Share Sounds presented by Sarah Lowther related to Banking - Comparing Accounts

Barclays has agreed to sell its French retail banking operations to European private equity firm, AnaCap Financial Partners. This follows the UK bank’s decision to sell its credit arms in Spain and Portugal. The bank says it's going to focus on its core markets in the UK and US. So is this the Barclays equivalent of Brexit? Share Radio’s Matt Cox spoke to Jeremy Cook, Chief Economist from World First, to find out more about the decision and what it will mean.

Mike van Dulken, Head of Research at Accendo Markets, joined Share Radio Breakfast to offer an immediate reaction to the release of the Bank of England Stress Test results. Were there any major surprises?

In a big week for banks, we'll get a much-awaited snapshot of how well our best-known banks may hold up if there's another economic downturn, with the reveal of the Bank of England's "stress tests" results. Meanwhile, a conference being held in the City of London will hear that investors can use simple techniques to pick out the higher quality banks for themselves. Share Radio Breakfast's Nigel Cassidy has been hearing from Bruce Packard, a banking industry specialist from the Lafferty Group, who will lead the conference debate.

The Competition and Markets Authority has unveiled a package of measures to "shake up retail banking for years to come". To discuss the measures, James Sherwin-Smith, CEO of Growth Street, which started the APR4SMEs campaign earlier this year, joined Morning Money’s Directors’ Briefing sponsored by Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

The FTSE 250 lender, Virgin Money, saw 35% wiped off its share value after Britain voted to leave the EU, that in spite of a record first quarter. On the day of the company's half-year results, Dr Ronan Lynch, Director of the Global Knowledge Centre at the banking consultancy Lafferty Group, was on hand to discuss the numbers and the performance of challenger banks in general.