UK “bad bank” pays back £2.1bn to taxpayer March 2, 2012 Britain’s sixth biggest mortgage provider, the “bad bank” running down the loans of collapsed UK lender Northern Rock, said it repaid £2.1bn to the government last year after its annual profits more than doubled. UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), which is running down the bad loans that were held by Northern Rock and other failed lender [...]
Credit default insurers will not pay out over Greece March 1, 2012 GREECE has not defaulted on its debts after all because the government has negotiated a “voluntary” haircut with investors, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) controversially ruled yesterday. As a result, €3bn (£2.5bn) in insurance contracts taken out against the risk of Greece defaulting will not be paid out, even though bondholders face heavy [...]
Lloyds signs finance chief but job will be left vacant for two months March 1, 2012 LLOYDS Banking Group has clinched new chief financial officer George Culmer, after months of wrangling over his start date and pay package. But the part-nationalised bank will be left without a finance chief for the next two months because Culmer, who stepped down from insurer RSA in November, will not join until the Lloyds shareholder [...]
GM asked to save UK jobs March 1, 2012 VINCE Cable has flown to New York to meet with the leaders of General Motors (GM) and asked them to commit to UK manufacturing. The business secretary met with GM’s chief executive Dan Akerson and corporate strategy vice chairman Stephen Girsky to make the case for continued investment in its British factories. Reports suggest the American firm [...]
All tax rates are too high in Britain March 1, 2012 IT was good to see yet more entrepreneurs and small business owners joining in the campaign to scrap the 50p tax rate yesterday. But supporters of the tax were also out in force yesterday; they deployed three main arguments. The first is that “bankers” (in modern parlance, anybody who works in finance, including fund managers, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 1, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES STAFF AT JOHN LEWIS BRACED FOR BONUS CUT The John Lewis Partnership is next week expected to announce the first cut in its staff bonus for three years as high street turmoil takes its toll on the employee-owned retailer. Analysts who track the group’s weekly sales figures forecast a pay-out of 12-14 per [...]
Oil price hits $128 high March 1, 2012 OIL hit a four-year high yesterday after an Iranian state-run news channel reported an explosion on a pipeline in Saudi Arabia. Brent crude prices hit $128 a barrel in late post-settlement trade, a level not reached since July 2008. A Saudi official later denied the Press TV broadcast, saying no oil facilities had been sabotaged. Iran, [...]
Peugeot debt cut to junk status March 1, 2012 Peugeot Citroen’s debt was cut to junk status by credit ratings agency Moody’s yesterday, after the French automaker announced a €1bn (£627m) share issue and an alliance with US peer General Motors. Moody’s Investors Service lowered Peugeot’s rating by one notch to Ba1, the highest so-called “speculative” grade with a negative outlook. The cost of [...]
Police raids over insider trading March 1, 2012 Police in several European countries have raided more than 80 properties in a probe by German prosecutors into stock market manipulation, the Munich prosecutors office said yesterday. The office’s spokesman said the raids Wednesday were into suspected cases of market manipulation, insider trading and fraud. Fifty-three sites in Germany were searched, 29 in other European [...]
Greece faces new wait for bailout funds March 1, 2012 GREECE was last night pushed perilously close to its default deadline after Eurozone members demanded additional assurances that Athens would implement austerity measures agreed at the end of last month. Eurozone members at yesterday’s meeting in Brussels decided to hold back half the €130bn bailout sum, €71.5bn, until 38 specific “prior actions” are implemented. The [...]
