US makes cuts to boost saving January 30, 2012 US HOUSEHOLDS saw income growth accelerate to 0.5 per cent in the month to December, but cut back spending by 0.1 per cent in real terms in the month, the Commerce Department said yesterday. Spending is now at its weakest since June 2011, though economists were cautiously optimistic that rising wages will keep supporting demand [...]
Germany slows EU nosedive January 30, 2012 STRONG German and British confidence figures out yesterday helped stabilise the EU’s economic outlook – though other states are still weakening. The European Commission’s economic sentiment indicator rose 0.6 points in the Eurozone to 93.4 in January – the first rise since March 2011, though the index remains well below the long-term average of 100. [...]
Commerzbank chief: bonus cut was right January 30, 2012 THE handling of 9,000 job cuts was a bigger concern than the decision to renege on a “promise” to pay €50m (£41.8m) in bonuses, the chief executive of Commerzbank told the High Court yesterday. Martin Blessing (pictured) said the redundancies were “more important than the bonus pool” at that time and insisted he acted with [...]
CITY VIEWS: SHOULD POLITICIANS BE ALLOWED TO RUN BANKS?* January 30, 2012 CARLOS SANTOS | BREWIN DOLPHIN “Personally I don’t think that the politicians have a right to run the banks. But they definitely have the right to express their opinions if they might be able to possibly help the banks.” ANTHONY WHITTAKER | NATIXIS “No, definitely not. Politicians aren’t qualified to make those sorts of decisions. [...]
City watchdog boosts wholesale banking team January 30, 2012 THE FSA has brought in another senior investment banker to be an adviser on its regulation of investment banks. Will Samuel will be seen as another poacher-turned-gamekeeper, joining the regulator to beef up its wholesale expertise. Samuel, a vice chairman at Lazard since 2003, has been in banking 30 years, including stints at Citigroup and [...]
ECB’s long-term bank loans to top €1 trillion January 30, 2012 THE EUROPEAN Central Bank (ECB) is likely to see demand for its three-year loans rise to nearly €1 trillion (£840bn) at its next auction, according to Credit Suisse analysts. They suggest that with looser collateral requirements coming into effect for the next sale of long-term money, banks will take out €500bn in loans in addition [...]
Alpha Bank casts doubt on its EFG Eurobank merger January 30, 2012 COMPLETION of Greece’s largest bank merger in decades was thrown into doubt yesterday after Alpha Bank said it needs to assess the impact of the country’s revised sovereign debt swap scheme before it can join with EFG Eurobank. Alpha and EFG Eurobank had agreed in August to create Greece’s biggest bank, to better cope with [...]
Shutdown of City protest sparks arrests January 30, 2012 ANGRY scenes erupted yesterday as bailiffs evicted protesters from two City bank offices. A 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and another man was held and later released. Activists, including some from Occupy London, were removed in the early hours from the so-called Earl Street Community Centre, which is believed to be [...]
RBS political risk too much for investors January 30, 2012 INVESTORS are refusing to hold shares in RBS because they see it as too politically risky, a view compounded by chief executive Stephen Hester’s decision to waive his £1m bonus due to pressure from politicians, according to a banking source. RBS’s shares lost 3.5 per cent, or £575m, yesterday, dwarfing the £1m given up by [...]
MPs slam FSA as incompetent on ABN Amro January 30, 2012 MPS ACCUSED the FSA of being “wildly dysfunctional” in a hearing with its chief executive yesterday, who blamed his predecessor for being too cowardly to stop RBS from buying ABN Amro. At a session held by the Treasury Select Committee, FSA chief Hector Sants was pressed repeatedly on why he did not stop the disastrous [...]