Mark Austin interview: The City needs a culture change – we have to celebrate success March 30, 2023 The City of London is at an “inflection point” reckons the man who wrote last year’s capital raising review – but a year on, with Arm gone and others plotting New York floats, there remains much to do You’d be forgiven for thinking the Square Mile is in rather dire straits at the moment. Firms [...]
FTSE 100 close: Ocado delivers bumper gains while Next zips lower March 29, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 was hoisted higher by the UK’s largest retailers surging today, except high street bellwether Next, which stumbled badly. The capital’s premier index bumped more than one per cent to 7,564.28 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, surged 1.28 per [...]
Bank of England backs ‘substantial’ LDI cash buffer boost to prevent repeat of mini budget chaos March 29, 2023 Pension funds that borrow hundreds of billions of pounds to maximise returns for clients need to keep more money aside to withstand a repeat of the financial market aftershocks which followed Liz Truss’s mini-budget, the Bank of England has recommended. Liability driven investment (LDI) funds that are used by retirement funds to boost returns for [...]
FTX: Bankman-Fried charged with paying $40m Chinese bribe March 29, 2023 U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled a new indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried, accusing the founder of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange of paying a $40 million bribe to Chinese officials so they would unfreeze his hedge fund's accounts.
In defence of capitalism: Does money corrupt politics? March 29, 2023 In the fifth of an eight-part series, Dr Rainer Zitelmann – the author of the new book In Defence of Capitalism – argues that free markets, capitalism and money make for fairer elections and freer democracies, not the other way round The American intellectual Noam Chomsky, one of the most popular critics of capitalism, writes [...]
FTSE 100 close: Barclays charge runs out of steam as Deutsche Bank swings to losses March 28, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 was pulled higher by banks clawing back losses yet again today, with Barclays and Standard Chartered initially leading the charge before running out of steam heading into the close. The capital’s premier index jumped 0.17 per cent to 7,484.26 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with [...]
Why the Bank of England and Fed could welcome Credit Suisse and Silicon Valley Bank failures March 28, 2023 There’s been reams and reams of wild predictions about whether we’re slipping into another financial crisis, triggered by the collapse of US tech lender Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Credit Suisse’s arranged marriage with its crosstown rival UBS. Blackrock chief Larry Fink even warned in his annual letter to shareholders we’re slipping into a slow [...]
Andrew Bailey: Our banks are sound – we’ll keep hiking if inflation persists March 27, 2023 The Bank of England will be forced to jack up interest rates again if incoming data shows inflation is not falling fast enough in response to the central bank’s eleven straight rate rises, Governor Andrew Bailey said today. Further pain will be needed to be borne by families and businesses if price pressures keep pinning [...]
Jeremy Hunt’s Parent Trap: Why young City parents are better off earning £99k than £135k March 27, 2023 Some 55,000 parents will miss out on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s expanded package of childcare support due to earning more than £100,000, new research out today shows. Number crunchers at the research firm the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) reckon 71 per cent more working parents over the next five years will be incentivised [...]
FTSE 100 close: Deutsche Bank surges while Barclays and HSBC yank London index higher March 27, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 kicked off the week in upbeat style, yanked higher by UK banking giants Barclays and Lloyds racking up gains. The capital’s premier index jumped 0.9 per cent to 7,471.78 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, climbed 0.19 per cent [...]