Osborne’s great British sell-off January 7, 2014 MEMBERS of the public and businesses will today be offered the chance to buy government land and property on the open market, a landmark change designed to raise money for Treasury coffers and free up space to build new homes. The scheme, announced today by chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, will see a [...]
Businesses warn against minimum wage rise January 7, 2014 BUSINESS leaders have warned the government against a knee-jerk move to increase the minimum wage, rumoured to be on the cards later this year. John Wastnage of the British Chambers of Commerce warned that current evidence would not support a large increase in the minimum wage and if introduced it could push unemployment up, as [...]
Payday for Brits who lost out in Madoff scheme January 7, 2014 BRITISH investors who were burned in the Bernie Madoff scandal are set to get some of their money back, after the US authorities yesterday levied a $1.7bn (£1bn) fine on JP Morgan. Regulators said the bank bore some of the blame for the fraud by hosting Madoff’s accounts and failing to report concerns over his behaviour. [...]
Watchdog says it was right to approve Paul Flowers January 7, 2014 THE OFFICIAL who gave the green light to Paul Flowers’ appointment as Co-op Bank chairman in 2010 yesterday denied he had done anything wrong and maintained it was the right decision. Flowers oversaw the near-collapse of the bank when regulators last year discovered a £1.5bn capital hole. Clive Adamson admitted it was clear in his [...]
The government owns far too much land. It must sell a lot off January 7, 2014 SELL, sell, sell – or so we must hope. With a bit of luck, the government is finally about to kick-start a massive and long-overdue sell-off of its vast estate. All of central government’s land and property holdings – worth £330bn – will soon be available for perusal on a Rightmove-style website. Individuals and companies [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 8 January 2014 January 7, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES UBS and Credit Suisse to pare back Switzerland’s two largest lenders are prepared to scale back their investment banking operations further if the country’s strict capital rules become even more onerous, their chairmen have said. UBS and Credit Suisse have made cuts of different magnitudes to their investment banks, but a heated political [...]
Moody’s warns about return of risky debt notes January 7, 2014 RATING agency Moody’s yesterday said a resurgence in weak companies issuing controversial credit notes, made popular in boom-era deals, threatens to drive up risk in the financial system this year. Payment-in-kind (PIK) notes – an aggressive type of loan which pays interest in more debt rather than cash – doubled in issuance last year to [...]
RSA says Ireland issue isolated January 7, 2014 Insurance group RSA announced yesterday that it believes its £200m capital hole is confined to its troubled Irish arm, promising to disclose more detail tomorrow. The firm was commenting on a PwC report it commissioned last year, which determined that the capital hole was an “isolated incident” that did not reflect on the group more [...]
Mitsubishi and UBS launch fund January 7, 2014 Japanese auto group Mitsubishi announced yesterday is has partnered up with Swiss bank UBS to launch a real estate debt fund in the UK. The venture will begin with a £140m investment, but aims to broaden its scope to other countries, aiming for a £500m fund. It is not the first time the two corporate [...]
No Microsoft move for Mulally January 7, 2014 Ford CEO Alan Mulally announced yesterday that he has no intention of leaving his job at the end of the year, after continued speculation that he would replace outgoing Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer, who announced his retirement in the summer. In an interview with the Associated Press, Mulally confirmed that would not be moving to [...]
