JP Morgan says ECB ready to act May 24, 2012 THE EUROPEAN Central Bank (ECB) may slash interest rates and pump more cheap cash into banks in response to the economic slowdown, JP Morgan forecast yesterday. As the ECB had previously hoped the economy would be recovered by now, analysts believe that it may resort to another one-year long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) in July to [...]
Debate rages over call to end free banking May 24, 2012 CONSUMER groups and politicians yesterday joined the debate on bank fees following claims by a top Bank of England official that free current accounts are a “dangerous myth”. Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s executive director and chief executive-elect of the new banking regulator the Prudential Regulatory Authority, said the lack of clarity on current account fees “may [...]
How does the British system work? May 24, 2012 Q How many personal current accounts are there in Britain? A There are over 70m personal current accounts serving around 90 per cent of the population. The majority of them are free to use. Q How unusual is it to have easy access to free current accounts? A Britain is almost unique in having free [...]
G4S banker quits Deutsche May 24, 2012 DEUTSCHE Bank has bid farewell to a second banker who led its advisory team on G4S’s ill-fated attempt to buy rival ISS. Anthony Parsons has left the bank following his move to a “vice chairman” role last summer that came shortly before he led a team advising security giant G4S in a botched takeover attempt of [...]
Dexia sells its Turkish lender to Sberbank May 24, 2012 BAILED-OUT Belgian lender Dexia is close to selling its Turkish business to Russia’s Sberbank, the bank said yesterday. It is understood that Sberbank, which is being advised by Rothschild, is likely to pay somewhere between $3bn (£1.9bn) and $4bn for Denizbank, one of Turkey’s biggest banks. Qatar National Bank had also been in the running to [...]
ANTI-AUSTERITY PARTY IS GREEK FRONT-RUNNER May 24, 2012 GREECE’S radical left party, led by Alexis Tsipras (pictured), last night emerged as the front-runner in the race to win next month’s elections. Syriza, which opposes Greece’s austerity measures, now has 30 per cent of the vote, outpacing conservative rival New Democracy by 26 per cent, according to the Public Issue polling company. Greece faces [...]
Equistone gets rid of Global Blue for €1bn May 24, 2012 TAX-FREE shopping specialist Global Blue has been sold by its private equity owner to buyout firms Silver Lake and Partners Group for €1bn (£802m). Global Blue has trebled in value since Equistone Partners bought the firm from management in 2007, and the sale will help the current owner return cash to its investors. Partners Group [...]
MasterCard loses EU card fees court case May 24, 2012 MASTERCARD has said it will appeal an EU court ruling that upholds Brussels’ ban on extra fees for cross-border card transactions. MasterCard’s president in Europe Javier Perez said that the ruling would hinder its development of new payment technologies. Retailers, who benefit from lower fees as a result of the EU ban, welcomed the decision [...]
RBC profit slips on M&A loss May 24, 2012 ROYAL Bank of Canada’s (RBC) quarterly profit fell seven per cent as the company took a C$202m (£125.4m) loss from its acquisition of the 50 per cent of its joint venture with Franco-Belgian lender Dexia that it did not already own. RBC, Canada’s largest bank, said net income from continuing operations was C$1.56bn, or C$1.01 [...]
TIFFANY CUTS FORECAST AS SALES SLOW May 24, 2012 TIFFANY yesterday cut its full-year global net sales growth forecast to a range of seven to eight per cent from a prior outlook of 10 per cent. Earnings were $81.5m or 64 cents per share, up from $81.1m, or 63 cents per share, a year earlier, but five cents below analysts’ expectations. The chain’s weakest [...]
