WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 26, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES fears over china’s bad loans China’s banks are facing serious default risks on more than one-fifth of the Rmb7,700bn ($1,135bn) they have lent to local governments across the country, according to senior Chinese officials. In a preliminary self-assessment carried out at the request of the country’s regulator, China’s commercial banks have identified about [...]
Jain rejigs a key Deutsche bank division July 26, 2010 ANSHU Jain tightened his grip on Deutsche Bank’s investment bank by installing a 15-member management team of mostly company veterans, ahead of today’s second-quarter earning results. The changes introduced by Jain, who is favourite to succeed Josef Ackermann as Deutsche Bank’s chief executive, mark an evolution in Deutsche’s strategy, with the bank focused on corporate [...]
US new home sales surge in June as inventories contract July 26, 2010 SALES of new homes in the US rebounded in June from the previous month’s record low, providing a rare ray of light in an otherwise gloomy housing market. They jumped by 23.6 per cent last month to an annual rate of 330,000 units from a downwardly revised 267,000 units in May. The June rise was [...]
Unite to sue British Airways over removal of employee travel perks July 26, 2010 UNITE, the trade union representing 11,000 British Airways (BA) cabin crew, will launch a legal attack over the airline’s removal of travel perks from striking staff. The union said yesterday it believed BA management was “breaching European human rights legislation” when it cut travel concessions from cabin crew in March. BA and Unite have been [...]
Thousands of firms facing more red tape July 26, 2010 THOUSANDS of banks and insurers could be forced to pay through the nose to comply with the biggest overhaul of financial regulation in a decade, because they will have to deal with two regulators instead of one. The government made the admission as it began a three-month consultation on plans to scrap the Financial Services [...]
Cable targets bank bonuses and dividends in lending war July 26, 2010 VINCE Cable, the business secretary, yesterday stepped up his war of words against the banking industry, warning that dividends and bonuses could come under attack if banks don’t lend more to small businesses. Unveiling a green paper aimed at getting banks to fund a private sector-led recovery, Cable said: “There clearly is a choice between [...]
REGULATORY OVERHAUL July 26, 2010 Q.WHICH FIRMS WILL BE AFFECTED BY THE OVERHAUL? A.The?Financial?Services Authority (FSA) currently regulates 20,000 firms. The vast majority of those will simply be regulated by the new Consumer Protection and Markets Agency, which will police conduct in financial services and protect customers. Although there will be some changes, they won’t incur any significant extra costs. [...]
Market calm on bank tests July 26, 2010 EUROPEAN lenders’ credit default swap (CDS) spreads narrowed and the euro was steady yesterday as the market gave a mild thumbs-up to the region’s bank stress test results. The cost of insuring against default on debt issued by key banks fell after the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) said just seven of 91 institutions [...]
German lenders release PIIGS stats but Deutsche Bank is quiet July 26, 2010 GERMAN banks appeared to cave in to pressure from European Union regulators late yesterday as they joined EU peers to reveal the extent of their exposure to heavily indebted Eurozone nations. The banks — Hypo Real Estate, Landesbank Berlin and cooperative banks DZ Bank and WGZ Bank — joined Postbank to reveal their sovereign debt [...]
CITY VIEWS: HAS THE CITY STARTED TO QUIETEN DOWN IN THE SUMMER? July 26, 2010 RACHEL NEWTON | BREWIN DOLPHIN “I think people have become more optimistic as the weather has improved. But until the government’s spending review comes out in the autumn there’s still going to be a lot of uncertainty in the City. In the public sector too, people still seem anxious about spending cuts.” RUSSELL LAMB | [...]