US agrees a funding deal for next year December 12, 2011 US LAWMAKERS agreed late last night to fund the government through next year, potentially avoiding a shutdown that would have further eroded Congres’ tattered reputation ahead of the 2012 election. A group of Republican and Democratic politicians in charge of government spending agreed on how to fund crucial government functions until the current fiscal year [...]
CBI lashes out at political row over Cameron’s veto December 12, 2011 “RECRIMINATIONS” over David Cameron’s veto last Friday are undermining efforts to secure the single market and unnerving businesses, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) claimed yesterday. The group stressed that thousands of jobs rely on trade with Eurozone economies, and so “the coalition government must re-double its efforts to ensure that the UK is not [...]
Borrowing cost stays high for Italy’s Monti December 12, 2011 ITALY sold €7bn in one year debt at near-record highs yesterday, as Friday’s summit failed to calm market fears over the weak sovereign. The yield came in at 5.952 per cent, just below the euro-era high of 6.087 per cent paid on a similar issuance in November. The sale was covered 1.9 times. Italy’s issuance [...]
FSA admits it joined market mass delusion December 12, 2011 THE FINANCIAL Services Authority (FSA) participated in a mass “delusion” that drove markets and underlay a flawed regulatory regime in the run-up to RBS’s collapse, the authority concluded yesterday in its long-awaited report on the collapse of the bank. The FSA had “a tendency to share the delusions of the then conventional confidence”, the report [...]
RBS REPORT: AT A GLANCE December 12, 2011 ● Why publish this report? Last year the FSA caused a public outcry by saying it would take no action against RBS chief executive Fred Goodwin and others despite a 17-month investigation. After pressure from MPs such as Andrew Tyrie, it agreed to produce a full report. ● Cause of RBS’ losses The FSA said [...]
INVESTIGATION OF A BANK FAILURE December 12, 2011 “Two lever arch folders and a CD” – the amount of information given to RBS by ABN Amro in April 2007 On management failures: “RBS management and board undoubtedly made many decisions which, at least in retrospect, were poor” On the ABN Amro acquisition: “the board decided to go ahead with it on the basis [...]
Regulator also shared investors’ hubris December 12, 2011 MARKETS are very good at telling us there’s a problem – like ratings agencies – when it’s bleeding obvious,” FSA chair Lord Turner opined yesterday. Unfortunately, if there is one thing the FSA’s 450-page report made obvious yesterday, that adage could just as well apply to regulators. Determined readers of the tome were treated to [...]
CITY STILL WITHIN OUR GRASP, SAYS REHN December 12, 2011 BRITAIN’S veto of a new European treaty to tighten fiscal oversight of states will not stop Europe regulating the City, Olli Rehn, the European Union’s economic and monetary affairs commissioner, said yesterday. Rehn said the UK’s veto was a matter of “regret” as Europe did not want it “on the sidelines”. The European Commission, meanwhile, [...]
FSA vows no repeat of ABN Amro fiasco December 12, 2011 THE CITY regulator has vowed to get “deeply into the guts” of any future financial services takeover on the scale of Royal Bank of Scotland’s acquisition of ABN Amro. Chairman Lord Turner said the Financial Services Authority would take a far more proactive approach today to the €71bn (£47bn) takeover of the Dutch bank, led [...]
RBS: WHO TAKES THE BLAME? December 12, 2011 Sir Fred Goodwin The FSA had harboured worries about Fred the Shred’s internal dominance as far back as 2003. It criticised the ABN Amro deal, his brainchild, as a “gamble” and dismissed the due diligence carried out as little more than “two lever arch folders and a CD”. Goodwin’s relationship with the FSA slumped to [...]
