit’s 8 Mile neighbourhood, and the cicadas are buzzing loudly in the trees. Children weave down the pavements on bicycles, while a pickup basketball game gets under way in a nearby park. The sky is a deep blue with only a hint of an approaching thunderstorm – in other words, a muggy, typical s
  
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• Bitcoin price LIVE: BTC falls while Bangladesh begins 'hunt' for crypto traders

  21-02-2018 08:14 via feedproxy.google.com
  BITCOIN suffered a dip in confidence last night as the price fell from $11,763 down to $10,714 in just a few hours. Ethereum and Ripple followed BTC's lead with the former reaching a low of $878, and the latter $1.04 before recovering slightly.
  
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• ‘Made safe’ Hotpoint tumble dryer catches fire

  21-02-2018 07:59
  
  The manufacturer repaired our machine with the promise there was no further riskWe own a Hotpoint tumble dryer (bought February 2014 for £399) which was subject to the Whirlpool/Hotpoint recall/repair programme. Ours was repaired in 2016 and we believed this ensured there was no further fire risk. But in early February this year – a few seconds after switching it on – it caught fire. The cause was a build-up of fluff and lint on the heating element. We would consider ourselves
  
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• Ministers 'close to deal' over Brexit powers with Scotland and Wales

  21-02-2018 07:00
  UK due to agree to repatriation of powers in areas such as farming, justice and food safetyThe UK government believes it is on the brink of a deal to ends months of deadlock with the Scottish and Welsh governments over an alleged “power grab” after Brexit.Ministers will offer to drop their controversial plans for Whitehall to take control over as many as 111 EU powers that Scottish and Welsh lawmakers insist should be handed over to them. Continue reading...
  
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• 'I don't use contactless': the woman whose name is on British banknotes

  21-02-2018 07:00
  The Bank of England’s chief cashier, Victoria Cleland, on why people still like cash It is perhaps not entirely surprising to learn that the woman whose signature adorns Bank of England banknotes is a big fan of cash. She does not use contactless payment cards for personal spending – not least because she is yet to trust the technology completely.Victoria Cleland, the Bank’s chief cashier, says she habitually reaches for notes and coins when she makes small purchases. But she m
  
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• Bitcoin price BOOM: Cryptocurrency almost DOUBLES in value since market CLAMPDOWN

  21-02-2018 06:21 via feedproxy.google.com
  BITCOIN has almost doubled in value since a dire market free fall earlier this year following a South Korean financial regulator’s vote to calm its aggressive stance on cryptocurrencies, it has been reported.
  
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• Litecoin cash price live: Litecoin fork value SURGES - why is Litecoin Cash rising?

  21-02-2018 05:03 via feedproxy.google.com
  LITECOIN Cash is a brand new crypto token which launched last night in a “hard fork” from its original coin Litecoin. But what was the current price of Litecoin Cash and what is it?
  
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