BT to buy EE in £12.5bn deal December 15, 2014 BT is set to buy mobile phone group EE for £12.5bn, last night announcing it is in exclusive talks with the UK’s biggest mobile phone network. The deal shocked investors, who mostly expected it to choose the cheaper O2 network, which would cost it roughly £10bn and bring almost as many customers. O2 is [...]
Labour slams budget charter as “a silly political stunt” but still signs up to end deficit December 15, 2014 Labour yesterday signed up to the government’s new charter for budget responsibility, despite dismissing the coalition move as “a silly political stunt”. The new rules aim to end the annual current structural deficit in three years, whoever wins the next election – and for debt to be falling as a percentage of GDP by 2016-17. [...]
Watchdogs with City past wanted: FCA fines top £1.47bn as experience of executives called into question December 15, 2014 The City watchdog has issued over £1.47bn worth of fines to financial services firms so far this year, while issuing over 100 disciplinary measures such as bans. But, its critics say, it has done all this with an organisation that is lacking in commercial experience on its executive committee, its most senior board of full-time [...]
Russia hikes interest rates to 17pc as rouble crashes December 15, 2014 Russian interest rates shot up late last night to 17 per cent as its central bank made a drastic attempt to prevent further collapse in the value of the rouble and stem rising inflation. The decision comes less than a week after the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) hiked rates to 10.5 per cent from 9.5 [...]
Hostages killed at end of 16-hour armed siege in Australia December 15, 2014 RELIEVED hostages run past armed police to freedom yesterday in the final moments of a 16-hour siege in Sydney in which three people, including the gunman, were killed. A police source named the gunman as Man Haron Monis, an Iranian refugee who has sent hate mail to families of troops killed in Afghanistan.
Building societies turn against tide of finance regulation December 15, 2014 MUTUAL lenders have been favoured by politicians since banks led the way into the financial crisis, but a study yesterday showed almost every building society boss felt the sector was being harmed by red tape. The result is that innovation and diversification are being crushed, preventing the sector from making improvements which could help customers [...]
Mortgage rates lowest since 2007 December 15, 2014 Record price cuts have taken mortgage rates to their lowest rates since 2007, a mortgage broker said today. The average interest rate on two- year tracker mortgages – that track some interest rate, typically the Bank of England’s base rate – dropped by 0.28 per cent to 2.38 per cent in the three months to [...]
Former JJB Sports chief receives four-year jail term for £1m fraud December 15, 2014 THE FORMER chief executive of JJB Sports has been handed a four-year jail sentence after being found guilty of accepting more than £1m in backhanders from suppliers. Chris Ronnie was convicted last month of pocketing six-figure payments from three suppliers while in charge of the now-defunct retailer and failing to declare them to the board. [...]
Bank of England stress test results: Lenders braced to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on IT improvements December 15, 2014 Britain's biggest banks are set to spend the next year pushing through major revamps of their IT systems, as stress tests have revealed problems in their ability to gather data on their own loan books. The lenders have been built up over decades from mergers of smaller banks, leaving them with a range of outdated [...]
ITV clashes with its satellite and cable rivals over fee demands December 15, 2014 ITV and its cable and satellite rivals clashed yesterday over the commercial public broadcaster’s demand that it should get fees from pay-TV platforms for airing its free channels. The Commercial Broadcasters Association (Coba), representing Sky, Discovery, Disney and other big pay-TV firms, claimed ITV receives a net benefit of at least £87m a year, because [...]
