All articles by Farah Halime
Farah Halime
ANZ drops m-banking due to low user take-up
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is to drop its mobile banking service because of low take-up, insisting customers can use SMS text messaging and online banking channels instead. An ANZ spokesperson told RBI: “We have found only about 0.6% of our internet banking users are registered for m-banking, and most of what they use m-banking for can be accessed from text or internet banking.”
Barclays’ talent contest highlights branch upgrades
Barclays is marking the refurbishment of its “state-of-the-art” branches by inviting the public to enter a dance competition judged by Brendan Cole, a star of BBC television programme Strictly Come Dancing. The competition, open to anyone including groups and solo acts, will take place across six regions in the UK where new Barclays branches are being launched.
Co-operative boosted by ‘flight to trust’
Farah Halime speaks to John Hughes, the Co-ops director of retail products about the groups drive to grow market share and encourage competition in the mutuals sector. In its first full-year results since the groups merger with Britannia Building Society, the Co-operative Financial Services (CFS), the UKs second-largest mutual, posted a solid pre-tax profit of £402m ($610m) up 85% from £218m a year earlier.
Bank of Ireland to launch asset sale
Bank of Ireland will have to sell off assets worth around 10 billion ($13.5 billion) and wind-down 41 billion worth of lending to meet a restructuring plan set by the European Commission The bank said it expected to sell businesses including the ICS Building Society, with mortgage loans worth approximately 7 billion and deposits of 4 billion outstanding at the end of December 2009
38% profits jump for RZB Group
The Austrian-based Raiffeisen Zentralbank sterreich (RZB) Group has posted a 38 percent jump in pre-tax profits to 824 billion for fiscal 2009, from 597 billion a year earlier The groups cost-income ratio improved by 1.6 percentage points to 51.9 percent, but deposits and loans were down 6.3 percent and 11.8 percent at 55.4 billion and 74.8 billion respectively
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Strict overdraft limit for new HSBC account
HSBC will launch a current account limiting overdrafts to £50 ($77) thought to be the first account of its kind in the UK. HSBC said the account, Bank Account Pay Monthly, will be available from 26 April and features a strict overdraft limit that cannot be exceeded unless the bank has agreed a higher limit with the account holder beforehand
Tesco Bank eyes 10% of UK market share
Tesco Bank is reportedly looking to fight for a 10% market share of the UKs financial services market, signalling for the first time the scale of the retailers ambitions. The UKs biggest retailer and the worlds fourth-biggest would not confirm a specific overall figure for capturing market share, but a spokesperson told RBI the bank was “talking about the very long-term”.
Co-operative Group profit surges after merger
The Co-operative Financial Services (CFS), the UKs second-largest mutual, posted an 85% jump in pre-tax profits to £402m ($610m) in fiscal 2009, boosted by its merger with Britannia Building Society and consumers lack of trust in commercial banks. Group chief executive Peter Marks said the “record results”, the first since the groups “historic merger” with Britannia in August 2009 and the third successive year of double-digit growth in sales and profit, was driven by customers “flight to trust”. The Co-op group saw a 38% uplift in current account sales in fiscal 2009 at a time when many of its rivals struggled to keep existing customers, giving it a 4% current account market share.
Mutuality is back in fashion
But Alain Dival, chief executive of Crdit Agricoles regional banks, says the so-called Caisse Rgionales is anything but ordinary
Raiffeisen still going strong
Austrias Raiffeisen International suffered an abysmal fiscal 2009, hurt by the financial woes of its Central and Eastern European bedrock But Aris Bogdaneris, head of retail banking at the bank is determined to boost the banks lending and learn from the lessons of the global downturn