Six more banks are closed by US regulators December 6, 2009 MORE American banks failed over the weekend, bringing the total for the year to 130, which is the highest since 1992. Of the six failed banks, the largest to be closed by regulators was Cleveland’s AmTrust Bank, whose 66 branches and $8bn (£4.9bn) in deposits will be assumed by New York Community Bank. AmTrust is [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 6, 2009 WM MORRISONGalvan Research says that plenty of time has now elapsed at Wm Morrison to allow the shares to absorb any doubts over a possible like-for-like sales slowdown, and the surprise departure of Marc Bolland. It says the stock is holding up well within striking distance of year highs, and there is every likelihood the [...]
GM to refresh management December 6, 2009 GENERAL Motors will announce a major overhaul of its European management structure this week as it seeks to reassert control over its lossmaking operations. Nick Reilly, European head of GM and chief executive of Opel and Vauxhall, is expected to unveil a new “one tier” management that combines the three brands’ executives. The shake-up follows [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS December 6, 2009 AshurstThe law firm’s board has reappointed Simon Bromwich to serve a further three-year term as managing partner.Bromwich was first appointed to the role in January 2004, while his new term will come to an end in January 2013.The firm’s senior partner Charlie Geffen said Bromwich had “dealt decisively” with the tough market conditions the firm [...]
Pensions burden prevents firms from restructuring for recovery December 6, 2009 DEFICIT payments on final salary pensions have damaged restructuring and recovery plans for more than a third of firms, double the number compared to 2007, says a survey released today by the CBI and Watson Wyatt. Three quarters of the 192 companies questioned, representing over one million employees, say they will have to pay more [...]
Financial services sector has a key role for climate change December 6, 2009 The world’s eyes will turn to Copenhagen today as policy makers from across the globe gather for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. They are faced with a huge – some would say almost impossible – challenge. Achieving any meaningful agreement on the successor to the Kyoto treaty will require bridging national agendas as far [...]
CBIcalling for global carbon trading plan December 6, 2009 BUSINESS body the CBI is set to call for a global carbon trading scheme today, as the UN’s climate change talks kick off in Copenhagen. The group will argue the case for a scheme to cap emissions, and to allow firms worldwide to buy permits for carbon – like the EU Emissions Trading Scheme – [...]
Oxfam accuses European politicians of repackaging budgets for climate change December 6, 2009 ANTI-POVERTY campaign group Oxfam yesterday accused European politicians of planning to “cannibalise” existing development aid budgets and repackage them as part of a deal to fight climate change. Oxfam said it had found evidence that exposed “undercover accounting” in some rich nations’ pledges to help poor nations to tackle the climate threat. But Sweden, holder [...]
WAR ON BANKS AFTER BONUS ROW EXPLODES December 3, 2009 POLITICIANS rounded on bankers yesterday amid fears a windfall tax on bank profits is on the cards for the pre-budget report next week. The concerns came as a report from the National Audit Office (NAO), released today, revealed for the first time that the government has spent £117bn bailing out the banks. Lord Myners, the [...]
Treasury pays 107m in fees December 3, 2009 THE Treasury expects to have spent £107m by April 2010 on legal and financial advisers to sort out the banking crisis, a report from the National Audit Office revealed today. The legal firm Slaughter and May tops a table of fees paid for services with a bill of £32.9m, followed by Credit Suisse with £15.4m. [...]