Inside Track: More than one elephant in the Royal Mail sorting room September 25, 2013 IT’S NOT hard to identify the biggest of the elephantine threats to Royal Mail’s imminent stock market listing, which heralds the most contentious privatisation since the 1980s. With unions poised to ballot members over the prospect of industrial action within weeks, the prospect of a multi-day walkout at the precise time that the company’s shares [...]
British retail sales climb to a 15-month high September 25, 2013 THE BRITISH retail sector’s recovery strengthened at the start of this month, with a leading industry survey pointing to the fastest sales growth since June last year. Nearly half – 46 per cent – of shops surveyed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said that sales were higher than at the same point last [...]
A dozen mid-sized lenders failing on PPI redress claims September 25, 2013 MID-SIZED finance firms are making mistakes most of the time when they reject PPI compensation claims, according to a watchdog review published yesterday. One firm’s processes are so bad the City regulator has referred it to its enforcement division, which could see it punished. The Financial Conduct Authority reviewed 18 medium-sized firms like banks and [...]
Gap between male and female employment continues to fall September 25, 2013 THE past four decades have seen a dramatic rise in the number of women in work and a fall in the percentage of men. Data released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that between April and June 2013 around 67 per cent of women aged 16 to 64 were in work, compared [...]
Gilts could link to consumer price inflation September 25, 2013 DEBT management office (DMO) head Robert Stheeman said yesterday that the institution has not ruled out issuing bonds linked to consumer inflation, but is not planning to yet. Speaking at a financial conference in London, the chief executive of the DMO said that the organisation would not issue bonds linked to consumer price inflation (CPI) [...]
Deutsche Bank to slash assets further than rules say it must September 25, 2013 LENDING rules which are causing chaos among British banks are still not tough enough, Deutsche Bank boss Anshu Jain claimed yesterday. The chief executive said that the bank plans to go much further than EU regulations mandate on leverage – the ratio governing how much they can lend relative to their capital base. “The three per cent [...]
Biggest banks close capital hole by £83bn September 25, 2013 THE WORLD’S biggest banks took another giant leap towards hitting regulators’ capital targets, according to numbers out yesterday from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The international group of finance authorities said the 100 so-called Group 1 banks – the largest in the world – were €115bn (£97bn) short of the seven per cent capital target [...]
French 2014 budget: more tax on households but less on firms September 25, 2013 FRANCE sought to appease anger over tax hikes and EU concerns over its finances yesterday with a 2014 budget bill that focuses efforts largely on savings. But while businesses will face a smaller tax burden to help boost competitiveness, households will be hit by higher taxes to help cut the deficit, a move that will [...]
Italy consumers confident after two-year gap September 25, 2013 CONSUMER confidence in Italy has finally rebounded this month, responding to the Eurozone’s fragile recovery from an 18-month recession. According to official statistics released yesterday, Italian consumer confidence is in positive territory for the first time since August 2011, just after the European Central Bank’s last attempt to hike interest rates. The headline index for [...]
Mr Men exchange market wisdom September 25, 2013 CHINA’S online shopping giant Alibaba has dumped Hong Kong in favour of New York for its upcoming initial public offering, but it seems that the Hong Kong stock exchange’s boss is remaining philosophical about his market’s way of doing things. While we’re used to bulls and bears in the financial world, more unusual are Charles [...]