We must help those in financial crisis – but loan caps won’t work November 25, 2013 SOMETIMES I really do wonder who is in power in this country. Is it a Tory-Lib Dem coalition, dedicated to ensuring the UK is open to business, or is it the Labour party? Whenever the opposition starts to campaign on an issue, especially one with cost of living or emotional undertones, the coalition eventually caves [...]
Lord King gets drawn into the Co-op affair November 25, 2013 FORMER Bank of England governor Lord Mervyn King may be asked to give evidence to the Treasury Select Committee investigating the collapse of the Co-op’s purchase of Lloyds Bank branches, after claims he told a rival bidder its bid would get nowhere. Lord Levene has said that Lord King invited him to the Bank to [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 26 November 2013 November 25, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Europe unveils tax crackdown Ambitious proposals to block tax loopholes in cross-border financing structures were unveiled by Brussels yesterday, in an attempt to force multinationals to pay billions of euros more in corporate taxes to members of the European Union. EU accuses US of improper data trawl Brussels is to warn Washington that [...]
US markets surge as Iran deal fuels hope of trade November 25, 2013 BRENT crude prices fell only slightly yesterday as traders began to question how soon a nuclear deal between world powers and Iran could translate into higher supplies to global markets. The price of the international benchmark see-sawed during the day, trading down as much as $3 a barrel before closing at $111 a barrel, just [...]
Obituary Lord Kingsdown November 25, 2013 FORMER governor of the Bank of England Robin Leigh-Pemberton, Lord Kingsdown, died on Sunday night at the age of 86. Lord Kingsdown headed the Bank between 1983 and 1993, during a time of great change in the UK’s financial sector, and ushered in the UK’s regime of inflation targeting in 1992. Current governor Mark Carney [...]
Official IT systems too slow to cope with major economic data November 25, 2013 OFFICIAL data releases may be too big for the Office for National Statistics’ computer systems to handle, watchdog the UK Statistics Authority has warned. That means market participants using alternative data sources like news wires may have quicker access to the figures, like GDP estimates, than users going through the ONS website. Such problems with [...]
Barclays to pay monthly top up to account for EU’s bonus cap November 25, 2013 HUNDREDS of Barclays’ highest paid staff are in line for extra payments to top up their salaries and replace the income lost by the EU’s incoming bonus cap, the bank has told workers. The level of the monthly payment, known as Role Based Pay according to an email to staff seen by City A.M., will [...]
Big six energy firms hit back at Ofgem report November 25, 2013 THE BIG six energy companies defended themselves yesterday against allegations of hefty profits, after a report from regulator Ofgem showed that the generation parts of their businesses had an average profit margin of 20 per cent last year. Energy UK, which represents the interests of the big six firms, lambasted the report’s findings and asked [...]
Power giant RWE pulls plug on Atlantic wind farm development November 25, 2013 FINANCING problems have hit RWE Innogy’s 240-turbine wind farm plan off the Devon cost, it was reported last night, which could force the group to scrap the project. The energy firm has been planning the project since at least 2008, and hoped to generate up to 1,200 megawatts of electricity on the site. It had [...]
Train with no seats may ease congestion November 25, 2013 BRITAIN’S railways could carry more commuters without spending billions on upgrades if trains offered third-class carriages with almost no seats, a report out yesterday claimed. Passengers could pay a fifth less to travel in a “high-density” section that would be modelled on the London Overground carriages, the paper by transport expert David Starkie for the [...]
