Mark Phin

RBS Leaders Push Share Sale Amid Unexpected Profit Drop

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc executives said the government may start reducing its 81 percent stake as soon as next year even as the bank posted a bigger- than-estimated decline in first-quarter operating profit.

RBS Seen Posting First-Quarter Profit as Bad Debts Fall

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain’s biggest government-owned lender, may tomorrow post its first quarterly profit since 2011 as bad loans and the cost of redress for past missteps fell.

Lloyds Seen Reporting the End of Era for Surging Impairments

Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, may signal the end of an era of surging loan impairments and provisions for improperly sold insurance when it reports first-quarter earnings this week.

Barclays May Follow U.S. Peers in Higher Investment Bank Profit

Barclays Plc, the first U.K. lender to report first-quarter results, may report a rise in profit at its investment bank, helped by gains in the U.S. as Europe’s sovereign debt crisis crimps income from the region.

Barclays CEO’s Ethics Talk Drowns Out Silence on Profit

Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Antony Jenkins’s pledges to shred the legacy of his predecessor and fix the lender’s culture are distracting from the difficulty he has in reviving profit at Britain’s biggest investment bank.

Stocks Drop as Goldman Probe Widens

U.S. stocks tumbled, capping the biggest weekly drop since January, as criminal investigators took aim at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and technology shares slid after MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. posted a loss.

Barclays Falls as Investment Banking Revenue Misses Estimates

Barclays Plc, the U.K.’s third- largest bank by assets, fell in London trading after first- quarter investment banking revenue dropped more than estimated.

U.K. Banks May Post $13 Billion Profit on Declining Bad Debt

Britain’s five biggest banks, including HSBC Holdings Plc and Barclays Plc , may say profit soared to 8.4 billion pounds ($13.1 billion) in the first half as falling bad loan provisions mitigate slowing growth in investment-banking revenue.

Goldman Sachs, U.S. Investment Banks Face `Minimal' Impact From U.K. Levy

Britain’s new bank levy will have a “minimal” impact on U.S. investment banks with operations in London, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. likely to pay only a sixth of the bill it faces for the bonus tax.

European Stocks Retreat; Shares of Barclays, Basic-Resource Companies Drop

European stocks fell as a decline in Barclays Plc and a sell-off in basic-resource shares overshadowed optimism that a bailout for Greece is imminent.

"We regard these results as reassuring, rather than spectacular."

- Mark Phin on Feb 27, 2012

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Europe

Asia

George Osborne

Obama Says IRS Targeting of Tea Party Groups ‘Outrageous’

‘Iron Man 3’ Tops Weekend Sales Again With $72.5 Million

Most U.S. Stocks Fall After Record Highs Amid Sales Data

Rally Matches 1990s Gains With Valuations 28% Lower

Treasury Yields Rise as S&P 500 Trades Little Changed