Mortgage lending edges up January 23, 2012 MORTGAGE lending rose at the end of last year compared to 12 months earlier, yet levels remain relatively deflated. Gross mortgage lending in quarter four of 2011 reached £37.2bn – up on £33.6bn in the final quarter of 2010. Yet total loans are significantly lower than before the credit crunch. Gross mortgage lending last year [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU SUPPORT THE PROPOSED CAP ON BENEFITS? January 23, 2012 MARTIN WALLACE | MONTAGU EVANS “The concept of having a cap that equates to less than the average household net income is sound. Looking for work should be the more attractive option financially.” NICKLAS LORENTZSON | LORENTZSON CONSULTANTS “I agree that a lower cap should be implemented but child benefit should be calculated separately for [...]
Audit office: back to work scheme flawed January 23, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT’S new programme to get people back into employment has been rushed and is based on overly optimistic expectations, the National Audit Office (NAO) said this morning. The quick one-year turnaround of the new Work Programme “has had benefits”, the NAO said, yet warned that no pilot was conducted, and that the IT system [...]
Workers proud of private sector January 23, 2012 Private sector employees remain proud to work at commercial firms and are likely to believe their companies have better leadership than in the public sector, a survey reveals today. The results come despite seven in 10 staff, surveyed by recruitment agents Hays, saying that stress levels have worsened compared to one year ago. Nonetheless, 54 [...]
FTSE 350 pension deficits rise January 23, 2012 Large companies’ pensions deficits rose sharply last year, fresh data showed yesterday. FTSE 350 deficits, recorded under accounting rule IAS19, jumped to £67bn in 2011, compared to £43bn at the start of the year. Actuarial firm Hymans Robertson, which compiled the data, said the results masked an even more severe deterioration in companies’ positions.
Bank to consider more stimulus January 23, 2012 The Bank of England is right to weigh up yet another tranche of asset-purchases when it meets in February, its arch-dove committee member Adam Posen said last night. “The committee is right to consider – as we will be doing in a few weeks – whether we need to do more QE,” he said, while also [...]
AURUM FUNDS CHIEF FLIES OUT TO OVERSEE ARK’S AFRICAN LAUNCH January 23, 2012 HEDGE FUND manager Kevin Gundle, the chief executive of Aurum Funds, has been away from his desk since last Thursday. He was in Zambia, The Capitalist hears, where as a founding trustee of Absolute Return for Kids (Ark), the charity set up by the philanthropist financiers Ian Wace and Arki Busson, he has been busy [...]
Shares slump on shake-up at BlackBerry January 23, 2012 BLACKBERRY maker Research in Motion (RIM) saw its shares plunge over seven per cent to C$15.98 in yesterday’s trading after the mobile phone brand announced a change in leadership late on Sunday. Thorsten Heins took to the throne yesterday, replacing co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, who have nurtured the company since its birth [...]
Only drastic change can save RIM now January 23, 2012 FEW in the telecoms industry will mourn the departure of Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. As co-chairmen and co-CEOs of BlackBerry maker RIM, the pair wielded far too much power over the troubled handset maker. It was an open secret that the chief executives of the big network operators found it incredibly hard to do [...]
Halliburton says disruptions could hit earnings this year January 23, 2012 HALLIBURTON yesterday warned that its response to a deep slump in US natural gas prices would cause disruptions that will pinch first-quarter earnings, sending its shares falling. The world’s second-largest oilfield services company posted a higher-than-expected fourth-quarter profit and gave a fairly upbeat outlook for 2012, but investors remain worried about what wider US drilling [...]
