Overview
- Close Brothers will reduce headcount by about 600 roles by the end of the 2027 financial year to deliver roughly £85m in annual cost savings through centralisation, outsourcing, offshoring and rapid AI deployment.
- Viceroy Research alleged the lender understated its exposure to the motor‑finance redress and modeled payouts of about £572m to £1.23bn, sending the shares down roughly 13–14% on Monday and a further 3.5% on Tuesday.
- Management said total provisions stand at £300m after an October top‑up of £135m, describing a probability‑weighted methodology that complies with UK accounting standards and was approved by auditor PwC.
- The group reported a £65.5m loss for the six months to the end of January and has already sold non‑core units and suspended its dividend to conserve capital.
- The FCA is expected to publish final redress rules within days after previously indicating an industry bill near £11bn with average payments of about £700 per agreement.