Food inflation: First signs of energy cost surge feed through to supermarket shelves as discounts fail to stem price growth
More banks face EU stress tests June 29, 2010 A SECOND round of banking stress tests will examine more than 120 institutions in Europe, and could also include checks on each bank’s exposure to debt from at-risk countries. Analysts have warned that the EU risks further unsettling investors by treating bonds from Greece and other countries as liable to failure, even in tests. The [...]
Spain fights ECB loan plan June 29, 2010 SPANISH banks are bracing themselves today as the European Central Bank prepares to call back €442bn (£358bn) of one-year loans. Senior bankers in the country have described the central bank’s plans to end long-term loans as “absurd.” While the ECB will today offer unlimited loans for three months to lessen the blow to banks across [...]
World trade still driving the recovery June 29, 2010 INVESTORS are right to be worried about the Eurozone. It is the most dangerous part of the world economy, a flawed and failing construct which poses a great threat to the financial system and to the recovery. A Chinese collapse looks much less likely, however, though it is clear that anything that were to derail [...]
Greek bank bid rumoured June 29, 2010 GREECE’S National Bank was said to be in talks with Qatar over selling a small stake to the Gulf state yesterday, though a source close to the issue later denied the reports. “National Bank never had talks about selling a five to seven per cent stake in a non-pre-emptive rights basis,” the source in Greece [...]
EU rules to cap bonus pay-outs from next year June 29, 2010 BANKERS in Europe will not be allowed to take home more than a third of their bonuses in cash from the start of next year. The plans for new rules, which go further than American rules agreed last week, would be the first cap on how bankers are paid. A new watchdog for European banks [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 29, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES M&A ACTIVITY LACKLUSTRE DESPITE STRENGTH IN EMERGING MARKETS Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and turbulent financing markets rattled the confidence of corporate dealmakers across the globe in the first half of the year to damp already lacklustre mergers and acquisition activity. The volume of deals worldwide rose 2.9 per cent to $828.9bn during the [...]
Cazenove: BP could get bid from Exxon June 29, 2010 BP’S FUTURE came under question yesterday after JP Morgan Cazenove suggested the embattled oil major should be taken over by rival Exxon Mobil. JP Morgan analyst Fred Lucas said yesterday that US based Exxon Mobil should move in to make an £88bn bid. Exxon is the most financially strong oil company, he said, adding that [...]
US Democrats axe $19bn bank fee for Senate vote June 29, 2010 US Democrats yesterday offered to drop a proposed $19bn (£12.6bn) bank fee in a desperate bid to win enough votes to pass the Wall Street reform bill. The lawmakers have been forced to make concessions to win the vote of Scott Brown, the Massachussetts senator who joined negotiations after the death of Senator Robert Byrd. [...]
Hedge fund founder quits UK for Geneva June 29, 2010 ALAN Howard, the hedge fund entrepreneur and Conservative Party donor, has quit the country to live and work in Switzerland. The co-founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management, one of Europe’s largest hedge funds, joins two other fund managers in the company’s Geneva office as part of a bigger exodus out of the City. The firm [...]
Firms to help run welfare to work plan June 29, 2010 THE government yesterday invited bidders from the private and voluntary sectors to join its new welfare-to-work programme, in a bid to end Britain’s culture of joblessness. Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith hopes that outsourcing firms like Serco, Capita and Cap Gemini will bid for the contracts, which will provide big rewards for firms [...]