Banks in bid to boost lending October 13, 2010 Britain’s biggest banks have outlined a raft of measures to boost lending to small businesses, including a £1.5bn growth fund, in a bid to counter suggestions they are not doing enough to nurture the recovery. HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered and the UK operations of Santander will contribute to [...]
JPMorgan’s profit jumps October 13, 2010 JPMorgan Chase kicked off the third quarter earnings season on a high note yesterday, announcing quarterly profit up 22 per cent thanks to lower loan losses. New York-based JPMorgan, the first of the banks to report third-quarter earnings, has like its peers struggled to make new loans this year, even as losses on bad mortgages [...]
Labour slams benefit plans October 13, 2010 ED Miliband yesterday hit out at plans to axe child benefit for higher rate taxpayers, in a round of Prime Minister’s Questions that saw the Labour leader emerge as a clear victor. Facing David Cameron at the dispatch box for the first time since becoming Labour leader, Miliband said hundreds of thousands of families with [...]
At last, the banks are reaching out to UK Plc October 13, 2010 THERE are two possible ways forward for the banking industry. The first is to do nothing and try and brave out the storm, chucking the occasional insult at detractors. The second is to show some humility, reach out, make sensible reforms – and invest some of its own cash – to improve matters and fight [...]
Lib Dem revolt on uni fees October 13, 2010 SIR?Menzies Campbell, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, yesterday joined a chorus of Lib Dem MPs and said he would vote against any rise in university tuition fees. The government is expected to back Lord Browne’s report on university funding, which recommends that the £3,290 cap on tuition fees should be scrapped, even though [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 13, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES F&C OPPOSES US POLITICAL DONATIONS BY NEWS CORPORATION F&C, the UK asset manager, will vote against the re-election of News Corp’s audit committee chairman at its upcoming annual meeting on Friday over the media group’s million-dollar political donations to the Republican Governors Association and the US Chamber of Commerce.“We are concerned to see [...]
Ex-JPM Caz chief Kheraj joins Lazard October 13, 2010 FORMER JP Morgan Cazenove chief executive Naguib Kheraj has agreed to join Lazard as chief executive of its international business, which is chaired by Ken Costa. The surprise move came after widespread speculation in the City that Kheraj, who also held the finance director role at Barclays in the past, was among the top candidates [...]
Government sets light to its bonfire of quangos October 13, 2010 THE government will this morning announce which quangos it plans to scrap or merge, as it seeks to cut the deficit and improve democratic accountability. Francis Maude, the cabinet office minister, will tell Parliament at 9.30am which of the 700 agencies has been spared. A merger of the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition [...]
BoE’s Sentance reiterates call for higher rates October 13, 2010 BANK OF ENGLAND hawk Andrew Sentance yesterday repeated his call for a gradual increase in interest rates and argued that such a policy would support rather than threaten the recovery and bolster the central bank’s inflation-fighting credibility. In a speech in London, Sentance said: “It is the right response to an economy which is growing [...]
StanChart to raise £3bn in rights issue October 13, 2010 STANDARD Chartered yesterday confirmed it will launch a £3.3bn rights issue, with major investor Temasek already saying it will take up its full allotment of shares. Existing shareholders will be offered the chance to buy one new share at £12.80 for every eight shares they hold – a 33 per cent discount to the pre-announcement [...]