Today\u2019s need-to-know storiesSantander profits rise as revenue growth offsets provisions<\/p>\n
Santander reaffirmed its 2026 and medium-term targets after second-quarter underlying profit rose 17 per cent year on year to \u20ac3.77bn, slightly ahead of analyst expectations.<\/p>\n
Attributable profit increased 3 per cent to \u20ac3.52bn after the bank booked \u20ac250mn of restructuring charges linked to its acquisition of UK lender TSB, which was completed in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Revenue rose 9 per cent to \u20ac15.7bn, supported by a 10 per cent increase in net interest income to \u20ac11.69bn and a 12 per cent rise in fees.<\/p>\n
Costs increased 2 per cent, while loan loss provisions climbed 13 per cent to \u20ac3.35bn. Santander said the increase largely reflected broader market trends in Argentina, with provisions broadly stable when that impact was excluded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe performed strongly in the first half, adding 12mn customers year-on-year. Revenue grew 6 per cent and costs fell,\u201d said executive chair Ana Bot\u00edn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe successful completion of the TSB acquisition in the UK marks another important milestone in the execution of our strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Santander maintained its targets for mid-single-digit revenue growth, lower costs and a CET1 ratio of between 12.8 and 13 per cent.<\/p>\n
HSBC restructures seven Hong Kong departments<\/p>\n
HSBC has appointed cross-bank leaders in Hong Kong to oversee seven corporate functions its operations in the territory have in common with Hang Seng Bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Corporate communication, company secretarial and corporate governance, risk and compliance, information technology, internal audit, finance, and the chief operating officer functions will now each have a single leader for both banks, a source told Reuters. <\/p>\n
However, each of the bank\u2019s teams for those functions will continue to operate independently instead of merging, the source said. Sing Tao, a Hong Kong newspaper, had reported on Tuesday that HSBC was merging the teams.<\/p>\n
Under the changes, one of the heads of each function at the two banks has been elevated to sole leader, reporting directly to regional and global management, the source said. The changes happened in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
The appointments mark the biggest restructuring effort by the two lenders and underscore HSBC\u2019s push to integrate Hang Seng Bank following the privatisation which became effective on January 26 2026.<\/p>\n
HSBC took Hang Seng Bank private last year, consolidating its control over the lender amid its worsening bad debt, and as part of a broader group effort to simplify its corporate structure and boost operational efficiency.<\/p>\n
Metro Bank weighs \u00a32bn acquisition of Aldermore<\/p>\n
UK lender Metro Bank is considering a possible \u00a32bn purchase of fellow UK challenger bank Aldermore, which has been put up for sale by its South African owner FirstRand.<\/p>\n
According to reporting by Sky News, Metro Bank is among several prospective bidders for Aldermore, although it has yet to decide whether to make an offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lloyds Banking Group and Shawbrook have also previously been named by the news organisation as possible bidders.<\/p>\n
FirstRand put Aldermore up for sale in April after estimating that compensation linked to the UK\u2019s car finance mis-selling scandal could cost the business around \u00a3750mn. The South African banking group acquired Aldermore for \u00a31.1bn in 2017.<\/p>\n
Sky\u2019s sources said that any buyer is expected to seek an indemnity against any further compensation claims arising from the scandal.<\/p>\n
Metro Bank declined to comment on the possible bid.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong traders face losing lunch hour\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stock traders and brokers in Hong Kong face losing their lunch hour amid plans to extend trading.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has proposed removing the lunch break, marking the first change to trading hours in a decade, according to Bloomberg.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are also discussions to begin trading 30 minutes earlier at 9am, and add an evening session to overlap with US trading hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moves to shorten the lunch break from two hours to one in 2011 were met with protests from traders and restaurateurs alike, but were ultimately implemented.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe manpower and resources involved to change [are] simply too much to justify the outcome,\u201d David Wong, permanent honorary chair of the Hong Kong Securities & Futures Professionals Association, told the news agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There has been criticism that the lunch breaks are often used to meet with clients, which would become difficult to accommodate under the new structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s need-to-know storiesSantander profits rise as revenue growth offsets provisions Santander reaffirmed its 2026 and medium-term targets after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20667],"tags":[9881,4593],"class_list":["post-95141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hsbc","tag-hsbc","tag-need-to-know"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117018144413327914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}