Is now the time to invest in banks?

Simon Murphy, manager of the Old Mutual UK Select Equity fund, discusses whether investors should be revisiting the UK's biggest banking stocks.

Since the global credit crisis started developing in 2007, it seems financial companies have never been far away from the headlines and, unsurprisingly given the enormity of the events which unfolded, mostly with a negative slant. The last five years have also been nothing short of extraordinary (and generally painful) from the perspective of financial company equity owners. More recently, investors appear to be rediscovering an appetite for financial shares - the UK banks sector rose more than a fifth through the winter months. This begs the question ‘is it time to invest in financial s...