UK 17:51 Sunday, 4 October 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
Hello, Share Farmers. The big British banks have share prices stuck in the mud on roads which should be taking them north, but are not. And yet the compo paid out in PPI cases is nearly over. The deadline was on August 31st, 2019. Yes, that sparked off a huge number of last-minute claims, but many of those will be spurious anyway and the rest will soon be mopped up...
Back when I was a callow youth about to start my undergraduate studies, the ritual of opening my first bank account (until then a Post Office savings account was my sole financial product interaction) provided a wonderful social insight. If I recall correctly, all the cool, well-heeled kids had accounts open for them at Barclays (BARC) or Lloyds (LLOY) as a continuation of their parental banking allegiances. I just went for the bank that offered me the most money as a joining inducement...and that happened to be NatWest… I read today in the latest quarterly thoughts from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) that this tainted name - courtesy of largesse a decade plus ago by 'Fred the Shred' and others - will change back to NatWest Group later this year...
A few days ago I asked you to write an essay of no more than 150 words to answer a question from the Bath Spa University Banking & Finance course. A few of you tried as you can see here but I have good news and bad.
This should be easy, I invite you to answer the following question in fewer than 150 words. Bath Spa students need to find a safe space room if their human rights are breached by being asked to pen more than 150 words a term. The deadline for entries is Sunday at midnight and the best entry wins a bottle of Greek Hovel 2019 olive Oil. This question is sponsored by Ms Alison Rose of RBS.
The job of a bank boss is very simple. It is to lend money to folks who have a good chance of paying it back so that shareholders see a net return, the bank stays profitable and staff keep their jobs. It is not to change society. No doubt RBS boss Alison Rose will be praised for risking £1 billion on ultra-woke virtue signalling. MBE, Member of the House of Lords, it all looks more likely but this is folly.
RBS (RBS) has announced that after five and a half years of earning a basic salary of a million quid a year plus numerous bonuses, LTIPs etc, Ross McEwan has resigned from his role as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Director. We are told that bankster fat cat Ross is on a 12 month notice period.
It is a good job that Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has started to pay a dividend (3.5p full year and a 7.5p special equating to 11p per share or c. a 4.5% yield) because my June love-up would have left any investors over the last eight or so months with basically no capital gain. I guess it could have been worse and today's full year 2018 numbers have shown some real year-on-year progress...
Hello Share Pushers. Another week's gone by. Another seven days in a very long, but rather slow bull market. Actually, the Footsie's performance recently has been poor, so should we see that as a sign of a ne w bear market? Must we change at least a few of our shares into cash? I would say ' yes' for the following reasons.
In pretty unsurprising news, overnight UK Government Investments - which manages the UK government's Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) stake - announced that it had sold a 7.7% stake at around a 3% discount to Monday's closing price. This sale raises around £2.6 billion and reduces the government's holding from just over 70% to a mere 62.4%. I like RBS stock here as I wrote just over a month ago. The metrics are improving and the times are changing...and part of that change is the government progressively becoming a smaller and smaller shareholder.
