Treasury will back benefit pay revolution September 30, 2010 THE GOVERNMENT has reached a truce over the welfare system, which will see most benefits scrapped and replaced with a single payment, the Times reports this morning. The work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has persuaded the Treasury that the overhaul would be affordable, the report claimed. Duncan Smith and the Treasury have spent [...]
Cameron ready to announce his panel of business advisers today September 30, 2010 TWO MORE business figureheads were named as part of David Cameron’s panel of business advisors, Sky News reported yesterday. Indian businessman Ratan Tata and Sony president and chief executive Sir Howard Stringer are set to join a raft of hand-picked industry heads in the government’s business interest group. Also in the frame are Centrica chief [...]
G20 to consider tougher capital rules for banks September 30, 2010 FINANCE ministers in the G20 are considering a tough capital regime for the world’s biggest banks that will go beyond Basel III rules, CNBC said last night. The US, however, disagrees with the proposals to add two to three per cent to the Basel capital rules, the report claimed. A senior official told the broadcaster [...]
BP expects to pay dividend by next year September 30, 2010 BP’s new chief executive Bob Dudley moved to further restore the beleaguered oil giant’s image yesterday after he said BP may resume paying a dividend to shareholders in the new year. Dudley, who takes over the top job from Tony Hayward today, said that BP’s board will meet in the coming months to discuss restoring [...]
US ban on deepwater oil drilling will stay in force September 30, 2010 THE US ban on deepwater drilling looks set to stay in place for now, as both a government head and a judge yesterday talked down the possibility of an early end to the rules put in place after the BP oil spill. Judge Martin Feldman said yesterday he would move quickly on oil firms’ challenge [...]
China hits out at America’s yuan tariff legislation September 30, 2010 CHINA remained defiant in the face of America’s move to treat its currency value as an illegal trade subsidy yesterday, and suggested the law could breach World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. A representative for the Chinese government said in a regular press briefing that the passage of the US Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act [...]
Moody’s removes Spain’s AAA rating September 30, 2010 RATINGS agency Moody’s cut Spain’s credit to Aa1 from AAA yesterday, removing the last of its highly-valued triple-A ratings but saying it did not expect to cut again soon thanks to efforts at fiscal reform. The one notch downgrade was widely discounted by the markets, following cuts by Standard and Poor’s in April and by [...]
Business leaders say public sector cuts are the way to reduce deficits September 30, 2010 THE Conservative party conference starts on Sunday and George Osborne may take some comfort from a new KPMG report that supports the case for austerity, though he may find it too radical in other ways. Meeting the Deficit Challenge is a comprehensive analysis of the historical evidence on deficit reduction. It concludes that decisive, front-loaded [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF A COUNTRY SUCH AS IRELAND OR SPAIN DEFAULTING? September 30, 2010 MARK GROVES | EIB “Not directly in terms of my work however a major country defaulting would affect everyone through the direct country risk and the risk from the exposure our clients have. The knock-on effects on the financial services industry as a whole would most certainly be a cause for concern.” YASMINE MOEZINIA | [...]
CBI criticises migrant cap September 30, 2010 EMPLOYERS’ group the CBI has thrown its weight behind Vince Cable, the business secretary, by warning that government plans to cap non-EU immigration could hamper the economic recovery. The government is consulting on plans to introduce a permanent cap next spring, and has put a temporary limit in place until then. Home secretary Theresa May [...]
