Britain’s best chances for Olympic gold July 26, 2010 IT’S a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and for these British sporting stars, it is now just two years away. From diving prodigies to record-breaking sailors, they are Team GB’s best hopes for a medal when the Olympic Games return to London in 2012. Last time out in Beijing, Britain hoovered up 47 medals in total, including 19 [...]
The legacy of the Olympics will be a 21st century transport system July 26, 2010 EVERY Olympic host has a legacy. Beijing 2008’s was clearing the pollution from the city’s air so visibility was more than just a few feet, while Athens in 2004 made significant improvements to its infrastructure, including the establishment of the brand new Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport. But exactly how will London leave its mark on [...]
Austerity Games can still be a triumph July 26, 2010 WHEN London last hosted the Olympic games, it was 1948. The Allies had won the war, but Britain’s rewards were still to come: food was still rationed; the capital’s streets looked like rows of broken teeth (post-war construction was but a dream); and there was quite simply no cash at all to spend on stadiums [...]
Thousands of firms facing more red tape July 26, 2010 THOUSANDS of banks and insurers could be forced to pay through the nose to comply with the biggest overhaul of financial regulation in a decade, because they will have to deal with two regulators instead of one. The government made the admission as it began a three-month consultation on plans to scrap the Financial Services [...]
Cable targets bank bonuses and dividends in lending war July 26, 2010 VINCE Cable, the business secretary, yesterday stepped up his war of words against the banking industry, warning that dividends and bonuses could come under attack if banks don’t lend more to small businesses. Unveiling a green paper aimed at getting banks to fund a private sector-led recovery, Cable said: “There clearly is a choice between [...]
REGULATORY OVERHAUL July 26, 2010 Q.WHICH FIRMS WILL BE AFFECTED BY THE OVERHAUL? A.The?Financial?Services Authority (FSA) currently regulates 20,000 firms. The vast majority of those will simply be regulated by the new Consumer Protection and Markets Agency, which will police conduct in financial services and protect customers. Although there will be some changes, they won’t incur any significant extra costs. [...]
Market calm on bank tests July 26, 2010 EUROPEAN lenders’ credit default swap (CDS) spreads narrowed and the euro was steady yesterday as the market gave a mild thumbs-up to the region’s bank stress test results. The cost of insuring against default on debt issued by key banks fell after the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) said just seven of 91 institutions [...]
German lenders release PIIGS stats but Deutsche Bank is quiet July 26, 2010 GERMAN banks appeared to cave in to pressure from European Union regulators late yesterday as they joined EU peers to reveal the extent of their exposure to heavily indebted Eurozone nations. The banks — Hypo Real Estate, Landesbank Berlin and cooperative banks DZ Bank and WGZ Bank — joined Postbank to reveal their sovereign debt [...]
CITY VIEWS: HAS THE CITY STARTED TO QUIETEN DOWN IN THE SUMMER? July 26, 2010 RACHEL NEWTON | BREWIN DOLPHIN “I think people have become more optimistic as the weather has improved. But until the government’s spending review comes out in the autumn there’s still going to be a lot of uncertainty in the City. In the public sector too, people still seem anxious about spending cuts.” RUSSELL LAMB | [...]
UKFI slashes director pay by 5 per cent July 26, 2010 DIRECTORS at UKFI, the body set up to manage the taxpayers’ stakes in the banks, have agreed to take a voluntary five per cent pay cut, in a nod to the government’s public sector austerity drive. The pay cut for UKFI’s seven board members amounts to a saving of over £20,000 for the Treasury. Robin [...]
