THE DAILY BRIEFING
LIBOR AXE The tainted Libor benchmark will be phased out by the end of 2021 because of the massive fraud scandal.
Libor, which was used by global banks to set interest rates, was manipulated by criminal traders to boost their profits, leading to £6.8bn in fines and a string of convictions.
Financial Conduct Authority boss Andrew Bailey said the benchmark rate had become unreliable. ASSETS CLIMB Fund manager Schroders is now looking after a record £418bn of clients’ assets, after customers pumped in another £800m in the first half of 2017. Profits climbed to £342.8m, up 21pc on the same period last year. ALLIANCE JOY Bosses at Alliance Trust hailed an ‘encouraging’ first half of the year after outperforming the industry average by 4.2pc. It unveiled a dividend of 6.58p per share, up from 5.65p in 2016. DEUTSCHE DIP Revenues at Deutsche Bank dropped 10pc to £5.9bn in the second quarter of 2017 due to a slump in trading activity. The struggling German lender revealed better than expected profits of £732.3m, after sacking staff and devising plans to sell assets. BIG PLANS Small bank TSB is to invest in business lending with boss Paul Pester planned to use cash from a £775m fund being launched by Royal Bank of Scotland to take on rivals. TSB, owned by Spanish bank Sabadell, made £108.3m profit in the first half of 2017, down 13.6pc on the same period last year. EXPANSION SUCCESS Profits at Nottingham Building Society climbed to £7.6m in the first half of 2017 thanks to an expansion drive, up 7pc on a year earlier. SUNNY TONIC June’s heatwave lifted Robinsons squash maker
Britvic as sales rose 6.5pc in the three months to July 9. Sales in Britain, nearly 60pc of its total revenue, rose 4.9pc to £225.3m. FASHION BOOST The turnaround at Bonmarche has begun to gain traction. The 50-plus women’s firm said sales in the 13 weeks to July 1 rose 7.6pc on the year before. OPEN ROAD Travel operator National Express reported a 25.7pc increase in profit to £88.9m in the six months to June 30 while its sales rose by 16.2pc to £1.2bn. Its UK coach division profits fell to £9.4m from £10.4m the year before, which was blamed on reduced demand after recent terrorism attacks.