Tech guru Elon Musk gears up to unveil the fifth form of transport August 11, 2013 THE MAN behind Paypal and Tesla Motors is today due to publish designs for the world’s fastest rail service, named Hyperloop. Elon Musk has until now kept enthusiasts guessing about the details of his “fifth form of transport,” which could one day offer supersonic inter-city travel. The billionaire entrepreneur said in May that the idea [...]
Barclays in need of €12bn capital to meet tough new regulations August 11, 2013 BARCLAYS will need to raise around €12bn (£10.3bn) of new capital over the next five years in order to meet tough new European regulations, according to research by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). The report lays bare the scale of the deleveraging required to meet Basel III requirements and concludes Eurozone banks will have to [...]
London Whale staff could face arrest in the US August 11, 2013 THE FORMER supervisor of the JP Morgan trader who lost the bank more than $6bn (£3.9bn) could face arrest in the US, it emerged over the weekend. Trader Bruno Iksil, whose trades led to the London Whale nickname, is believed to be helping the authorities with their enquiries and so will face either lesser charges [...]
EU banks closed 5,500 branches across the continent in 2012 August 11, 2013 BANKS closed 5,500 branches across the European Union last year, 2.5 per cent of the total, leaving the region with 20,000 fewer outlets than it had when the financial industry was plunged into crisis in 2008. Last year’s cuts come after 7,200 branches were axed in 2011, according to data analysed by Reuters from European [...]
Swiss to keep capping franc August 11, 2013 THE Swiss National Bank will enforce its cap on the Swiss franc for as long as it is necessary, the bank’s vice chairman said in a newspaper interview on Sunday. “At the moment, the cap on the franc is the top priority,” Jean-Pierre Danthine told Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche. The SNB capped the franc, [...]
Fraud office vows to clean up its risk rules after data loss scandals August 11, 2013 THE SERIOUS Fraud Office (SFO) yesterday vowed to improve controls after losing thousands of pages of evidence on its BAE Systems investigation and briefly mislaying others in its probe into the Tchenguiz brothers. Last week the crime investigation agency revealed it returned 32,000 pages and 81 audio tapes on the BAE case to the wrong [...]
French finance minister fights to stay upbeat August 11, 2013 PIERRE Moscovici, France’s finance minister, insisted on Saturday that the country had exited recession and has started to recover. However, Moscovici’s message was confused when he said that the French economy might contract by 0.1 per cent this year, as the government’s most recent estimate suggests growth of one per cent.
John Lewis is set to create a new restaurant August 11, 2013 JOHN Lewis is poised to launch a new restaurant concept in a move to diversify its catering range and attract more customers into its department stores. Chief executive Andy Street said while John Lewis’ restaurants and cafeterias were profitable and provided good quality, “middle of the road” food, they were not “cutting edge” brands. [...]
Bottom Line: Head this way for destination retail August 11, 2013 TESCO unveiled its revamped hypermarket in Watford last week to much fanfare. The 80,000 square foot store is a crucial test-bed for the “retail destination” concept Tesco is creating to tackle declining footfall as the digital revolution bites. Tony Hoggett, Tesco Extra head, said the store – with its community room, Euphorium bakery, Giraffe [...]
Tech blogs names 10 September as date for new iPhone unveiling August 11, 2013 APPLE, the world’s largest technology company, is expected to present its redesigned iPhone in September, according to technology blog AllThingsD. The blog cited unnamed sources as saying that Apple will unveil its next smartphone at a special event on 10 September. The California-based company was not immediately available for comment last night. Apple’s iPhone launches [...]
