RBS chief vows: Empire building is now finished September 30, 2014 RBS SHARES jumped yesterday as the bank revealed its bad loan levels had fallen by around £800m, as its new strategy of focusing on the UK alone has started to pay off. The bank has sold off or shut down its overseas ventures, most recently selling a chunk of its US bank Citizens. As a result, the [...]
Co-op Bank takes to ink in bid to win back consumers with tattoo ethics vow September 30, 2014 The Co-op Bank is launching a new series of adverts aimed at rebuilding its brand as an ethical lender, starting on TV tonight. Its reputation took a blow last year when it was bailed out by hedge fund investors. The Co-op Bank is thought to have been one of the losers of the seven-day current [...]
Icap optimistic despite bleak interim show outlook September 30, 2014 MICHAEL Spencer, the boss of interdealer broker Icap, yesterday said he was “guardedly optimistic” about the future despite anticipating a 15 per cent drop in half-year revenues. Icap said sales for the six months ending September were expected to drop by 10 per cent on a constant currency basis – or 15 per cent on [...]
Bank of England’s David Miles: Perfect interest rate forecasts are impossible September 30, 2014 Critics of the Bank of England who demand more detail on the future path of interest rates do not realise how hard it is to predict economic movements, policymaker David Miles said last night. The Bank has set out rough guidance, telling markets that interest rates will only rise slowly and will stay below pre-crisis [...]
Portable account numbers closer September 30, 2014 BANKS could be ordered to let customers take their account numbers with them when they move from one lender to another, the City watchdog said yesterday. The Financial Conduct Authority is reviewing the seven-day account switching programme, which has been in place for one year. If the FCA finds competition has not been sufficiently boosted by [...]
Forex traders to lose window used to manipulate benchmarks as global watchdog cleans up sector September 30, 2014 ROGUE currency traders will be denied the chance to manipulate benchmarks under plans laid out by the G20’s investigators yesterday. Currently, the daily FX fix is set in a one-minute window at 4pm, allowing traders to shuffle volumes of trades around a very short time. By extending that to five minutes or more, the Financial [...]
Bank bond rating bloodbath as investor bail-ins replace bailouts September 30, 2014 THE VAST majority of banks’ hybrid bonds are being downgraded as it becomes clear governments really mean they will not bail out troubled lenders in future, ratings agency Standard and Poor’s said yesterday. In total, 88 per cent of European banks’ 1,200 hybrid securities will be downgraded. This will happen even though the bonds had previously been given [...]
Conservative party conference: Sol Campbell hates Ed Miliband’s mansion tax … loves castles September 30, 2014 Never a dull moment at the Tory party conference, especially when you’ve got football legend Sol Campbell tweeting on your side. The former Arsenal and England star sent a series of messages yesterday ripping into Labour’s plans for a mansion tax. “An Englishman’s home is his castle, there will be uproar with this tax!” he [...]
Restaurant legend Chris Corbin takes a swipe at Chiltern Firehouse September 30, 2014 Restaurateurs Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, the duo behind The Wolseley and The Delaunay, are waking up to their third day as hoteliers this morning, having opened The Beaumont this week. Artist Antony Gormley was the first person to stay in the hotel’s automaton-like ROOM, which he designed. “Typical artist, he came out complaining,” [...]
Eurozone woes give Draghi leeway on QE September 30, 2014 THE EUROZONE is still flirting with deflation while unemployment remains stubbornly high, opening up the possibility that the European Central Bank (ECB) will deliver further monetary easing when it announces its latest policy decision tomorrow. Figures published yesterday by official database Eurostat showed that unemployment in August came in at 11.5 per cent – the [...]