Financial Industry News 23 Feb 2012

  Movida, the 50/50 joint venture between Visa and Monitise in India, has signed an agreement with HDFC Bank, India’s second-largest private bank, to introduce a mobile payments service. The new service, which will eventually be rolled out to other Indian banks and is powered by Monitise’s technology platform, will allow... read more

  Some 75 per cent of the British population believe senior executives at banks bailed out during the global economic downturn should not receive bonuses.  New research conducted by YouGov on behalf of Sky News has revealed that a large proportion of people in the UK are against the idea of such professionals being awarded... read more

  HSBC has decided to pay the cash part of its UK workers' bonuses through the issuing of shares due to new rules relating to capital ratios.  That is according to an insider at the major European bank, who has told Reuters that increasing pressure from regulatory bodies on financiers to improve the state of their balance... read more

Britain's economy looks set to experience a modest period of recovery in the near future following the global economic downturn.  That is the opinion of Charles Bean, deputy governor of the Bank of England, who believes that declining inflation in the country will help ease the pressure on household finances.  Recently, it... read more

  Growth and investment must be prioritised by the UK government in its upcoming Budget in order to boost the country's economy, a leading business group believes.  The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has today (22 February) urged chancellor George Osborne to use his speech next month to follow up on the expansion... read more

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is using its e-invoicing service with Lambeth Council in an attempt to cut the cost of receiving, processing and paying bills, and reduce paper usage while still complying with the council’s purchase order policy for all goods and services.  The newly live service is the third such rollout to a UK... read more

  HSBC has announced plans to make billions of pounds of extra credit available to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the near future.  The major European financier today (21 February) unveiled its new International SME Fund initiative, under which it will permit companies that show an intention to trade overseas to... read more

  Leading financiers across Europe are storing increasingly large amounts of cash in central bank holdings due to changes in the regulatory environment.    That is according to a report published today (21 February) in the Wall Street Journal, which has indicated that banks have become more risk-averse over the last... read more

Britain's two largest state-controlled banks will reveal losses for 2011 later this week following a period of job cuts and debt restructuring.  A group of 13 economic experts surveyed by Bloomberg have today (21 February) asserted that both the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group are set to record negative... read more