Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg The state-backed British Business Bank added eight new lenders to its emergency lending program for small companies, including two fintech firms and Coutts & Co., the private banker to Queen Elizabeth II, the organization said today. With more than 45 lenders now accredited for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the British Business Bank is racing to get funds to small- and medium-sized companies that are struggling to stay afloat as the...

Digital banking startup raises $250 million from investors Plans global expansion; targets 100 million customers by 2023 In one of the biggest fundraising rounds for a European fintech this year, Revolut Ltd., a U.K. startup that provides digital banking, received $250 million. The Series C funding, led by Hong Kong-based DST Global and joined by longtime backers such as Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, values the three-year-old company at $1.7 billion, Revolut said in a statement...

To most people, lending money to small Italian businesses looks perilous. In the past decade, Italy became a byword for financial dysfunction as hundreds of billions of euros in bad loans piled up, its third-biggest bank cratered, and a moribund economy triggered a wave of political populism. Who wants to provide credit in such a stormy market? Bob Diamond, the former chief executive officer of Barclays Plc, for one. An error has occurred You have 1 free Businessweek article left. Register...

John Cryan didn’t have much in the way of good news today as Deutsche Bank AG reported a fall in revenue and an increase in expenses in the fourth quarter. But the Frankfurt-based lender’s chief executive officer did say one key piece of his restructuring project is hitting some milestones: the unprecedented overhaul of its information technology systems. “We’re well on our way to transforming the company into one driven by technology, and here, we’ve made reasonable progress,” Cryan said in...

In 2013, Arthur Hayes was biding his time as an equities trader for Citigroup Inc. in Hong Kong. His energy—he’s a fitness fanatic and an early riser—was better suited to another era in finance. Six years earlier, as a recent arrival in the former British colony, he’d gotten a taste of what the golden age in banking felt like when he worked in the “snake pit,” the equity derivatives sales desk, at Deutsche Bank AG’s office. The markets were on fire. Traders were taking helicopter trips to the...