COMEBACK KID December 14, 2011 THE EXHAUSTED boss of Lloyds Banking Group is to jump back in the saddle of the beleaguered lender after doctors said he made a “full recovery”, chairman Sir Win Bischoff has announced. The bank also said that it has entered exclusive talks with the Co-operative Group over the sale of 632 branches, leaving rival bidder [...]
A wake-up call for board of Lloyds December 14, 2011 SIR Win Bischoff nailed his colours to the mast yesterday: if António Horta-Osório has to beg off sick again due to exhaustion, he, Sir Win, will “consider his position”. An impressive gambit, perhaps – except that Sir Win is already on his way out. He’s likely to retire in the next year. And little was [...]
Eurozone back in the eye of the storm December 14, 2011 YOU can’t fool all the people all of the time. Unfortunately, you can generally con quite a few of them temporarily, but it doesn’t usually last very long. The most recent EU summit was a case in point. With all such meetings, investors temporarily accept politicians’ claims to have triumphed at face value, as long as [...]
Gold plummets over $100 with US dollar rising December 14, 2011 GOLD plummeted to its lowest level in over two months yesterday, with many investors liquidating their positions to raise cash. Spot gold dropped as low as $1,566 during the day, before paring losses slightly to trade around $1,575 – still down three per cent (over $100). “The gold price is denominated in US dollars hence [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 14, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BANKS FACE €350BN BASEL III SHORTFALL European banks will have to raise nearly €200bn ($260bn) in new capital or cut their balance sheets by nearly 20 per cent, to achieve the tougher new Basel III banking reform rules that start taking effect in 2013, a new study has found. The study by the [...]
Chaos as fear over break-up of euro grows December 14, 2011 STOCKS tumbled on renewed fears that Eurozone leaders would not be able to resolve the crisis soon, as Italy was forced to pay record interest rates to borrow and industrial output data pointed to the heightened risk of renewed European recession. In the UK, the Financial Services Authority is in talks with banks over plans [...]
Credit Agricole plunges after €2.5bn write-down December 14, 2011 CREDIT Agricole yesterday wrote off more than €2.5bn (£2.1bn) of assets and said it is cutting 2,350 jobs globally as it warned it would sink to a loss. France’s third-largest listed bank also said it would close its equity derivatives and commodities businesses and leave 21 of the 55 nations in which it operates to [...]
Safe haven UK sees gilt yields at record lows December 14, 2011 UK BORROWING costs fell to record lows yesterday as investors scrambled to British government debt as a safe haven. Yields fell to 2.21 per cent on £3bn of gilts maturing in 2022. Bonds on the secondary markets continued to attract buyers, pushing yields down to a low of 2.081. As a result investors took the [...]
Men hit hard by drops in employment December 14, 2011 UNEMPLOYMENT hit its highest level since 1994 in the three months to October, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed yesterday, with men faring worse than women. Employment fell by 63,000, or 0.2 per cent, compared with the previous three months, taking the total to 29.1m. Unemployment rose 128,000 to 2.64m, or 8.3 per cent, [...]
Barclays mulls pay clawback December 14, 2011 BARCLAYS is considering clawing back part of its executives’ bonuses over the bank’s £1bn mis-selling of insurance, chief executive Bob Diamond was forced to admit yesterday. After a testy exchange with Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the influential Treasury select committee of MPs, Diamond eventually conceded: “We are taking into account in our businesses that impact [...]