Plus Markets investors angry over new bid June 14, 2012 INVESTORS in beleaguered exchange operator Plus Markets yesterday said that a revised offer for part of the firm was a “token gesture” that will not stop their rebellion, as new allegations surfaced that the board repeatedly refused offers of funding. Kuwaiti firm Amari Dhari, which owns 17 per cent of Plus, yesterday claimed it had offered [...]
Stanford sentenced to over a century for fraud June 14, 2012 TEXAN tycoon Allen Stanford, famed for bankrolling international cricket competitions in the Caribbean and the UK, was yesterday sentenced to 110 years in prison for running a $7bn (£4.5bn) Ponzi scheme. The sentence came after 62-year old Stanford, convicted in March of 13 charges including fraud and conspiracy, denied defrauding anyone. He insisted his firm [...]
Mansion House event attracts City’s finest June 14, 2012 THE CITY’S finest braved the rain last night to hear chancellor George Osborne outline his dramatic plans to try and prevent the Eurozone crisis causing a second credit crunch. In his annual Mansion House speech to the City, the chancellor said he was no longer prepared to “stand on the sidelines.” And Bank of England [...]
JP Morgan says Eurozone fiscal rules set to fail June 14, 2012 THE EUROZONE’S much vaunted plan to impose strict fiscal rules on its member states is “almost dead on arrival,” according to analysts at investment bank JP Morgan. The so-called fiscal compact will prove too little, too late, and will fail to achieve its goals, the bank argued yesterday. “Given where deficits and debt currently are, and [...]
Brussels could ease terms of Greek bailout June 14, 2012 THE EUROZONE will not tear up the main targets of Greece’s bailout no matter who wins Sunday’s elections, but it might consider giving a new government in Athens some leeway on how it reaches them, officials in Brussels have said. Even that offer would depend on a government being in place that was prepared to stick [...]
Under pressure Italy sees costs spike to 5.3pc at bond auction June 14, 2012 ITALY’s three-year borrowing costs spiked to 5.3 per cent at an auction yesterday, underlining the mounting pressures on the Eurozone’s third-largest economy after a Spanish aid deal failed to convince investors the bloc’s crisis can be contained. With its economic reforms stalling and market speculation rising that it too may eventually need a bailout, Italy [...]
Rajoy convenes panic meeting as yields hit 7pc June 14, 2012 SPANISH Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was yesterday forced to call an emergency meeting with cabinet colleagues as the government’s borrowing costs touched the dreaded seven per cent mark, a new euro-era high. Rajoy convened with his senior economic and finance ministers in a bid to thrash out ways of tackling the country’s escalating debt crisis. [...]
Spanish banks’ borrowing from ECB jumps to record of €325bn June 14, 2012 SPANISH banks’ gross borrowing from the European Central Bank (ECB) soared to a record high of €324.6bn (£263bn) last month, up from €316.9bn in April, according to data that Spain’s central bank released yesterday. The struggling Eurozone country’s lenders increasingly have to tap the ECB’s funds as they are frozen out of the interbank funding [...]
Egan-Jones downgrades France June 14, 2012 Ratings agency Egan-Jones cut France’s sovereign credit rating to BBB-plus with a negative outlook last night, citing expectations that the country’s funding costs will see more pressure as the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis continues to roil markets. “The deterioration in France’s credit metrics combined with the needed [support] for France’s banks are likely to pressure [...]
Protests as Monti meets Hollande June 14, 2012 Italians protesting against the government’s austerity policies clashed with police outside the lower house of parliament yesterday as Prime Minister Mario Monti met French President Francois Hollande next door. The main crowd – a few hundred-strong – waved labour union flags and kicked footballs at the riot police.
