US regulators sue RBS over mortgage securities July 19, 2011 Royal Bank of Scotland is facing a second lawsuit from US credit union regulators accusing it of misrepresenting mortgage backed securities that it sold. The latest lawsuit filed by the National Credit Union Administration against RBS Securities Inc seeks over $629m (£391m) in damages, NCUA said in a statement on Monday. The allegations stem from [...]
Cisco to chop 15 per cent of workforce July 19, 2011 Cisco Systems plans to cut 15 per cent of its staff and sell a set-top box factory as part of a plan to cut annual expenses by $1bn (£622m) as the network equipment maker tries to revive its fortunes. The company said on Monday that it will cut 11,500 jobs, compared with the several thousand [...]
DEBT CRISIS ESCALATES July 18, 2011 ITALY suspended trading in government and corporate bonds yesterday as the release of the EU’s stress tests plunged the region deeper into a crisis that some analysts are comparing to the fall of Lehman Brothers. The panic saw billions wiped off the value of Europe’s banks and interest rates on Italian ten-year debt climb above [...]
Murdoch’s Sky role in the balance July 18, 2011 James Murdoch’s role as chairman of BSkyB could hinge on his performance at the crunch media select committee hearing this afternoon. The heir apparent to the Murdoch empire has come under increasing pressure to relinquish the Sky chairmanship following News Corp’s handling of the phone hacking scandal. Sources close to the Sky board have told [...]
Markets see fiscal union as the solution July 18, 2011 EUROZONE negotiations showed no sign of a breakthrough yesterday in the run-up to Thursday’s crunch talks on a new Greek bailout, with markets increasingly convinced that only a full fiscal union with region-wide euro-bonds will stop the crisis spreading. Politicians, led by Germany, have been in deadlock with the European Central Bank (ECB) for weeks [...]
European idiocy at heart of crisis July 18, 2011 Once again, regulators have failed spectacularly. Gold hit £1,000 an ounce today for the first time, as equities fell, Club Med government bond yields jumped, spreads increased and the fear and loathing in the credit markets intensified – and all of that in response to the EU’s banking stress tests on Friday night, which were [...]
Bankia forced to offer investors cut-price float July 18, 2011 BANKIA, the Spanish caja group, was forced to cut its float price drastically yesterday as Eurozone turmoil threatened to derail a deal seen as vital to keeping Spain’s banks out of full nationalisation. A source close to the situation reported that those on the deal were considering shrinking its size by €100m last night, after [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 18, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES VIRGIN GROUP NAMES NEW CO-CEOS Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has announced a management reshuffle. Stephen Murphy, chief executive since 2004, will step down at the end of the year to take an advisory position in the group. He will be replaced by co-chief executives: David Baxby, head of Virgin Asia-Pacific and the aviation [...]
Lloyds shake-up as Bostock joins July 18, 2011 THE Royal Bank of Scotland’s restructuring chief, Nathan Bostock is quitting the firm to join its rival, Lloyds Banking Group, as the new head of wholesale banking. Bostock, will replace Truett Tate, the current head of wholesale banking, in early 2012. Truett is set to move to another role as a vice-chairman at Lloyds and [...]
Stress tests denounced by analysts as backward-looking and inconsistent July 18, 2011 THE EU’s second round of stress tests precipitated a sharp fall in European bank shares yesterday after being slammed as “frustrating” and full of “widespread anomalies”. Analysts were scathing about the European Banking Authority’s (EBA) first ever tests, keeping price recommendations unchanged and saying that the exercise was effectively useless as a tool for distinguishing [...]