THE LONDON REPORT August 5, 2009 The FTSE 100 closed down 0.5 per cent yesterday, after weaker than expected economic data in the US dragged equities lower, with oil producers and miners leading the losers. The index ended 24.24 points lower at 4,647.13, shy of Monday’s close when it hit its best closing level since the collapse of Lehman Brothers late [...]
Rock suffers on bad debts August 4, 2009 NATIONALISED mortgage lender Northern Rock posted a £724.2m first-half loss yesterday, as the number of bad debts trebled. The bank, taken into public ownership in February last year, wrote down £602.2m in bad loans, up 214 per cent on the £191.6m in writedowns it took in the first half of 2008. The outlook for the [...]
Not all banks were given state handouts August 4, 2009 ANOTHER day; another row about banking profits, bonuses and the future of the City. The nationalised Northern Rock’s numbers were poor as expected – but for some reason, the pundits are more concerned with banks that are doing reasonably well. And not any institution: they couldn’t care less about Standard Chartered, a well-managed group which [...]
Bullish HSBC shrugs off rise in bad debts August 3, 2009 HSBC saw first-half profits cut in half in the first six months of the year, as impairments reached $13.9bn (£8.2bn), but signalled that the economic crisis was beginning to ease. Pre-tax profit fell to $5bn, a 51 per cent decline on the $10.25bn earned in the same period of last year, but a marked turnaround [...]
Bank hate is exaggerated and simplistic August 3, 2009 IF WE are to believe most commentators, it is an outrage that Barclays and HSBC were able to report decent profits yesterday. The main reason, apparently, is that there are “fears” that lending remains too tight, and that the dreaded “bonus culture” will return. Needless to say, had the banks reported a collapse in earnings, [...]
Strength of Abbey helps Santander to a half-year profit July 29, 2009 SPANISH bank Santander is reaping the benefits from its acquisitions, as the first half attributable profit at its UK operations rose nearly 63 per cent to £790m, from £485m last year. Santander-owned Abbey, including recent purchases Alliance & Leicester and the savings book of Bradford & Bingley, saw a 20 per cent rise in revenues [...]
Bank of America is shrinking July 28, 2009 BANK of America plans to shrink its 6,109-branch United States network after years of expansion. America’s largest bank has denied claims it will shed 10 per cent of its branches – a move that would cost thousands of jobs – but admits there will have to be cuts because more of its customers are using [...]
Rock investors to fight on despite courtroom defeat July 28, 2009 FORMER shareholders in Northern Rock have vowed to continue their fight to be awarded compensation from the government for the loss of their holdings, after losing a legal battle yesterday. The group of 200,000 small investors, backed by major hedge fund investors SRM Global and RAB Capital, had launched an appeal disputing the High Court’s [...]
Hypocrisy at the heart of banking policy July 27, 2009 PATHETIC. That is the only way to describe Alistair Darling’s ridiculous, stage-managed, utterly fake “row” with Britain’s top banks yesterday. It is the mark of a desperate, dying government that it feels obliged to resort to such a ridiculous piece of make-believe, rather than engaging in proper policy-making. To demand of the banks that they [...]
Record profit can’t ease Wells Fargo bad loan fear July 22, 2009 WELLS Fargo, the largest mortgage lender in the US, reported record second-quarter net income yesterday but gave a bleak assessment of its rising bad loans problem. Net income for the three months to the end of June rocketed 81 per cent to a record quarterly profit of $2.58bn (£1.57bn), or $0.57 a share, compared to [...]