Bank seeks new powers over lending March 25, 2012 NEW regulations cannot absolutely prevent the possibility of another financial crisis or of banks failing, a Bank of England policy maker announced just days after the Bank had pushed for stronger powers over the industry. The culture within banks, as well as changes to the structure of incentives, will be the most important changes, financial [...]
Pensions deficits set to soar on Solvency II-style EU regulations March 25, 2012 BRITAIN’S largest companies face paying billions more into pension schemes to cover the costs imposed by planned new EU regulations, a study revealed today. The average FTSE100 firm could see its pension liabilities rise by up to £2.5bn, Deloitte said, as three-quarters of those surveyed said gross liabilities will rise by between 20 per cent [...]
Royal Dutch Shell has $1bn debt to Iran March 25, 2012 ROYAL Dutch Shell is struggling to pay off $1bn (£630m) that it owes Iran for crude oil because European Union and US financial sanctions now make it almost impossible to process payments. The oil major owes a large sum to the National Iranian Oil Company for deliveries of crude, with one putting the figure at [...]
BP looks to sell £2bn of North Sea oil assets March 25, 2012 BP has put several of its North Sea oil assets worth close to £2bn up for sale just a week after the chancellor unveiled tax breaks for the industry in a move to encourage more exploration in the region. BP, which won approval last week to drill a deepwater well off the coast of the [...]
Our reader panel says Osborne should have cut 50p rate further but welcomes cut in corporation tax March 25, 2012 GEORGE Osborne should have gone further in cutting the top rate of tax by reducing it from 50p to 40p in his Budget last week, rather than 45p, according to our readers’ panel. Sixty-seven per cent of panellists on the Voice of the City Panel, run in conjunction with PoliticsHome, said the chancellor should have [...]
BATS founder calls for fresh flotation plan March 25, 2012 BATS Global Markets, the US exchange operator that withdrew its public offering Friday after a computer glitch sent its newly-issued stock into a tailspin, should develop a “credible IPO plan” and go through with it in the second quarter, its founder and current director has said. BATS’ own stock was to be its first listing. [...]
Troubles not over: Yell plans its next debt restructuring March 25, 2012 YELL group is already concerned about meeting the terms of next year’s financial covenants and is looking to get a head start on speaking to lenders. The struggling Yellow Pages provider, whose stock has lost 99 per cent of its value in the last four years, is set to appoint Goldman Sachs and Greenhill to [...]
LLOYD’S OF LONDON TO POST LOSS March 25, 2012 LLOYD’S of London, the insurance market, is this week expected to post a significant annual loss following a string of natural disasters including the Japanese tsunami, the flooding in Thailand (pictured) and the earthquake in New Zealand. The loss is set to come in below £1bn despite the total value of claims going over £10bn.
The Mitie boss who says board quotas are not the answer March 25, 2012 HOW many FTSE 250 bosses are on Twitter? Before I met Ruby McGregor-Smith, the chief executive of outsourcer Mitie, I would have confidently said the number was zero. But then @RubyMS, as she is known to those who follow her tweets, is not your average chief executive. Asian, female and under 50 years old, she [...]
Political risk is a global threat to recovery March 25, 2012 IN a tentative recovery, everyone always looks for the next nasty shock that could spring up and derail growth. The answer this time is political risk – all over the world. We all know about the geo-political tensions in the Middle East that sent Brent over $126 earlier this month. But in a year heavy [...]
