Banking

HSBC UK has announced the launch of a £500 million Green SME Fund as part of its commitment to support businesses of all sizes to transition and thrive in a low carbon economy. This follows HSBC’s global commitment to provide between $750 billion and $1 trillion of financing and investme

Virgin Money, owner of Glasgow-based Clydesdale Bank, has launched Levelling Upstarts, an innovative new programme which gives SMEs the opportunity to partner directly with MBA and Masters students from leading universities through digital workshops to help them solve specific business challenges.

Hiring activity across Scotland continued to increase in December, according to the latest Royal Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs. Permanent placements rose at the steepest pace for three months amid reports of strong demand for staff, however, pandemic-related concerns weighed on the amount of work

Puremalt, a Haddington-based malt ingredient supplier, has agreed a £7 million funding package with HSBC to expand its grain-processing capacity by building new facilities. The funding will be used to build a new brewhouse.

Consumer champion Which? has uncovered worrying flaws in online banking security systems that could leave customers exposed to fraud, with some banks failing to use the latest protections for their websites and allowing users to set insecure passwords.

Bank of Scotland has announced the appointment of two new relationship managers for its Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders SME and Mid Corporates team, bringing more than 40 years of financial services experience. Stuart Clark and Alan Bedford join a nine-strong team of commercial banking specialists a

The Scottish private sector recorded a further upturn in activity at the end of 2021, according to the latest Royal Bank of Scotland PMI. The seasonally adjusted headline Royal Bank of Scotland Business Activity Index - a measure of combined manufacturing and service sector output - posted 52.7 in D

The Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) has committed £20 million of cornerstone funding to Lothian Broadband Group (LBG) to help tackle digital inequality in rural communities and small towns in Scotland. The bank’s funding commitment is in addition to £5m of new investment f

Brown Shipley, a Quintet Private Bank, has appointed Kenny Cummings as a financial planner, based in Edinburgh, bolstering its wealth planning team in Scotland. Mr Cummings will report to Matt Hoyne, head of the Edinburgh office and work with Rebecca Williams, head of wealth planning in the UK.

Eilidh Mactaggart, the chief executive of the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) has been awarded a bonus of almost £40,000. Ms Mactaggart joined SNIB in November last year but has only held the position of chief executive for four months.

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has fined Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) £46.55 million for failing to be open and cooperative with the PRA and for failings in its regulatory reporting governance and controls in relation to a tailored PRA liquidity expectation. This is the PRA’s

The Bank of England has raised interest rates from 0.1% to 0.25% in an attempt to fight rising inflation. The increase marks the first time that the bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has risen the rate in more than three years.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined HSBC £63,946,800 for failings in its anti-money laundering processes. HSBC used automated processes to monitor hundreds of millions of transactions a month to identify possible financial crime. However, the FCA found that three key parts of HSBC&

NatWest has been fined £264.8 million following convictions for three offences of failing to comply with money laundering regulations. Mrs Justice Cockerill, the sentencing judge at Southwark Crown Court, yesterday said: “….it must be borne in mind that although in no way complici

Challenger bank Monzo now has three million customers, with sign-ups continuing to rise for the app-only bank. Monzo reached the milestone only four months after acquiring two million users and the company said it is currently taking on 55,000 new customers every week.