Two of the big four high street banks are hitting the headlines today, though the stories from Barclays and Lloyds have a familiar ring.
Barclays (LON:BARC) has confirmed US hedge fund supremo James “Jes” Staley is its new chief executive.
The former JPMorgan Chase banker’s appointment was widely expected and had been more or less reported as fact by the news agencies a fortnight or so ago, but presumably the official announcement had to be delayed to observe the niceties of contractual obligations.
Staley’s appointment follows the defenestration of Antony Jenkins, the previous chief executive.
Jenkins, who cut his teeth on the retail side of Barclays, had spent a lot of time trying to change the “casino culture” of a bank that had come to be dominated, in terms of both profits and unwanted headlines, by its investment banking arm.
Now it seems investment banking is back in fashion at Barclays.
Lloyds Banking (LON:LLOY) does not have an investment banking arm; its focus is on traditional high street banking and mortgages.
Its third quarter results might have brought a frown to the brow of chancellor George Osborne, assuming he is not too busy threatening the House of Lords with dire vengeance to notice, as the numbers were not the sort likely to have private investors flocking to buy the government’s remaining stake in the lender when it goes on sale next spring.
Underlying profit fell to £1.97bn from £2.16bn a year earlier, with yet more money – a cool half a billion this time – set aside for payment protection insurance (PPI) compensation.
In other banking news, Deutsche Bank is reportedly contemplating a massive overhaul of its information technology systems, possibly because they fail to comply with EU regulations on emissions.
No, hang on … that was some other iconic German company.
Talking of which, German kitchen appliances firm has got the right hump with British rival Dyson over the latter’s claims that Bosch has installed control electronics into some of its machines to give fake test results in a manner not unlike the emissions scandal that engulfed German car maker Volkswagen.
Bosch has got sucked into a tit-for-tat exchange, alleging that Dyson had been guilty of advertising incorrect energy labels on some of its products.
Accusing Dyson’s founder James Dyson of being a publicity hound, Karsten Ottenberg, the chief executive of the company that owns Bosch, said: “With his completely unfounded accusations of cheating in the past week he has now overstepped the mark, which is why we will now initiate legal steps against Dyson."
The statement announcing the legal action was not without a bit of publicity-seeking copy itself, with the company noting that in the latest UK consumer test carried out by Which?, Bosch vacuum cleaners outperformed Dyson in the Best Buy ratings.
We have no wish to get involved in a "Which?" hunt; personally, I’m with the typical student on this one in believing that nature abhors a vacuum cleaner.
Finally, results for the first nine months of the year have been released by Heathrow (SP), the company that owns Heathrow airport.
The company said demand at Heathrow continues to grow with traffic up 2.3% to a record 56.9mln passengers.
The increase in traffic will not surprise those motorists who regularly crawl past junctions 14 and 15 – the exits to Heathrow – fuming at the irony of the signs advising motorists not to exceed 50 miles per hour.
Chance would be a fine thing.