There is no such thing as a free lunch in banking November 25, 2009 IT came as a bit of a shock. Britain’s new Supreme Court, which has just been spun out from the House of Lords, dealt the Office of Fair Trading a bitter blow yesterday by ruling against it in its test case against high street banks. Their Lordships ruled unanimously that deciding whether overdraft charges – [...]
WALKER REVIEW: ALL THE POINTS AT A GLANCE November 25, 2009 BOARD SIZE, COMPOSITION AND QUALIFICATION 1. Non-executive directors at banks or other financial institutions will need to go on training programmes.2. The board should provide non-execs with extra support on appropriate issues as and when needed. 3. Non-execs at a FTSE 100-listed bank or life assurance company should give more time to their roles. Several [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 25, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES INVESTORS TO SIGN AVTOVAZ AID DEALShareholders in Russian car maker Avtovaz will sign a rescue deal for the near-bankrupt firm at a meeting near Paris this week, Yuri Ushakov, the Russian Prime Minister’s deputy chief of staff, said yesterday. SATYAM SHARES TUMBLE OVER FRESH CHARGESShares in Mahindra Satyam, the fraud-hit IT services group, [...]
Gold jumps to new heights as dollar dips November 25, 2009 GOLD jumped to another record high yesterday, while the dollar dropped to a 15 month low against a basket of currencies after a batch of US data indicated the economic recovery was strengthening. The data, showing positive trends in the housing and labour markets and in consumer spending, helped lift US and European shares while [...]
Vodafone to close final salary scheme November 25, 2009 VODAFONE is set to shut its £755m final salary pension scheme to 4,000 staff, in a fresh round of cost-cutting by chief executive Vittorio Colao. Colao is aiming to offset plummeting revenue at the mobile phone operator. The firm is following the lead of Barclays, Whitbread and Fujitsu, who are also blocking current workers from [...]
Clerical Medical close to sale of Lands Improvement to MGPA November 25, 2009 CLERICAL MEDICAL, the pensions fund owned by Lloyds Banking Group, is poised to complete the sale of its property division Lands Improvement Holdings (LIH). Clerical will offload LIH to the acquisitive MGPA, the Macquarie-backed property group that has been in the running on a number of high-profile property deals this year, including British Land’s sale [...]
PELTZ’S CADBURY STAKE MELTS November 25, 2009 US billionaire investor Nelson Peltz has cut his stake in takeover target Cadbury to 2.68 per cent from 3.03 per cent. Peltz also owns a stake in Kraft, which has launched a hostile £9.8bn bid for?Cadbury. Rival candy-maker Hershey is said to be near to trumping Kraft’s offer, after gaining local political approval.
Rolet wages war on LSE’s newer rivals November 25, 2009 LONDON Stock Exchange chief executive Xavier Rolet yesterday waged his own form of price war on the upstart rivals clawing away the group’s market share, claiming their business models are economically unviable at current pricing levels. Rolet’s remarks came as the LSE posted a 37.5 per cent drop in first-half pre-tax profit to £79.4m, hit [...]
Darling and Osborne clash on secret loans November 25, 2009 A row broke out yesterday in the House of Commons after chancellor Alistair Darling and FSA boss Hector Sants defended the decision to keep secret the £61.6bn of emergency loans handed by the Bank of England to RBS and HBOS last year at the peak of the financial crisis. The loan facilities – £36.6bn for [...]
Bank charges ruling a blow for consumer November 25, 2009 MILLIONS of customers hoping to reclaim more than £1bn in overdraft charges suffered a blow yesterday following a landmark ruling in favour of the banks. The Supreme Court sided with eight major lenders who had challenged decisions made by the lower courts that the unauthorised bank charges come under “unfair contract” rules. The ruling means [...]