- Managers of Wealth - Europe - Wealth, private banking and asset management news and opinion

Santander Profit Doubles on Lower Charges for Bad Loans

Banco Santander SA, Spain’s biggest bank, said fourth-quarter profit more than doubled as it made fewer provisions for bad loans and income increased in the U.K.

KBC Denies Report It is Considering Leaving Hungary

Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI.VI) decided earlier in January against selling its unprofitable Hungarian unit Raiffeisen Bank Zrt after local media reported that the government had been in talks with RBI about buying its local arm

Lloyds Cuts 1,080 Jobs As Barclays Slaps Travel Ban On Staff

Where it is necessary for employees to leave the company, it will look to achieve this by offering voluntary redundancy

RBS faces £8bn loss after adding £3bn for legal payouts

The fourth quarter is shaping up to be a bad period for banks – last week Deutsche Bank had to publish its figures early, surprising markets with made a loss of €1.2bn (£990m).

Credit Agricole agrees sale of Bulgarian unit

Credit Agricole said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell its Bulgarian division to Bulgarian bank Corporate Commercial Bank AD 6C9.BB for an undisclosed sum.

Barclaycard to overhaul T&Cs in customer experience drive

Barclaycard is overhauling the terms and conditions documents it sends to customers in a bid to make people “want” to read them, one of several changes in the pipeline aimed at improving transparency at the Barclays owned payment services bran

UK's Metro Bank raises $637 million to fund expansion

New British lender Metro Bank has raised 387.5 million pounds to fund its expansion plans by selling stock to institutional and private investors,

Standard Life scraps Sipp commercial property borrowing

Standard Life has shocked the Sipp market by removing a facility that allowed investors to borrow up to 50 per cent of their fund to buy commercial property in response to “challenging” market conditions.

Peripheral banks struggle after frenzy

Peripheral banks, which were greeted by frenzied investor demand last week, are struggling to breach the €1bn demand mark for their latest deals as buyers buckle under the weight of recent supply.

German banks urge clarity on contingent bond rules

Germany's commercial banks urged regulators on Friday to quickly clarify whether they can issue billions of euros in bonds to fulfil new capital requirements aimed at limiting the damage from future financial crises.

Thousands more RBS staff face axe in £1bn cuts plan

ROYAL Bank of Scotland is preparing to cut thousands more jobs as it looks to reduce an estimated £1 billion of costs after suffering crippling losses.

Lord Burns steps down from Santander board

A former permanent secretary to the Treasury and current chairman of Channel 4, Lord Burns has enjoyed a string of high profile roles since quitting the public sector including a stint as chairman of Marks & Spencer.

Co-op Bank boss Flowers was right choice at time, says FCA

The deal was required after it emerged the bank faced a £1.5bn black hole. In addition to the bank's financial problems, it was hit by scandal when Mr Flowers was arrested for alleged drugs offences.

Austria's Erste says will not leave Hungary

Foreign banks which have units in Hungary include Austria's Raiffeisen and Erste, Italian lender Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit, Belgium's KBC , German bank Bayern LB, Citi and the banking arm of General Electric.

HSBC losing out in UK account switching battle

HSBC has lost more customers since the introduction of the UK’s account switching service than any other major retail bank

Austria's Liebscher sees Hypo bad bank decision in Q1

The head of an Austrian task force handling ailing Hypo Alpe Adria wants the government to decide in the first quarter on what kind of "bad bank" could absorb toxic assets from the nationalised lender.

RBS Chief McEwan Handed £1.5m of Shares

Bank chief executive awarded the shares as part of previously agreed recruitment package

NatWest Bank Targeted in Cyber-Attack

We have taken the appropriate action to restore the affected websites

HSBC quits workplace pension market

However, it has now confirmed it will also withdraw services for direct commercial clients.

Ring-fence Costs Could End Free Banking in UK

Leading think tank says separating investment and retail banking will lead to higher costs on the high street

Retail Banking