Mortgage time-bomb UK’s top threat March 7, 2012 SOME time-bombs can be defused. Not this one. At some point – in a year, in two, or perhaps even in five – the cost of borrowing for consumers will climb back to the sorts of levels we were used to 15 years ago. Complacent borrowers addicted to rock-bottom interest rates – and for whom [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 7, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES CURRENCY TRADING VOLUMES DROP Volumes in the world’s multi-trillion dollar foreign exchange market have dropped to six-year lows as nervous investors have shied away from trading the euro and central banks have continued to maintain a tight grip on the value of their currencies. SOCGEN TO FACE REGULATOR PROBE Société Générale is to [...]
QE knocks pension funds March 7, 2012 QUANTITATIVE easing (QE) has pushed down bond yields, hitting pension funds and pushing final salary schemes deeper into the red, two new studies have shown. Deficits at FTSE350 firms rose £9bn in February to £92bn, according to data published yesterday by Mercer, as falling yields offset the positive impact of rising equity prices. The National [...]
BG considers $2bn gas sale March 7, 2012 British gas producer BG Group is offering up to a 20 per cent stake in its Queensland natural gas liquefaction facilities as it seeks to expand the $15bn project. BG will undertake a global roadshow to attract bidders for the 15-20 per cent stake, which could be valued at around $2bn based on past transactions. [...]
More banks join Facebook’s IPO March 7, 2012 Facebook added 25 banks to help underwrite the company’s initial public offering (IPO), meaning most of Wall Street will have a role in the share sale, according to an amended IPO filing last night. The new banks, including Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, increase the number of underwriters on the deal to 31, the [...]
Cameron: I’ll fight to keep Pru in UK March 7, 2012 DAVID Cameron has claimed he is “working extremely hard” to mitigate the impact of new European rules for insurers that could force the Prudential to quit London for Hong Kong. The Prime Minister said the so-called “Solvency II” rules were a “good example of ill thought-out EU legislation endangering a great British business that should [...]
Lawyers: Removing pension tax relief will hit savers twice March 7, 2012 LAWYERS and pension funds yesterday hit out at proposals to remove tax relief from high-earners’ pension contributions, arguing it would be unfair and overly complicated. Removing the relief on employee contributions for those earning over £150,000 a year could be a tempting move for the government, raising around £8bn per year for the Treasury. However, [...]
Deutsche plans reshuffle in investment banking March 7, 2012 DEUTSCHE Bank is shaking up its top management to give investment banking and emerging markets more prominence, and will oust risk officer Hugo Baenziger, two sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. It will elevate US banker William Broeksmit, currently head of risk at the corporate and investment bank, to its seven-member management board as [...]
US Federal Reserve is considering new methods of quantitative easing March 7, 2012 US FEDERAL Reserve officials are considering a new approach to bond buying that aims to avoid fuelling inflation. The Fed is considering new ways to buy bonds in order to boost growth. One possibility is that it could borrow back the money it used to buy those bonds for short periods of time at low [...]
Asian defence spending booms March 7, 2012 Asian military spending will top that of Europe in 2012 for the first time in centuries, a global defence survey said yesterday, pointing to high regional economic growth and an increasingly ambitious China. The International Institute for Strategic Studies said US military spending was also falling with withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan – although Washington’s [...]
