US budget plan aims for cross-party support December 10, 2013 US POLITICIANS from both the country’s major political parties announced a suggested budget deal yesterday, with the aim of avoiding another government shutdown. Congressman Paul Ryan and senator Patty Murray announced the agreement in Washington yesterday, revealing an $85bn (£51.56bn) plan, including a $63bn reduction in automatic spending cuts. The rest of the package is intended to [...]
Q and A: What’s the Volcker rule about? December 10, 2013 Q What does the rule stop banks from doing ? A The strictures put a number of limits on short-term proprietary trading of securities, but these will not apply in cases where the bank is underwriting. Short-term trading for a bank’s own account will still be an option if they can prove they are hedging [...]
RBS finance chief Bostock resigns after just 10 weeks on bank board December 10, 2013 THE FINANCE director of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is on his way out of the bank, barely two months after starting in the job. Nathan Bostock, who moved to RBS at the beginning of October, is set to quit his role and head to Santander. The RBS board confirmed last night that they [...]
Barclays to end its sponsorship of Boris Bikes December 10, 2013 BARCLAYS will not renew its sponsorship of the London bicycle hire scheme when it ends in 2015, it confirmed last night. The bank signed a deal worth £50m to sponsor the bikes, named colloquially after London mayor Boris Johnson, in 2010. But in a joint statement with Transport for London, Barclays said it will not [...]
Red faces at the fraud squad as anti-corruption case collapses December 10, 2013 THE SERIOUS Fraud Office (SFO) suffered a major embarrassment yesterday when it was forced to drop an anti-corruption case after one witness changed his evidence and two others refused to attend trial in the UK. The SFO had earlier gone to court against Victor Dahdaleh, an international businessman and donor to the Labour Party, accusing [...]
UK momentum to continue into fourth quarter December 10, 2013 THE BRITISH economy is still growing at the robust pace set during the third quarter of the year, as official statistics record another boost to industrial production. A forecast released by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (Niesr) suggests that the British economy grew by 0.8 per cent in the three months to [...]
Stricter rules on partnerships will hit firm’s junior members December 10, 2013 MINISTERS yesterday laid out stricter rules to regulate company partnerships, which critics say will hit junior partners the most. The rules, introduced yesterday as part of the finance bill, will introduce stricter tests on who can be deemed a partner in a company to stop firms labelling employees as partners to cut down on income [...]
Draghi attacks Bank of England style plans for narrow policies December 10, 2013 MARIO Draghi revealed he disagrees with Mark Carney’s plan to tackle bubbles yesterday, laying out an alternative set of guidelines for central banking. Bank of England governor Carney has praised the range of tools he has been given to intervene in specific markets if he sees risks to financial stability and the wider economy. Carney [...]
Brand Index: Squeezed middle still unconvinced by economic upturn December 10, 2013 THE CHANCELLOR’S Autumn Statement, made last Thursday, was hailed in many quarters as a good day for George Osborne and for the government. But when we conducted an online focus group of people from the so-called “squeezed middle”, we found they are not yet feeling the benefits of growth. The picture they painted of their [...]
Government in U-turn on MoD outsource plan December 10, 2013 THE MINISTRY of Defence yesterday confirmed that it is shelving a scheme to privatise its equipment procurement arm, after it failed to attract enough interest. The MoD had spent £7.4m so far on plans to replace its inefficient procurement arm with a GoCo scheme, creating a government-owned, contractor-operated body, which it said would create better [...]