US caves in on trading rules September 22, 2011 THE US futures regulator has yielded on several contentious parts of a plan to crack down on commodity speculation, marking a victory for banks and traders who have lobbied to limit increased market oversight. A draft of the final rule by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission maintains that the Dodd-Frank Act requires position limits — [...]
Investors well and truly out of luck September 22, 2011 WHAT a rout. The markets took a major battering yesterday, in what looked like a belated wake-up call. The Eurozone crisis is getting worse, a major sovereign default in the EU is becoming closer and growth in the West is grinding to a halt. There was talk last night that some Eurozone banks may need [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 22, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES EU TO SPEED RECAPITALISATION OF 16 BANKS European officials look set to speed up plans to recapitalise the 16 banks that came close to failing last summer’s pan-EU stress tests as part of a co-ordinated effort to reassure the markets about the strength of the 27-nation bloc’s banking sector. A senior French official [...]
Tesco kicks off price war September 22, 2011 TESCO has kicked off a price war with rivals, announcing that it plans to splash out £500m on dropping prices on 3,000 food items. In an aggressive attempt to outflank the competition, the supermarket giant has vowed to focus the campaign on cheap, everyday products and to scrap complex promotions in favour of across-the-board price [...]
Facebook ties deal with Spotify September 22, 2011 Facebook has unveiled new features that centre on the way users listen to music and watch TV, offering tie-ups with the likes of Spotify and Hulu, as it attempts to make media an integral part of its service. The features, which also include ways for users to jazz up profiles in a magazine, photo-heavy style, [...]
Private equity deals are laid low September 22, 2011 Private equity-backed deal volume in the third quarter was down nearly 30 per cent to $53.1bn (£34.5bn) from the same period of last year, according to Thomson Reuters data for the three months to 22 September. The figure is also 22 per cent lower compared to the previous quarter. So far in 2011, however, such [...]
Meg Whitman is named new leader of HP September 22, 2011 HEWLETT Packard last night unveiled Meg Whitman as its new chief executive after sensationally axing Leo Apotheker, who had held less the job for than a year. Former eBay chief executive Whitman will be tasked with halting the decline in the firm’s share price, which has tanked 50 per cent in the last twelve months. [...]
UBS cuts under way as Adoboli says he is sorry September 22, 2011 UBS is cutting its investment banking division as the trader accused of a $2.3bn (£1.5bn) fraud yesterday said he was “sorry beyond words”. The bank’s cull represents between five and 10 per cent of the posts within its advisory arm and is part of the 3,500 job cuts announced in August. It is not directly related [...]
BNP Paribas to cut jobs but denies seeking Qatari cash September 22, 2011 BNP Paribas is planning a “significant” round of job cuts across its corporate and investment bank, chief executive Baudouin Prot said yesterday. But he denied reports that the bank is seeking a capital injection from Qatar’s sovereign fund after rumours that it needs more equity swept through markets. Prot said the layoffs would come alongside [...]
Goldman gives new position to Gregg Lemkau September 22, 2011 GOLDMAN Sachs yesterday appointed Gregg Lemkau as the bank’s new head of mergers and acquisitions in the EMEA and Asia Pacific region. The role is a new one for the bank, employees were informed yesterday. Lemkau has been the co-head of the bank’s top-ranking global technology, media and telecom group (TMT), where he has acted [...]
