The British Business Bank, the UK government’s economic development agency, posted a £122mn loss for the year ending March, its second consecutive year in the red due to falling private equity valuations.
Chief executive Louis Taylor attributed the loss to “short-term falls in the book valuation of long-term investments”, stressing that these were unrealised losses rather than cash deficits.
The bank’s results follow a £135mn loss for the previous year, contrasting with a £453mn profit in 2022 driven by the boom in tech valuations during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the downturn, Taylor noted signs of stabilisation in private company valuations, stating: “If you’d offered us these numbers last year, we would have taken them”.
The bank, which supports debt and equity investments in small and medium-sized enterprises, invested £3.5bn of public funds in 23,100 businesses in 2023, attracting £2.5bn of co-investment from the private sector. These investments are expected to support nearly 40,000 additional jobs.
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Singapore’s largest banks are experiencing a strong boost in earnings thanks to the wealthy moving in assets and trading more in the city-state. On Wednesday, DBS Group, the largest lender by assets in south-east Asia, reported a 37 per cent increase in wealth management fees to S$518mn ($391mn) in the second quarter, which outpaced growth in lending income. DBS said the fee gains were driven by clients moving from deposits to investments, with assets under management hitting a record S$396bn.
Smaller rivals Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp and United Overseas Bank also benefited from similar trends. The three lenders have been expanding their wealth management services to compete with global banks including UBS, with Asia seen as a key growth area.
UOB posted a 13 per cent growth in wealth management income to S$336m for the first half of 2024, while OCBC’s wealth income rose 17 per cent year on year to S$514m for the same period.
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A Manhattan court has ordered Ripple Labs to pay the US Securities and Exchange Commission approximately $125mn in penalties for improperly selling the cryptocurrency XRP, according to a filing on Wednesday.
The SEC began its legal proceedings against Ripple, its chief executive Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen in 2020, alleging they illegally raised more than $1.3bn through an unregistered securities offering by selling XRP.
The penalty is significantly lower than the $2bn the SEC initially sought in its case against Ripple.
An SEC spokesperson noted: “As court after court has stated, the securities laws apply when firms offer and sell investment contracts, regardless of the technology or labels that they use.”
Responding to the ruling, Garlinghouse said: “We respect the court’s decision and have clarity to continue growing our company.”
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Russia’s largest lender Sberbank reported a second-quarter profit of Rbs418.7bn ($4.88bn) on Thursday, up 10 per cent from the same period last year.
In a statement, chief executive Herman Gref said that corporate loans increased by 4.4 per cent quarter on quarter and retail loans by 6.3 per cent. He also noted a surge in demand for mortgages.
The state-controlled bank achieved a record Rbs1.5tn profit in 2023, more than five times the previous year’s figure, as the country’s banking sector rebounded from sanctions related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
