TORIES PLEDGE TO ABOLISH THE FSA July 19, 2009 A CONSERVATIVE government would abolish the “failed” tripartite system of financial regulation and hand chief responsibility for supervision back to the Bank of England, shadow chancellor George Osborne will confirm today. Osborne will outline plans to dismantle the regulatory architecture designed by Gordon Brown in today’s response to chancellor Alistair Darling’s white paper on financial [...]
Watchdog staff set for exodus July 19, 2009 SENIOR staff at the City’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) have complained that shadow chancellor George Osborne’s determination to downgrade the organisation if a Conservative government is elected next year has seriously affected its ability to hire key people and has damaged morale. “External people have withdrawn suddenly from job applications,” said one FSA staffer, citing [...]
VW poised to buy Porsche July 19, 2009 PORSCHE’S controlling families are this week set to agree the sale of its sports car business to Volkswagen for roughly €8bn (£6.9bn), according to reports in Germany. The rival Porsche and Piech clans, which together own 100 per cent of Porsche, are understood to be about to approve the two-stage takeover at a a supervisory [...]
Tories are right to want to scrap the FSA July 19, 2009 SO the Tories are going to bite the bullet and abolish the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Most of its banking and financial stability powers will be handed over to the Bank of England; the rump, focussing on consumer protection, will be relabelled as the Consumer Protection Agency. The Bank will become home to a new [...]
GSK to get flu injection July 19, 2009 DRUGS giant GlaxoSmithKline is gearing up to make almost £1.3bn from sales of its swine flu drug treatments. In May the UK’s largest drug firm said that it had already taken 128m orders for a vaccine, in deals worth approximately £600m, including those from the UK. But with around 50,000 cases in the UK diagnosed [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 19, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday TelegraphENGINE IN DRIVE FOR EXPANSIONThe advertising agency that created the 118 directory enquiries runners is seeking £50m to fund an international expansion drive that will take it to the US and the Far East. The Engine Group has appointed advisers at Jefferies and the corporate finance arm of Ingenious Media to secure [...]
Nomura beefs up equities team July 19, 2009 Nomura Holdings’ US brokerage unit has hired Ciaran O’Kelly from Bank of America as a managing director and head of equities in the Americas. The hiring by Nomura Securities International is part of an aggressive push by its Japan-based parent to expand in North America, following its purchase last year of Lehman Brothers’ Asian, European [...]
Iceland to restructure banks July 19, 2009 The Icelandic government will today announce a €1.5bn (£1.3bn) recapitalisation of its collapsed banking sector, and announce a deal which will see control of two of the country’s new banks pass to foreign creditors. The government plans to issue bonds worth 270bn Icelandic kronur (£1.3bn) to the three new banks set up in the wake [...]
Barclays star Jenkins to quit the bank to set up his own business July 19, 2009 TOP Barclays dealmaker Roger Jenkins is understood to be leaving the bank to set up an advisory business targeting sovereign wealth funds. Jenkins, thought to earn around £40m a year, was instrumental in securing the £5.8bn investment from Middle Eastern state-backed investors that helped the bank steer clear of government control. The news comes as [...]
CIT cuts $3bn salvation deal July 19, 2009 US lending giant CIT Group last night cut an eleventh-hour deal with its key bondholders for $3bn(£1.8bn) in financing that will save the 101-year-old from the jaws of bankruptcy. CIT, which suffered a liquidity crunch and is straining under its multi-billion dollar debt load, now aims to restructure outside of court. The firm, which lends [...]