Financials mash-up: who do you fancy in a cage fight - Barclays or Metro Bank?

A year ago, I wrote a piece comparing and contrasting Lloyds Bank (LLOY) and the challenger financial Metro Bank (MTRO). Well that worked out well from a long-short perspective: Lloyds - with dividends - lost a touch whilst Metro Bank has absolutely bombed, down over £10 to under £25. I was thinking about Metro Bank again today as it came out with another set of numbers which showed more deposits, more lending, more profit...but still the shares are down 10% odd today. Why such further pain?

Barclays Bank Looks More Promising - But It's Still Not the Best Bet in Shareland

Hello Share Swingers. Barclays (BARC) has been a miserable share to hold. What progress there has been in recent years has been slow. And set-backs along the way have made things worse. I sold mine about two years ago and, as it's turned out, the money raised has been put to much more profitable use. The latest results do not raise my hopes much higher.

Barclays - freebie advice to the board: don't do it!

Not much has got me fired up so far this week looking at the various regulatory disclosures but I did notice an article in the newspaper that purports to be America's leading financial journal yesterday with the worrisome headline of 'Barclays Mulls U.S. Push as Activist Looms...Executives debate whether greater exposure to the U.S. retail market could both generate revenues and fund its U.S. operations more efficiently'…

Barclays - if you ignore all the bad bits, it's still cheap!

I am being a bit disingenuous with the above title. Any investor with more than a decade's experience is well-primed to tell you various war stories about the evolving value of financial sector stocks particularly in times of strife. Banks are geared to the business and property cycle and any recent efforts to paper over this reality with yet another layer of compliance/regulation will not ultimately work.

Barclays (#BARC) – FCA and PRA whistleblowing investigations propose “a financial penalty” for CEO Jes Staley

A Less-than-Obvious American Clue Could Make Barclays a Better Bank Bet

Hello Share Ticklers. It’s been some time that I’ve suggested you look again at a British bank. But that doesn’t mean my general enthusiasm for the sector has gone away. In fact, it’s grown stronger - for two reasons.

Hat Off to Roger Lawson - he is bang on the money re Barclays Stockbrokers debacle

Old Lawson may still be pursuing a ridiculous claim against me for libel, he noted this week that he had another meeting with his lawyers, but credit where credit is due, the old fool has nailed the shambles last week at Barclays (BARC) stockbrokers perfectly. And in a posting on the ShareSoc blog he gives advice on what to do if you have been jerked around.  This is an example of the good work he can do when he is not distracted by falling in love with companies such as Globo. Over to Lawson:

Ex Barclays (#BARC) CEO John Varley & 3 other banksters cHarged with fraud after SFO enquiry - STRING EM UP!

Barclays (#BARC) – FCA & PRA investigations into CEO Jes Staley & the company re. whistleblowing conduct

Barclays - I hate you bastards

For reasons that we do not need to go into a payment was made into my account which was actually monies belonging to FIML. As such I called my bank to transfer the five figure sum. I bank with Barclays Private Clients International Ltd, a truly premium service. For premium read shite!

HANG THE BANKSTERS! US DoJ goes after Barclays (#BARC) for email & wire fraud

Wasting More Time with the bastards at Barclays

Having had the run around from my Barclays team in Douglas, Isle of Man as I described on bearcast yesterday, I was advised to go to a Barclays branch in Bristol with two forms of ID to change its records of whom I worked for. As I had a dental appointment in town I walked to the main Barclays branch in central Bristol, at Broadmead, where the bastards then wasted another forty five minutes of my life with sheer incompetence.

Dare We Invest in a British Bank? Have Another Look at Barclays

Hello Share Pushers. Barclays Bank is one of those shares I’ve held for years and years and rather wish I didn’t. No sooner do I top up then another bombshell, usually to do with world economics, hits - and down the shares come again. Were it not for the divi, I might have gone round and lambasted a director or two.

Barclays (#BARC) – EU ‘stress test’ sees CET1 ratio to 7.3%, from end 2015 11.4%

Barclays (#BARC) – H1 profit lower due to non-core losses, common equity tier 1 ratio up to 11.6%

Brexit Banged the Banks - But Here Are Reasons Why They Could Bounce Back

Hello Share Scrummers. In my humble opinion, British banks are among the biggest bargains in Shareland at the mo. Though I was in two minds about foisting this opinion on you, as banks have a marvellous talent for letting us down. They’ve been doing that steadily since the big crashes of 2007 and 8. But I really do think the shares have been oversold since the result of the Brexit vote. They fell a heck of a lot. Without their failure, the Footsie which eventually rocketed on the decision to leave the EU, would have been near the elusive 7000 level by now.

Barclays (#BARC) Q1 PBT down 25% at £793m, poor little banksters

Dividend Slashed, but I'm Banking on Barclays Share Price to Bounce Back.

Hello Share Trundlers. The real reason why Barclay’s (BARC) share price fell so sharply on its results is that the dividend was cut by more than a half. This whammy was compounded by the company’s forecast that this state of affairs would continue for a year or two.

Barclays (#BARC) FY PBT up 3% to £6.9bn warns will more than halve dividends in 2016 & 2017

Barclays: I know Americans are all fat but you are utterly useless

I am meant to have a Premier account with Barclays (BARC) in the Isle of Man. Fear not I declare my net interest ( bugger all) each year as I keep sod all in the account. But this Premier service is dire and has tormented me for 24 hours.