Regulators say they want competition but actions speak louder than words March 22, 2012 WHAT does the FSA want? Like all of us, the regulator wants to have it all: a high street banking sector that is both competitive and ultra-safe. But when push comes to shove, it is clear where the watchdog’s priorities lie. Its commitment to competition has been sorely tested by Lloyds’ branch sale. First there was [...]
Unemployment claims in the US at four year low March 22, 2012 THE NUMBER of Americans claiming new unemployment benefits dropped to a four-year low last week, offering further evidence that the jobs market recovery was gaining traction. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000, the lowest level since February 2008. And a separate report showed a gauge of future US economic [...]
Day of change at UBS and Bank of America March 22, 2012 YESTERDAY was a day of musical chairs at two of the City’s top investment banks as both UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) made significant management changes. UBS, the bank still reeling from the after-effects of the rogue trader scandal, indicated its intention to remain a major force in investment banking by hiring [...]
CHANGING OF THE GUARD AT BANK OF AMERICA MERRILL LYNCH March 22, 2012 ANDREA ORCEL Andrea Orcel’s departure will leave a big gap at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In a world where contacts and relationships matter so much, the suave late 40s banker had it all. His contacts include Santander, Danske Bank, Unicredit (where he helped BoAML take a lead role in the rights issue earlier this [...]
What did you make of chancellor George Osborne’s latest Budget? March 22, 2012 This week we are asking members of our Voice of the City panel, run in conjunction with PoliticsHome, what they thought of the Budget. Was it a good idea to raise the level of tax free allowance? And was Osborne right to bring the top rate down to 45p from next year? Are you one [...]
Five million to pay 40p tax rate in 2014 March 22, 2012 ONE-IN-SEVEN workers will pay the higher rate of income tax by 2014 thanks to George Osborne’s changes to the tax brackets, according to estimates from a leading think-tank. Five million people will be in the 40p tax bracket in 2013-14 – a rise of 1.3m from 3.7m in 2011, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) [...]
Glaxo reveals new factory but asks for more breaks March 22, 2012 GLAXOSMITHKLINE yesterday unveiled plans to invest more than £500m in its UK sites, including a new factory, in light of tax breaks revealed in the Budget. And the firm said it would double its investment at the new biopharmaceutical plant in Ulverston – but only if the government “improv[es] the environment for innovation”. Speaking just a [...]
Big families hit hardest by child benefit reforms March 22, 2012 CHANGES to the way child benefit is paid means that larger families will suffer a faster fall in income than those with just one child. Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said George’s Osborne’s decision to remove child benefit “gradually” from families where one parent earned more than £50,000, meant those with more [...]
Pensioners in protest over Budget cuts March 22, 2012 GEORGE Osborne was forced to defend his “granny tax” Budget yesterday after pensioners’ groups attacked his “outrageous assault” on older people. The chancellor (pictured) said pensioners would be “better off” despite his shock decision to phase out their age-related allowances, first introduced by Winston Churchill in 1925. Saga boss Ros Altmann criticised the move, at a [...]
Storage tax to backfire March 22, 2012 BIG Yellow Group’s stock plunged four per cent on the Budget’s surprise announcement that self-storage units could from October no longer be exempt from value added tax. In the name of correcting VAT anomalies and closing loopholes, Osborne outlined that self-storage will be taxed as other forms of storage and no longer be classed as [...]