S&P boosts Lloyds and RBS May 26, 2010 Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency, has upgraded its stance on government-backed Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland in a move that underlines the recovery at the two banks. S&P raised the ratings on the institutions one notch from BBB to BBB+. Lloyds, 41 per cent owned by the taxpayer, bounced back [...]
BRC: VAT hike will destroy 163,000 jobs May 26, 2010 RAISING VAT to 20 per cent would cost thousands of jobs and pull billions of pounds of consumer spending out of the economy, the British Retail Consortium warned today. Cautioning chancellor George Osborne there is no “silver bullet” to reduce Britain’s budget deficit without harming the recovery, the BRC said hiking VAT from its current [...]
Accounting standards overhauled May 26, 2010 THE Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which sets US accounting rules, released a proposal yesterday that could change how banks account for financial instruments such as loans and debt securities. FASB, which has been debating the changes for months with the London-based International Accounting Standards Board, said it proposes to require that companies provide new [...]
Lazard man quits M&A watchdog May 26, 2010 THE City takeovers watchdog began hunting for a new boss today after the incoming director general was forced to resign over his role in Kraft’s controversial buyout of Cadbury. Peter Kiernan, a top banker at Lazard, said he would not take the two-year posting at the Takeover Panel after it published a harsh verdict of [...]
Dow crashes below 10,000 on China fears May 26, 2010 THE DOW crashed below 10,000 for the first time in almost four months yesterday as reports that China was reviewing its Eurozone debt holdings reignited investors’ fears that the sovereign debt crisis could derail the global economic recovery. The Dow Jones eventually closed 0.69 per cent lower at 9,974.45 – reversing the tentative gains that [...]
Euro drops sharply on contagion fears May 26, 2010 THE euro approached a four-year low against the US dollar yesterday on persistent concerns about Europe’s debt woes and after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke raised concerns over Eurozone bank funding. Bernanke said swap lines, which were reinstated by the Fed to provide dollar funding to Europe as the Greek fiscal crisis escalated, played an [...]
EU regulators undecided on shorting ban extension May 26, 2010 THERE is no consensus among European Union securities regulators for introducing a German-style ban on trading credit default swaps linked to Eurozone government bonds, the head of a group of EU regulators said yesterday. “I am not sure if there is a clear majority for following the German approach. It’s not off the cards but [...]
Dentons to merge with US law firm May 26, 2010 DENTON Wilde Sapte and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (SNR) yesterday agreed to merge, creating a £500m law firm with over 1,400 lawyers. Management boards at both firms recommended to their respective partnerships that the two businesses be combined. The merger, if it wins approval from a partnership vote held early next month, will see the [...]
BT workers vote for a strike ballot… May 26, 2010 BT workers could take industrial action after its union delegates unanimously backed a strike ballot over pay yesterday. The firm’s “blue collar” workers, represented by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), rejected BT’s two per cent pay rise at its annual conference. Now all 55,000 CWU members will vote on whether to escalate the dispute to [...]
… as top executives take home millions in bumper bonuses and share packages May 26, 2010 TOP BT executives received bumper bonuses yesterday, pouring petrol on the fires of unrest among the firm’s rank and file. Chief executive Ian Livingston topped up his £850,000 basic salary with a bonus of £1.2m. He also qualifies for £1.2m in shares that he can collect in three year’s time. He was offered a six [...]
