Latest news with #LawrenceWhite
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Britain sees 12% spike in fraud cases as banks battle $1.6 billion epidemic
By Lawrence White LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's financial sector saw a record 3.31 million fraud cases in 2024, up 12% on the year before, according to data from industry body UK Finance released on Wednesday, as criminals responded to efforts to combat complex scams by ramping up high-volume, low-value attacks. That increase led to a total of 1.17 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) being stolen in 2024, unchanged from the year before, as firms showed limited progress in combating a problem that accounts for 41% of all reported crime in Britain and which banks and regulators have said threatens financial stability. Fraud "causes severe harm to individuals, society and our economy, as the stolen money goes to serious organised crime groups, both here and abroad," said Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance. Britain has in recent years emerged as the global epicentre for scams and fraud, Reuters reported in 2021, as criminals take advantage of super-fast payment channels, relatively light policing of such crimes and the prevalence of the world's most widely used language, English. Finance industry players have since then increased efforts to fight so-called authorised payment fraud, where people are tricked into sending money to criminals via social engineering techniques. Awareness campaigns and technology that can flag fraud have helped reduce a form of scam that spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing measures drove more people online and into the clutches of scammers who often spoke with victims for days or weeks as they drained their funds. Criminals in 2024 instead ramped up so-called remote purchase fraud attempts, often compromising one-time passwords to enable fraudulent purchases on e-commerce sites, the UK Finance data showed. Yet the UK Finance data on reported fraud is just the tip of the iceberg, with fraud going chronically unreported by its victims, said Jim Winters, head of financial crime at Britain's second-biggest mortgage lender Nationwide. One in seven consumers in Britain is exposed to potentially fraudulent emails per day, but 43% of them would not report fraud if they were the victim or witnessed it, research from Nationwide showed. ($1 = 0.7389 pounds) (Reporting By Lawrence White; Editing by David Holmes) Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Stanchart builds US-based private equity team amid investment bank push
By Lawrence White LONDON (Reuters) -Standard Chartered has created a dedicated team covering private equity firms, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds, as part of a wider drive in its investment bank to win more business from financial clients, the bank said on Thursday. The bank will appoint a global head of financial sponsors in due course, it said, reporting to Molly Duffy and Jerry Zhang, its global co-heads of financial institution coverage, with Duffy leading the financial sponsors team until then. The team will initially be comprised of around 25 bankers, with some external hires to come, and will be based in New York with hubs in London and Dubai, StanChart said. The move signals the importance the Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused StanChart places on growing its income from other financial firms, which the bank said currently account for 51% of its total investment banking income and which generate higher returns on average. It also serves as a contrast to rival HSBC which earlier this year slashed its U.S. and European M&A and equity capital markets businesses, part of its biggest investment banking retrenchment in a decade as it focuses even more on Asia. While Wall Street banks have dominated global investment banking league tables in recent years, Wall Street bosses now fear an anti-American backlash amid President Donald Trump's trade war that could hurt their business. StanChart's push into the world of U.S. financial clients is the latest in an overhaul of its investment banking coverage model, which included the creation of a new banking team to cover big cross border deals, reported by Reuters last September. The bank is stepping up efforts to serve private equity clients in particular as well as targeting banks, insurers and asset managers, Sunil Kaushal, co-head of corporate and investment banking at StanChart, said. The announcement on Thursday coincides with a presentation on investment bank strategy to investors, the latest in a series of such presentations aimed at explaining its overall business strategy in greater detail. (Reporting By Lawrence White, editing by Sinead Cruise) Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Stanchart builds US-based private equity team amid investment bank push
By Lawrence White LONDON (Reuters) -Standard Chartered has created a dedicated team covering private equity firms, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds, as part of a wider drive in its investment bank to win more business from financial clients, the bank said on Thursday. The bank will appoint a global head of financial sponsors in due course, it said, reporting to Molly Duffy and Jerry Zhang, its global co-heads of financial institution coverage, with Duffy leading the financial sponsors team until then. The team will initially be comprised of around 25 bankers, with some external hires to come, and will be based in New York with hubs in London and Dubai, StanChart said. The move signals the importance the Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused StanChart places on growing its income from other financial firms, which the bank said currently account for 51% of its total investment banking income and which generate higher returns on average. It also serves as a contrast to rival HSBC which earlier this year slashed its U.S. and European M&A and equity capital markets businesses, part of its biggest investment banking retrenchment in a decade as it focuses even more on Asia. While Wall Street banks have dominated global investment banking league tables in recent years, Wall Street bosses now fear an anti-American backlash amid President Donald Trump's trade war that could hurt their business. StanChart's push into the world of U.S. financial clients is the latest in an overhaul of its investment banking coverage model, which included the creation of a new banking team to cover big cross border deals, reported by Reuters last September. The bank is stepping up efforts to serve private equity clients in particular as well as targeting banks, insurers and asset managers, Sunil Kaushal, co-head of corporate and investment banking at StanChart, said. The announcement on Thursday coincides with a presentation on investment bank strategy to investors, the latest in a series of such presentations aimed at explaining its overall business strategy in greater detail. (Reporting By Lawrence White, editing by Sinead Cruise) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
StanChart says its trade business resilient to Trump tariff disruption
By Lawrence White LONDON (Reuters) - Standard Chartered on Thursday sought to reassure investors that its business can cope with disruption to global trade after pressure on the trade-focused bank's share price following U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs announcements. "Whilst an escalating trade war would impact global growth and our markets, we believe our network is a key, distinctive and strategic advantage for Standard Chartered," Chief Executive Bill Winters said in a statement released in conjunction with the bank's annual shareholder meeting. The bank's network is not overly reliant on any single bilateral trade relationship and only seven trade routes generate network income greater than $100 million per annum, Winters said. Last week the bank, which is headquartered in London, cautioned that its lending income and dealmaking fees could shrink because of the potential impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on its business. With a strategy to support big international companies as they expand and trade across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, StanChart is more exposed than rival domestically-focused British banks to global trade disruption. The annual investor gathering took place as the U.S. and Britain prepared to announce a deal to lower tariffs on some goods later on Thursday, the first such agreement since President Trump announced sweeping levies on April 2. StanChart shares rose nearly 40% in the last year as the bank benefited from lending income boosted by higher interest rates, as well as some success in efforts to boost its fee-based income from services such as wealth management. The bank's share price has yet to fully recover however from a 23% decline in the days following President Trump's tariff announcements, trading on Thursday at 1059 pence compared with 1154 pence before April 2. (Reporting By Lawrence White; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Aidan Lewis) Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
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Barclays attracts fresh anti-Israel protests at shareholder meeting
By Lawrence White and Sinead Cruise LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays faced ill-tempered questions from investors about its share price performance and branch closures at its annual meeting on Wednesday, which also drew fresh protests from activists opposed to its alleged provision of financial services to Israeli defence firms. Dozens of protesters gathered outside the event in Westminster, central London, waving Palestinian flags and holding banners that accused Barclays of "arming Israel" and "banking on genocide". Protesters also interrupted chairman Nigel Higgins as he tried to get the meeting underway. "Barclays is a primary dealer in Israel government bonds", a protester standing on a chair shouted before being carried out by security staff. Several others joined in, waving Palestinian flags and shouting Free Palestine. "You can all go", Higgins said, as the group was removed from the room. Barclays has faced heavy criticism for its alleged relationships with defence firms that produce equipment used by the Israeli Defence Force. Dozens of its branches have been defaced and vandalised by pro-Palestine activists in recent years and customers have been urged to boycott the bank. Barclays has repeatedly said its role as a lender is to provide financial services to defence companies, including U.S., UK and European firms supplying products to NATO and other allies. One shareholder took the opportunity to tell Higgins that the views expressed by the protesters were "not necessarily shared by all of us". The bank has said it does not invest its own money in companies that supply weapons used by Israel in Gaza, and it only trades shares in such companies on behalf of clients. Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza - which has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities - was triggered by Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies. BRANCHES Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan said Barclays had no plans to announce further branch closures this year or next, in response to a question on its shrinking high street presence. The bank also fielded questions on its approach to net zero goals, deforestation and financing of carbon-intensive energy production and supply. Higgins said the bank finances fracking in the United States but was not prepared to invest in the creation of a new fracking industry in Britain. Another investor called for changes to dividends in place of share buybacks, which he claimed had done little to support retail shareholder confidence in the bank. "It's disgusting to see Barclays struggling to break 3 (pounds)", the investor said. Barclays shares have risen nearly 11% this year to 296 pence, recovering to their level before U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs on April 2 hit bank stocks worldwide. Higgins said he believed the majority of retail investors were more bullish about the lender's prospects, and the executive team was committed to improving the share price. The bank plans to return at least 10 billion pounds of capital to shareholders between 2024 and 2026, through dividends and share buybacks, with a continued preference for buybacks. One investor pressed management on how the bank planned to "insulate" itself in the U.S. while Trump was in office, particularly in view of the unpredictable outlook and relations with Russia. "We look at the totality of the opportunity and [to manage] the risks there as anywhere else in the world," Venkat said in response. (Reporting By Lawrence White and Sinead Cruise; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
