Shadow banking faces reform March 14, 2012 The shadow banking sector continues to pose risks to the UK’s financial stability, Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority warned yesterday, as he insisted a fresh approach to its regulation was necessary. Turner, speaking to the CASS Business school, said it was urgent that the shadow sector, such as money market funds aimed [...]
Top PR job at Goldman was never going to be a walk in the park March 14, 2012 RICHARD Siewert Jnr’s appointment as the new head of public relations at Goldman Sachs was only officially announced to staff on Tuesday. But by yesterday morning the former press secretary to President Bill Clinton was thrown into his first fully-fledged firestorm. In an unauthorised article for the New York Times, Greg Smith, a London-based employee [...]
Barclays execs are quids in after £30m share sale March 14, 2012 TOP staff at Barclays cashed in around £30m worth of shares this week, the bank said yesterday, just weeks after it revealed that chief executive Bob Diamond took home pay, shares and benefits totalling £17m last year. Diamond sold 29,168 shares worth nearly £70,000 as part of the firm’s long-term share award schemes. He also [...]
NAMA needs more property sales March 14, 2012 Ireland’s state-run National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) needs an additional €4bn (£3.3bn) of property sales by the end of 2013 to meet a target under the country’s EU-IMF bailout, said the agency’s chief executive yesterday. NAMA, one of the world’s largest property groups, has already approved sales of over €7bn out of its €74bn portfolio [...]
Coalition makes £200m IT savings March 14, 2012 The government has managed to cut £200m in costs from its IT outsourcing work by renegotiating its deal with Gapgemini, cabinet secretary Francis Maude said yesterday. He said the savings in the contract for work to 2017 showed how the government is “operat[ing] more like a good business”. A further £180m is expected to be [...]
L&G leads FTSE 100 after dividend rise March 14, 2012 LEGAL & General (L&G) posted the biggest rise on the FTSE 100 after the insurer said it would increase its 2011 dividend by more than a third to 6.4p. The board justified the bumper payout – which reverses a cut made during the 2008 financial crisis – on the basis that the company enjoyed “the combination of [...]
Alpha Bank ditches plan to merge with Greece’s Eurobank March 14, 2012 ALPHA Bank yesterday scrapped plans to tie up with rival Eurobank, in what would have been Greece’s largest bank merger in decades but instead became a casualty of the country’s bond restructuring. Alpha Bank had said in January it would put the merger, agreed in August, on hold until the terms of debt-crippled Greece’s bond [...]
Lifeline thrown at Game Group: OpCapita offers to buy its debt March 14, 2012 RESCUE could be on its way for Game Group as private investment firm OpCapita has offered to buy the struggling video games vendor’s debt. A source close to the proceedings told City A.M. that OpCapita has approached Game’s lenders – a group led by RBS – with an offer to buy the retailer’s debt and pay off [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: CAN LEGAL & GENERAL MAINTAIN ITS GROWTH? March 14, 2012 MARCUS BARNARD ORIEL The outlook statement is upbeat seeing further opportunities to grow in the core UK despite the considerable changes and challenges that lie ahead. New business strain was helped by better terms in the annuity market meaning net cash generation was £846m, up 11 per cent and four per cent ahead of expectations [...]
Cable’s plan for pay votes splits the City March 14, 2012 VINCE Cable’s plans to crack down on executive pay split opinion yesterday, with shareholder groups welcoming the proposals as business leaders warned that the plans risk “micro-managing”. The business secretary yesterday laid out plans to force firms to hold binding votes on its future remuneration and for “golden parachute” payments worth more than one year’s [...]
