Intellectual errors at the heart of crisis September 14, 2009 At its heart, the credit crunch was fuelled by a deep intellectual error. It was this error which encouraged banks to take such a naïve and flawed view of the double or triple credit boom of the last 15 years. Rather than being something that regulators knew was wrong but did not have the power [...]
ONE YEAR ON, FORMER LEHMAN STAFF SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES WITH CITY A.M. September 14, 2009 BISHER ARMANAZII was working as a trader in structured indices derivatives in London when Lehman Brothers went under. I was at home on the Sunday and happened to turn on the TV to see the story that the bank would not be receiving a government bailout. I went straight to a bar with a couple [...]
CITY VIEWS: WHERE WERE YOU WHEN LEHMAN WENT UNDER? September 14, 2009 NGUS MACLENNAN ANGMAC LTD“I was caught up in the middle of the banking crisis when it happened, working for a bank. Since then, the pace of City life has certainly slowed down. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. It was somewhat overheated before Lehman fell.” G BERTOLA AVIVA INSURANCE UNDERWRITER“I was on holiday at [...]
Back in the real world: how the rest of the country is coping a year on September 14, 2009 LET ME tell you about two pieces of writing. The first, a sign in an independent wine shop in an expensive part of London which I regularly cycle past on my way to work. It reads: “Just because we’re in recession doesn’t mean we have to drink bad wine.” The second is a piece of [...]
Fee bonanza for Treasury APS advisers September 14, 2009 INVESTMENT banking and legal advisers have picked up £26.5m for their work advising the government on its Asset Protection Scheme (APS), according to data released by the Treasury under the Freedom of Information Act. Bankers from investment banks Citigroup, Credit Suisse and asset manager BlackRock have been working with the Treasury’s Financial Stability Unit in [...]
O’Brien threatens to block INMdebt for equity swap September 14, 2009 INDEPENDENT News & Media’s rebel investor Denis O’Brien last night threatened to scupper a deal that would help to reduce the struggling media group’s debt pile. He has proposed a resolution that would allow shareholders to vote on any deal that could dilute their stakes, potentially blocking INM’s attempt to refinance a €200m (£176m) bond [...]
Heathrow boss Brown heads underground September 14, 2009 HEATHROW terminal boss Mike Brown is moving back to London Underground (LU) to take up the managing director position, after leaving in 2008. He first worked for LU in 1989, but left last year to head up Heathrow, after Mark Bullock quit following the messy opening of the new Terminal 5. Under his leadership, service [...]
OBAMA: WE MUST REFORM BANKING September 14, 2009 US PRESIDENT Barack Obama issued a stark warning to bankers yesterday not to ignore the lessons of the demise of Lehman Brothers, in a hard-hitting speech marking a year since the Wall Street investment bank filed for bankruptcy. Obama said the US financial system was beginning to “return to normalcy”, but said that there could [...]
Judge rules against BoA & SEC deal September 14, 2009 A US federal judge yesterday rejected a $33m (£19.9m) settlement reached by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Bank of America (BoA) over accusations that the bank misled shareholders over millions of dollars of bonuses. In the third rejection of the deal by American courts, USDistrict Judge Jed Rakoff said the agreement could not [...]
BoNY nears Russian deal September 14, 2009 THE RUSSIAN government is set to bring its $22.5bn (£13.6bn) lawsuit against Bank of New York Mellon (BoNY) to an end after the bank agreed to provide credit to Moscow-based banks, sources told City A.M last night. An out-of-court settlement is being discussed that will see the USbanking giant restart trade-finance lending to banks nominated [...]