RBS warns of tough bond markets July 21, 2011 The second-quarter earnings of Royal Bank of Scotland’s global banking and markets business will reflect the weakness in fixed-income markets due to debt woes in the euro zone, an executive said, warning bond markets will remain tough in the third quarter. The comments come a few days before RBS, 83 per cent owned by the [...]
France and Germany make deal on Greek bailout July 21, 2011 Germany and France have reached a common position on a second bailout of Greece in their effort to prevent the country’s debt crisis from spreading through Europe, officials said on Thursday. The accord came after seven hours of talks late into Wednesday night between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin, [...]
Economists cut their forecasts July 20, 2011 ECONOMISTS have slashed expectations for this year’s UK growth by half a per cent in recent months, as worries mount over sovereign debt crises on both sides of the pond. Forecasters now see the British economy expanding by just 1.3 per cent in 2011 – down from 1.8 per cent as recently as March, a [...]
More bonus curbs could be on way July 20, 2011 BRITISH firms could be subject to an even more restrictive bonus regime under the terms of a new EU directive published yesterday. The Capital Requirements Directive 4 (CRD IV), which is the EU’s version of Basel III, suggests that financial institutions could have to endure yet more interference in their remuneration practices following a tome [...]
Profits jump at BlackRock July 20, 2011 BLACKROCK, the world’s largest money manager by assets, busted expectations with a 43 per cent jump in quarterly profit yesterday, thanks to its rapidly growing list of fund styles and asset classes. The New York-based company has long been known as a fixed-income institutional manager, but chief executive Laurence Fink has pressed into new areas [...]
Public spending still over half of GDP July 20, 2011 ED Miliband should be happy: Britain officially remains a state-dominated economy. For all the talk of “swingeing” cuts, public spending is set to remain at 50.1 per cent of GDP in 2011, according to the latest OECD predictions. This is an astonishing figure: more than half the economy, which by one definition means that the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 20, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BLACKSTONE STRIKES €700M DEAL TO BUY GERMANY’S JACK WOLFSKIN Blackstone has agreed to take over outdoor clothing company Jack Wolfskin in a €700m ($995m) deal that underlined the rapid transformation of the sector from local businesses to international brands. The US buy-out group will announce on Thursday that it will acquire the German [...]
AmEx sees spending rise July 20, 2011 AMERICAN Express said second quarter earnings rose yesterday, as customers spent more on their cards and the firm trims its riskier businesses. Average spending on the company’s cards rose 15 per cent to $3,767 and the number of outstanding American Express cards rose six per cent to 94m. The firm’s quarterly earnings rose to $1.32bn, [...]
Wells Fargo to pay $85m fine July 20, 2011 Wells Fargo & Co, the largest mortgage lender in the US, has agreed to pay a $85m (£52.6m) civil penalty to the Federal Reserve Board and will compensate borrowers who were allegedly steered into more costly subprime loans with higher interest rates during the housing boom. The fine is the largest ever imposed by the [...]
Allen & Overy launches in Africa July 20, 2011 Allen & Overy (A&O) is set to become the first of the”magic circle” law firms to establish its presence on the African continent with the launch an office in Morocco. News of the move comes just months after it emerged that rival law firm Clifford Chance was in the early stages of planning a launch [...]