Best year for UK economy since 2007 now official January 28, 2014 STRONG ACTIVITY across the UK’s business and finance services drove the economy to growth of 0.7 per cent in the final quarter of last year, making 2013 both the strongest and first uninterrupted year of growth since 2007, before the financial crisis. Official figures released yesterday morning point to a broad recovery across the economy, with services [...]
Federal Reserve’s selfishness triggered emerging markets chaos January 28, 2014 IF you want to know what old fashioned, hard-core monetary policy used to look like – the kind that those readers who lived through the UK’s European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) humiliation will remember – look no further than what happened to Turkey, a country at the epicentre of the growing emerging market crisis, last [...]
Barclays cuts up to 400 jobs in investment January 28, 2014 HUNDREDS of investment bankers at Barclays will lose their jobs as the bank maintains its focus on costs, it emerged yesterday. The axe is likely to fall on poor performers in centres including London and New York, while staff also face a crackdown on travel as the bank tries to control costs. Employees will no [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 29 January 2014 January 28, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES AO.com aims for £1bn valuation AO.com, the online electricals retailer, is aiming for a £1bn valuation when it floats on the London Stock Exchange later this year – more than treble the market capitalisation it was hoping to achieve just four months ago. Several investors have told the Financial Times that the retailer, [...]
US banks lead the way with bonus increases January 28, 2014 MOST bankers at US lenders in London have seen their bonuses rise this year, indicating the strength of the recovery in the sector. New figures from data firm Emolument show 52 per cent have seen their bonuses increase while 10 per cent are steady on the year. Meanwhile 38 per cent have had a bonus [...]
Mayer confident despite dip in advertising revenues at Yahoo January 28, 2014 SHARES in internet company Yahoo fell by six per cent in after-hours trading last night, despite a fall in revenue that beat many analysts’ forecasts. The company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $1.266bn (£763.2m), compared to $1.346bn in the same quarter a year before. Yahoo said that revenue from display advertising was down six per cent [...]
Interbank loans fall on tough leverage rules January 28, 2014 A CRACKDOWN on banks’ leverage positions has pushed the institutions to cut lending to each other, Bank of England data revealed yesterday, reversing some of the recovery made since the financial crisis struck. Secured transactions, making up most of the market, dipped 15 per cent in the second half of 2013, the sterling money market [...]
F&C snapped up by Canadians in £700m deal January 28, 2014 ONE of the City’s oldest fund managers was acquired by Canadian financial giant Bank of Montreal yesterday, despite a top F&C shareholder delaying its backing for the deal. F&C Fund Management, which traces its roots back to 1868, said it had agreed to the 120p a share offer from Bank of Montreal’s Canadian backer BMO [...]
Bottom Line: Canadian deal is a good end to this era January 28, 2014 AS SOON as activist investor Edward Bramson took the helm of F&C in 2011, the future of the 145-year-old firm – founded in 1868 by solicitor Philip Rose and Lord Westbury – was up in the air. Yesterday’s move by BMO Financial Group, part of Canada’s mammoth Bank of Montreal, makes sense for both parties. [...]
RBS exits swathe of benchmarks amid foreign exchange probe January 28, 2014 RBS WILL cut the number of foreign exchange benchmarks on which it will accept orders from clients, paring back its offerings to around six fixings. Yesterday the bank told customers it will implement the changes from 8 February, and will cease publishing its own RBS Fix reference rates from 28 February. It comes as the [...]
