Barclays (BARC) has bowed to public pressure and scrapped a decision to stop its customers from withdrawing cash at post offices following a barrage of criticism. The bank’s U-turn came after it emerged that Barclays bosses would be questioned about the decision by a committee of MPs who had labelled it “a petty, penny-pinching move” and were hours away from publishing a highly critical report on the controversy. Barclays said it had been “persuaded to rethink” its decision, and would now keep the cash withdrawal facility after all.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) has swung to a quarterly loss after being forced to put aside an extra £900m to cover a surge in payment protection insurance complaints before the claims deadline. The extra charge means RBS slid to an operating loss of £8m for the three months to September, compared with a profit of £961m in the same quarter last year. PPI has become by far the banking industry’s biggest mis-selling scandal and this latest charge for RBS is at the top end of its estimates in September, after the August claims deadline. The bank had forecast a third-quarter provision of between £600m to £900m.
