Banks: sector news on Thursday 22 October 2026
Average tone +2.1 (slightly positive) across 5 companies with relevant coverage, from 99 stories.
How to read a score. Each score rates how good or bad the news was for the company, from −10 (clearly bad) to +10 (clearly good). 0 is neutral, and anything beyond ±6 is strong and rare. It rates the coverage, not the share price.
Company by company
| Company | Tone | Stories | What the coverage was about |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Chartered | +6.3 | 27 | Coverage mainly concerned Standard Chartered's agreement to own Zodia Custody outright and absorb it into its digital asset custody business. |
| NatWest Group | −1.3 | 21 | Coverage was mixed. |
| HSBC | +3.0 | 20 | Coverage was mostly positive, with a rising share price, a Goldman Sachs Buy rating, a DBS long-term buy call and new tokenisation and financing deals. |
| Barclays | +5.5 | 16 | Coverage centred on Barclays' third-quarter results, with a 12% rise in pretax profit and a share buyback announced. |
| Lloyds Banking Group | −2.8 | 15 | Coverage was mixed but leaned negative, with an RBC price target cut, a Lloyds outage report, Halifax app and branch closures, and Lloyds being named in crypto transfer complaints. |
| Lion Finance Group | — | 0 |
Strongest stories in the sector
- +10.0 Barclays raised price target significantly.
- +9.3 Profit up 12% with £500m buyback.
- +9.2 Profit up 12% with buyback announced.
- +9.2 Profit up 12% and share buyback unveiled.
- +9.2 Profit up 12% with share buyback announced.
- +9.2 Share price climbing.
- +9.2 Share price climbing.
- −9.2 Al Jazeera report on Islamic fund's war-linked investments.
- +9.0 12% pretax profit jump and buyback announced.
- −8.3 HSBC reviewing Islamic fund's Palantir investment amid controversy.
- +8.3 DBS rates HSBC a buy for the long term.
- +8.3 Goldman Sachs maintains its Buy recommendation for HSBC.
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