All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
US results reveal an industry in turmoil
Amid a catastrophic economic climate, it was no surprise the 2008 full-year US banking results made painful reading (see New leaders emerge from the chaos). Winners there were a few, but in the past 12 months the term is relative include TD Bank, owned by Canadas Toronto-Dominion group BB&T, with net income down 12.4 percent at $1.52, and M&T, down 15 percent at $556 million, also escaped the worst of the carnage.
Santander posts bullish 2008 profit
Spains Santander has managed to pull in a confident set of full-year results posting attributable profit up 9 percent on its 2007 performance to 8.87 billion ($11.4 billion), or a 2 percent drop if 2007s capital gains are included. And while bad loans as a percentage of total lending jumped to 2.04 percent at year-end from 1.63 percent at the end of the third quarter, Santanders retail banking-focused business model is set to position the bank as the worlds second most profitable in 2008 after HSBC (according to Reuters estimates), with retail banking pre-tax profits rising 3 percent to 9.3 billion.
Birth of the £76bn UK mutual
Britannias CEO, Neville Richardson, tells Douglas Blakey the merger will turbo-charge the combined groups prospects in the volatile UK consumer financial service market.M&A activity in the volatile UK banking market continues with the proposed deal between Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) and the Britannia Building Society to form the countrys eighth-largest banking group by branches The combined entity which is being portrayed as a merger of equals but is more a take-over of Britannia by CFS will form a £76 billion ($108.6 billion) asset business with combined deposits of almost £30 billion and retail and commercial lending of £27 billion and £8 billion, respectively
A good time to be a savings bank
Erstes ambitious international expansion programme of the past decade has resulted in more than 3,000 branches and over 16 million customers in eight countries, but it remains well placed to target market share growth in its domestic Austrian market Douglas Blakey talks to Peter Bosek, board member for retail banking.While Erste Banks earnings will inevitably be affected by the economic downturn, it has confirmed it is on target to achieve group operating profits growth of around 15 percent for fiscal 2008 and, looking ahead, is forecasting an improvement in operating profit of around 10 percent in 2009
BBVA completes US rebranding exercise
The US subsidiary of BBVA, Spains second-largest bank, has kicked off an advertising campaign to celebrate completion of its rebranding exercise and to promote the new BBVA Compass moniker. The rebranding exercise began in November last year, since when the bank has busily transformed the look and feel of its compass.com website, (rechristened bbvacompass.com) …(Read more)
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Top banking deals of 2008
The biggest banking deals of 2008 were the numerous state bail-outs, capital injections, loan guarantees and nationalisations that have radically altered the industry in the wake of the credit crunch Against a backdrop of gummed up funding markets, capital constraints, increased regulatory attention and in particular a substantial deterioration in asset quality, 2008 was never going to provide a healthy environment for banking M&As.
RBS goes back to basics
Royal Bank of Scotland, the majority state-owned banking giant among the most high-profile global casualties of the economic crisis, has kicked off an in-branch financial advice service in the UK available to everyone It is all part of the groups drive to back-to-basics banking, writes Douglas Blakey.Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), the ailing former global banking giant (see RBS limps towards full state control, UK launches new bail out), has announced its third socially responsible initiative in less than two months, as it faces up to an uncertain future under majority state control Following hot on the heels of a freeze of overdraft charges for small businesses announced in November and a December undertaking that mortgage customers will be given six months breathing space before repossession proceedings are instigated, the bank has launched a major impartial financial advice initiative.
Citi falls apart with $19bn annual loss
A record annual loss for Citi of $18.71 billion and confirmation it will split in two, coupled with rival Bank of Americas (BofA) first quarterly loss since 1991 and news it needed an emergency government bail-out, combined to herald a dismal if widely forecast start to the New Year. While the three major US banks all of whom brought forward their results each posted dire group figures, retail earnings at BofA and JPMorgan Chase were at least in the black, albeit down for the year by 55 percent and 71 percent at $4.23 billion and $1.66 billion, respectively.
Capital One wins chase for Chevy
Capital One is set to expand its banking presence in the affluent US markets of Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC following its $520 million deal ($445 million in cash and $75 million in stock) to acquire 244-branch-strong Chevy Chase Bank, in the process becoming a top 10 US bank as measured by deposits. It also expects to write-down about $1.75 billion on Chevy Chases $11.8 billion loan portfolio, despite analyst comments suggesting eventual losses are likely to exceed $2.25 billion.
Flat retail profits for Canada’s Big Six
Group profit at Canadas Big Six banks fell by around 38 percent in 2008 to C$12 billion compared with over C$19 billion in 2007 following write-downs of more than C$10 billion