All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
BMO first quarter net income up 18% to C$776m
Bank of Montreal (BMO) has posted a net income of C$776m ($798.2m) for the three months to 31 January, an 18% increase from the corresponding quarter a year ago. Net income at BMOs retail focused personal and commercial (P&C) banking unit in Canada increased by 10% to C$444m ($455m) in the first quarter. But first quarter net income at the P&C unit in the US declined by 13% to $42m.
HSBC’s retail unit returns to profit
HSBC has posted a profit before tax of $19.04bn for the 12 months to 31 December, more than double its profit for the previous year (2009: $7.08bn).
Retail earnings help RBS cut losses
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has slashed its net loss from £3.6bn ($5.8bn) in fiscal 2009 to £1.12bn for the 12 months to 31 December. RBS Retail & Commercial unit increased its income by 6% in fiscal 2010, driven by steady improvement in net interest margin over the course of the year. Net interest margin at RBS UK retail unit improved by 32 basis points to 3.91% while in the US, the margin increased by 48 basis points to 2.85%.
Only Chase beats pre-crisis earnings
With the US reporting season for fiscal 2010 now concluded and results posted from around one-half of the major European lenders HSBC, Lloyds, UniCredit, Intesa Sanpaolo and Royal Bank of Scotland are yet to report results are starting to return to normal.
Regulations endanger credit availability
Decision management technology vendor FICO and the European Financial Management Association, have produced the first European Credit Risk Survey It concludes that banking regulations may dampen credit supply, and that there has been a rise in credit demand that outpaces the growth in supply in most regions. Political pressure on banks to extend credit to individuals and small businesses in order to fuel economic growth has coincided with a new caution on the part of regulators anxious to avoid a future bank crisis
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IT spending growth set to accelerate
Celent forecasts global IT spending by financial services institutions to grow 3.7% to $363.8bn, compared with modest growth of 2.5% in 2010 While there is evidence that IT expenditure is accelerating, there will be substantial regional variations with spending rising fastest in Asia-Pacific. The turnaround in banks IT expenditure has begun, according to Celents IT Spending in Financial Services: A Global Perspective
BT: Banks are struggling to serve the autonomous customer
The prolific growth in online banking and the emergence of the mobile banking channel has done little to diminish customers desire to speak to a real person, according to a survey released by BT and Avaya. The report, titled The Autonomous Customer, argues that, as consumer queries become more complicated, many organisations are struggling to keep up with the new demands placed on their call centre staff.
Barclays’ Russian retail retreat
Barclays is to give up its retail and commercial banking operations in Russian, less than three years after it paid $745 million to acquire 32-branch-strong Expobank. On 15 February, Barclays CEO Bob Diamond, said that the bank would exit the retail sector as it was unable to compete in the Russian market. Based in Western Russia, Expobank had assets of £186m when it was snapped up by Barclays in the summer of 2008.
Mvine launches social business platform
Social business software services and consultancy, Mvine, has launched its social business platform to the UK market. It will provide firms with a cloud-based social business collaboration platform, designed to improve intra-company communications by creating safe and secure environments to facilitate the publishing, management and sharing of content, knowledge and information.
Temenos posts record earnings
Switzerland-based core banking software supplier, Temenos, has posted record results for the 12 months to 31 December. Temenos reported adjusted earnings before restructuring charges and amortisation of acquired intangibles for fiscal 2010 of $113.7m, up 24.5% on the previous year. Total revenue increased by 21% to £448m while licence revenue of $160.1m represented a 27% increase.