All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
UK’s Co-op sees surge in customer numbers
The UKs Co-operative Financial Services (CFS), fresh from its merger with Britannia Building Society (see RBI 617), has posted a strong set of interim results for the first half of 2009 Pre-tax profit at the UKs largest mutual rose to £50.5 million ($82.9 million) from £38 million a year previous. The groups banking business saw pre-tax profit for the period rise by 25.8 percent from £19.8 million to £24.9 million, largely on the back of a halving in restructuring costs
Agency urges vigilance after surge in ATM fraud
European security agency Enisa has noted a huge surge in fraudulent ATM activity across Europe in 2008 and is leading calls for banks and law enforcement agencies to do more to notify consumers of the potential threat.
Amex ups the ante in fight for retail deposits
American Express has rolled out Personal Savings from American Express, a new line of Certificates of Deposit and high-yield savings accounts The Personal Savings deposit accounts feature competitive rates, no monthly fees, no minimum balances and 247 account access via web or phone.
Tesco, Fortis in UK insurance partnership
Tesco Personal Finance, the increasingly-ambitious financial services arm of UK supermarket chain Tesco (see RBI 611), has finalised details of an insurance partnership with Dutch insurer Fortis which will see the two firms provide motor and household insurance in the UK Initial equity investments of £100 million are expected to be forthcoming from both parties, with the deal adding around 1.5 million motor and household customers to Fortis UKs existing customer base of 7 million
A very different Citi takes shape
Retail banking markets in Pakistan, Romania, Turkey, Russia and Egypt represent better growth prospects than Spain, Greece, Belgium or the UK, according to the latest strategy update from Citigroup The severity of the retrenchment is highlighted by the fact that even its UK retail banking operation including the Egg card franchise, bought for £575 million ($940 million) only two years ago is now up for sale.
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Australia’s CBA revamps credit card line-up
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Australias second-largest bank by market capitalisation, has upgraded its credit cards suite to provide more rewards under an expect more marketing tagline. The new initiative will see CBA launch two new card types the Low Rate and Low Fee Credit Card families in October Both groups will feature Gold card offers for customers looking to take advantage of either reduced rates or fees as well as standard Gold card benefits.
DnB NOR sees surge in m-banking numbers
Norways DnB NOR has revealed it now has almost 500,000 users of its SMS m-banking service, with 60,000 customers logging on to the service for the first time during the summer. The bank says users are beginning to use the service for more than simply checking balances, with some 13.5 percent using the tool for other reasons. During the holiday period, SMS alerts in particular increased in popularity, said Ingjerd Blekeli Spiten, head of internet banking and mobile services at DnB NOR
Chinese institutions post strong interims
Chinas leading publicly-quoted banks have posted resilient interim profits for the first half of 2009, with the worlds largest bank by market capitalisation, ICBC, bucking the global trend with a 1.6 percent rise in pre-tax profit to CNY84.8 billion ($3 billion). The three other leading financial institutions to have reported interim figures China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of China (BoC) and Bank of Communications (BoComm) posted healthy interim pre-tax profits of CNY72.5 billion, CNY56.2 billion and CNY19.9 billion respectively, though all three figures represented annualised falls of between 2 and 5 percent.
Full-year profit holds firm at Australia’s CBA
Commonwealth Bank of Australia has reported annual net income down 1 percent to A$4.72 billion ($3.97 billion) CBA benefited from net interest income growth of 21 percent year-on-year, while fee income grew 21 percent off the back of strong trading income and higher commissions and lending fees
First quarterly profit for two years for US thrifts
While US banking failures in 2009 continue to grow, reaching 89 by 4 September, resulting in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) insurance fund falling 20 percent to $10.4 billion by the end of the second quarter (see Survival of the fittest), the beleaguered savings and loan sector in the US (thrifts) managed to post its first quarterly profit for two years