All articles by Douglas Blakey

Douglas Blakey

North Shore Bank and Abington Bank to merge

Following completion of the transaction, Hometown Financial Group will have consolidated assets of approximately $6.4bn, nearly 700 employees, and a network of 52 branches across Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire

NatWest posts highest annual profits since crisis

Paul Thwaite appointed permanent CEO of NatWest as UK lender posts highest annual profits for over 25 years

CBA helps farmers measure emissions, model abatement options

Commonwealth Bank of Australia and emissions platform Ruminati team up to launch a pilot enabling the bank’s agri customers to baseline and model different options to help reduce net emissions

National Australia Bank launches Green Finance for Commercial Real Estate

Initiative aims to help support investment in – or the development or retrofit of – eligible, commercial buildings

CapitalBox launches SME-focused collateral lending

Loans of up to €1m will be available to small- and medium-sized enterprises to help with major asset and equipment purchases

CMA survey: Virgin Money and RBS again rank bottom for overall service quality

Douglas Blakey assesses the latest CMA UK banks’ ranking and looks back over all 12 surveys since the series began in August 2018

Scottish financial services experts forecast economic headwinds

Research released by Core-Asset Consulting highlights global challenges impacting key sector

Revolut launches AI feature to protect customers from card scams and break the scammers “spell”

Revolut observes a 30% reduction in fraud losses resulting from card scams where money has been sent for investment opportunities

More than a quarter of over 55s Brits fear they won’t be able to afford their mortgage

Research released by Perenna reveals that over a quarter of Brits aged over 55 fear they can’t afford their mortgage provider’s Standard Variable Rate if they were moved onto it

i2c empowers leading financial institutions and innovators across Latin America, Caribbean

Global banking and payments solutions provider continues expansion throughout Latin America and Caribbean, adds more than 15 additional banks and fintechs to its client base in the region