There is nothing worse than self-righteousness in business November 18, 2013 REMEMBER the righteous folk telling us that the problem with banking was all those nasty, profit making global corporations, with their horrid shareholders and especially those awful hedge funds? And that the answer was to encourage small, regional co-operatives, with their senior management drawn from a broader cross-section of the community to boost corporate governance? [...]
Bankers to argue Royal Mail float was transparent November 18, 2013 BANKERS summoned to give evidence to the Business Select Committee tomorrow are expected to argue they would have risked the flotation of the Royal Mail collapsing if they had tried to re-price it upwards at the last minute. They will also argue, according to friends, that far from being an opaque process as the chairman [...]
JP Morgan fine just days away November 18, 2013 JP MORGAN is set to pay $13bn (£6.1bn) in a settlement with the Department of Justice over mortgage-backed securities sold in the run up to the financial crisis. The deal could be finalised as soon as this week, it is understood, after months of wrangling between the bank and the regulator. The bank is expected [...]
MF Global told to pay out $1bn November 18, 2013 MF GLOBAL has been ordered to give customers $1.2bn (£745m) and regulators $100m by a federal court judge. The brokerage collapsed two years ago, leading to action by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) aimed at recovering customers’ lost money. The CFTC had accused MF Global of using customer funds for proprietory trading.
What the other papers say this morning – 19 November 2013 November 18, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Data reveals indebted generation The earnings of recent English graduates have deteriorated so rapidly since the financial crisis that the latest class is earning 12 per cent less than their pre-crash counterparts at the same stage in their careers. They also owe about 60 per cent more in student debt. These are the [...]
Bitcoin breaks $780 as Senate gives it the nod November 18, 2013 BITCOIN reached record highs of around $788 last night after the digital currency received a boost to its legitimacy from the US Senate. US officials told a Senate committee that Bitcoin – the digital currency that can be traded anonymously and freely worldwide – should be considered a legitimate currency, despite its documented criminal uses. [...]
UK growth tops other advanced economies during third quarter November 18, 2013 THE BRITISH economy grew more than any other developed country’s between July and September, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The group of rich economies announced yesterday that Britain’s 0.8 per cent growth in the third quarter was faster-paced than that of the US, Japan or Germany, among others. The Bank of [...]
Independent Scots’ tax hike November 18, 2013 AN INDEPENDENT Scotland would have to raise £6bn per year through tax hikes or spending cuts if it was to reduce its debts to a sustainable level, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned yesterday. On top of the UK’s currently planned spending squeeze, it would have to find another 4.1 per cent of GDP [...]
Yellen set for Thursday vote November 18, 2013 SENATORS will vote on Janet Yellen’s appointment as chairman of the Federal Reserve on Thursday, the committee in charge of the appointment said yesterday. At her appointment hearing last week Yellen expressed concern over the rate of unemployment, hinting she may be more dovish – prone to stimulating the markets with low interest rates and [...]
BT’s Liv Garfield to take top role at Severn Trent November 18, 2013 LIV GARFIELD is leaving BT to take up the chief executive role at FTSE 100-listed water company Severn Trent, the companies announced yesterday. Garfield is currently chief executive of BT’s Openreach division, where she oversaw the telecoms firm’s £2.5bn commercial roll-out of fibre broadband across the country. She starts her new role in spring 2014, [...]
