Goldman Sachs eases its long working hours for junior staff October 29, 2013 JUNIOR staff at Goldman Sachs are to get more regular hours and more colleagues to share the burden of their work, the investment bank said yesterday. The analysts are being told they should not regularly work weekends, in a drive both to combat the image of the sector as one based solely on long hours, [...]
Forget high speed rail. Driverless cars will revolutionise transport October 29, 2013 SOMETHING very exciting is about to happen in Milton Keynes, of all places. Starting in 18 months’ time, the Buckinghamshire town will host the first proper UK test of driverless cars. The trial will be modest by the standards of those happening elsewhere in the world – the hundred self-driving pods will use special lanes [...]
HS2 benefits downgraded again October 29, 2013 Department for Transport lowers forecasts to reflect soaring budget for the new railway THE GOVERNMENT scaled back the forecasted benefits of the High Speed 2 railway yesterday, but insisted that the £50bn project will still be a huge positive for the economy. The full Y-shaped route from London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds is now [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 30 October 2013 October 29, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Whitehall slow to pay suppliers Ministers are breaching their own rules on paying government suppliers, according to figures seen by the Financial Times. EU rules say departments must pay firms that have supplied them within 30 days. The Ministry of Defence has had to pay £21,000 in the last year because of late [...]
Government set to bring in cap on pension fees October 29, 2013 THE GOVERNMENT will today announce a public consultation to decide on pension scheme charges, with a likely cap of 0.75 per cent on annual fund management fees. Some 6m-9m people will be forced to make new or increased pension savings because of the auto-enrolment scheme, increasing the focus on value for money in fund management. [...]
Rabobank chair quits after firm is hit by £663m fine over Libor October 29, 2013 DUTCH lender Rabobank was yesterday fined €774m (£663m) by UK, US and European regulators for attempting to manipulate key interest rate benchmarks Libor and Euribor. The bank’s chairman Piet Moerland resigned on the announcement. “I want to send a very clear signal: a sincere apology and strong condemnation of these inappropriate acts,” he said. Regulators found more [...]
Dow Jones at all-time high October 29, 2013 US STOCK markets closed at record highs last night on the expectation of ongoing money printing from the Federal Reserve. The government shutdown hit consumer confidence, indicating the economy may slow a little and so the Fed will keep its stimulus programme running at full tilt for longer, pumping up markets. The Dow ended the day up [...]
Carney: Houses drive recovery October 29, 2013 BRITAIN’S economic recovery is based on the housing boom, Mark Carney said yesterday. “Right now in the UK as a whole the recovery is being led by the housing sector,” the Bank of England governor told the Western Mail. But he added that the market is not in a bubble, and that the Bank will [...]
Deutsche Bank’s profits wiped out by legal costs October 29, 2013 SOARING legal expenses and plunging trading revenues devastated Deutsche Bank’s third quarter earnings, the bank revealed yesterday, with profits down 98 per cent on the year to just €18m (£15.4m). The bank put another €1.2bn aside to cover litigation, double the level expected by analysts and bringing its total expected legal costs to €4.1bn. It [...]
Bottom Line: Cost cuts show importance of controlling pay October 29, 2013 WHILE headlines will – quite rightly – focus on the huge litigation charge and poor return on equity that Deutsche Bank revealed yesterday, CEOs Jurgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain were keen to draw attention further down the release – to the cost cutting that helped the bank rack up €1.5bn of savings in the last [...]
