Blog
-
Can bank chiefs accept a fall in sales, decline in profits and lower share price?
I have a lot of time for Sir Richard Lambert. I worked with him on the Financial Times in the 1970-80s and after I left he rose to become a very successful editor of the paper. Then followed a stint on the Monetary Policy Committee, then a period as Chief Executive of the CBI. But…
-
Banks must try harder to provide true customer satisfaction.
During a recent stay with friends in England I was appalled to see a cinema ad for Lloyds Bank, part of its £30 million “moments that matter” campaign which tries to imply that the bank has only its customers’ best interests at heart. How can the Advertising Standards Authority allow this so soon after the…
-
Time to use the F word
It’s time to stop talking about mis-selling and give the activity its proper name – fraud.
-
Does any political party have the courage to break up the banks?
The Archbishop of Canterbury said it and was ignored, now Vince Cable’s “Enterpreneur in Residence” has repeated it. RBS and Lloyds are too big and have too dominant a share of the UK banking market to enable a healthy economy to grow: they should be broken up now.
-
Stoking the fuel for the next crisis
Those of you who wake early on a Saturday morning (or are extremely late in after a Friday night) might want to catch Business on BBC Radio Scotland at 6am. I have another excuse for not listening (I’ll be in Boston), but if you miss it the programme is repeated on Sunday at 10am or…
-
Peer to peer: a new pressure on banks?
When I worked for the Financial Times 30 years ago I trusted it, and I trust it now, so when Matthew Vincent writes in Saturday’s paper that a senior British banker says that peer-to-peer lending is “a product of its time,” I believe him. And both are right – journalist and source.
-
Welcome back TSB – a shame you have to live in London
A few months ago I wrote a speculative column suggesting that TSB, which is to be reborn after being absorbed into Lloyds nearly 20 years ago, could – and should – be headquartered in Scotland.
-
Don’t dumb us down
At the Edinburgh Book Festival discussion “Can we trust the economists?” chaired by Gavin Esler, Channel 4 News economics correspondent Faisal Islam asked the audience to write to the editors of news organisations demanding that complex issues are discussed and explained – rather than being dismissed as too difficult for television.
-
Bringing the money lenders into the temple
It is not enough to make me change my views on religion (any religion), but Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, continues to surprise and impress.
-
A fig leaf which ought to fall
I’ve had my share of rejections in my career, but there are a handful of jobs I’ve applied for just to see what the rejection letter looked like. One of them was in answer to an ad for non-executive directors of UK Financial Investments.