Today’s news in brief

Lloyds to shift skilled IT jobs from UK to India, say reports

Lloyds Banking Group is hiring hundreds of IT engineers in India while planning to cut similar jobs in the UK, according to a Financial Times report on Friday, citing an internal presentation seen by the newspaper and an anonymous source.  

The bank aims to recruit 4,000 permanent employees in technology and data roles in India by the end of the year. This will account for nearly half of the global total of such jobs, a person familiar with the plans said.

Meanwhile, 6,000 employees in Lloyds’s UK IT department have been warned their jobs are at risk as the bank reviews its engineering workforce. 

Lloyds plans to create 1,200 new high-skilled roles as part of this review, but affected staff must apply through a competitive selection process to end later this month. 

“While many colleagues will transition into these new roles, we do expect some will not secure a role through this change, considering skills, location and reduced demand for certain roles,” the bank’s chief operating officer Ron van Kemenade said in a letter to employees last month.

The BTU, a workers union that represents Lloyds’ employees, has accused the bank of “doing the exact opposite of helping Britain prosper” and “breathtaking hypocrisy” in failing to support UK jobs. 

Lloyds is currently restructuring as part of a £4bn investment plan, led by chief executive Charlie Nunn, which aims to improve returns and cut costs.

The bank plans to cut 500 additional jobs this year across various departments, close two offices, and shut 136 UK branches as part of its restructuring efforts.

“Making changes means not only creating new roles and upskilling colleagues but also saying goodbye to talented people who have been part of the group’s success in the past,” a Lloyds spokesperson said in comments to the FT. 

US Senate banking panel backs McKernan as CFPB director

A US Senate banking panel voted 13-11 on Thursday to advance President Donald Trump’s nomination of former regulator Jonathan McKernan to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The result moves McKernan’s nomination to a full Senate vote at a later date.

From 2023 until last month, McKernan was a Republican board member at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. He was a vocal critic of former FDIC chair Martin Gruenberg’s handling of a sexual harassment scandal and played a key role in overseeing reform efforts.

Since taking control of the CFPB in February, the Trump administration has effectively frozen the agency’s operations. It has laid off numerous employees, placed most staff on administrative leave, and paused newly adopted regulations. 

The administration has also dismissed seven of the CFPB’s pending enforcement actions, including a lawsuit against JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo over their handling of payment fraud on the Zelle network.

Although Trump and key adviser Elon Musk have previously called for the CFPB’s elimination, McKernan said during his confirmation hearing last month that he would “fully and faithfully” enforce consumer financial laws. 

However, he also criticised the agency for what he saw as excessive enforcement and regulatory over-reach.

ECB cuts rates to 2.5% but signals caution on further easing

The European Central Bank lowered its benchmark interest rate on Thursday by 0.25 percentage points to 2.5 per cent but hinted at a possible slowdown in future cuts.

This is the central bank’s sixth reduction since the ECB began its easing cycle last June, when rates peaked at 4 per cent to curb inflation. 

In a shift in tone that has been interpreted as a more cautious stance with regard to future rate cuts, the ECB said that “monetary policy is becoming meaningfully less restrictive, as the interest rate cuts are making new borrowing less expensive for firms and households and loan growth is picking up”, replacing its previous wording that policy “remains restrictive”.

ECB president Christine Lagarde described the change in tone as “not an innocuous little change” and indicated that further cuts would depend on economic data. 

“High uncertainty, both at home and abroad, is holding back investment and competitiveness challenges are weighing on exports,” Lagarde said. 

Growth in the bloc last year was a sluggish 0.7 per cent. But Lagarde added that “an increase in defence and infrastructure spending could also add to growth” but “could also raise inflation through its effects on aggregate demand”.

UniCredit completes €376mn takeover of Aion Bank and Vodeno

UniCredit announced on Friday that it has completed its acquisition of Belgian digital lender Aion Bank and Polish fintech Vodeno for a total of €376mn. 

Aion Bank operates under a European Central Bank licence, while Vodeno specialises in cloud-based banking-as-a-service solutions. UniCredit plans to invest up to €200mn in the venture, aiming to add 2.5mn clients and achieve a cost-to-income ratio of 34 per cent within three years. 

The deal, first announced in July last year, will grant the Italian bank full ownership of a cloud-based, API-driven banking platform, eliminating reliance on third-party providers.

UniCredit said it plans to use the acquisitions to re-enter the Polish market, expand into neighbouring western European countries, and develop its embedded finance services, which integrate banking solutions into non-financial platforms.