Kim’s death ups tension December 19, 2011 NEIGHBOURS of North Korea as well as the US yesterday appealed for stability after the death of leader Kim Jong-il plunged the region into fresh uncertainty. China and Russia offered support for their ally’s new leaders as North Koreans took to the streets in scenes of apparently staged-managed mourning. Western states expressed hope that a [...]
Clegg takes aim at House of Lords December 19, 2011 Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg yesterday set out his stall for reforming the House of Lords, which he slammed as “an affront” to democratic ideals. In a speech about “the values of the open society”, the Liberal Democrat leader said the country was “hobbled by closed institutions” and that there would be a bill to [...]
BT sues Google in US patent court December 19, 2011 Telecoms firm BT has launched legal action against Google in the US over patent infringement in a number of key areas for the technology group such as mobile map services. BT said yesterday that it had filed a claim relating to six patents which BT says are infringed by such services as Android, Google Maps, [...]
Hopes rise of end to bitter pensions row December 19, 2011 NHS workers last night moved closer to a deal on controversial pension reforms despite some civil servants and teachers rejecting the coalition’s “final” offer. A union source said an agreement in principle covering at least 450,000 health workers had been hammered out with government officials. More talks are due to take place over local government [...]
AT&T gives up on its $39bn takeover December 19, 2011 AT&T has agreed to drop its $39bn (£25bn) takeover bid for T-Mobile USA after running into a regulatory brick wall. AT&T said in a statement yesterday that it will enter a roaming agreement with T-Mobile’s German owner Deutsche Telekom instead. Prospects for AT&T’s plan to buy the firm, first announced in March, have been dwindling [...]
Bank of America shares slide to their lowest since March 2009 December 19, 2011 SHARES of Bank of America closed below $5 yesterday for the first time since the depths of the bear market in March 2009. The stock closed at $4.99, down four per cent, after dropping as low as $4.92. Bank of America accounted for roughly six per cent of composite volume on the New York Stock [...]
RBS must shrink but Lloyds wins the day December 19, 2011 STATE-OWNED RBS must shrink and sell off its investment bank on a scale far greater than its management had previously suggested, the chancellor announced yesterday. But George Osborne confirmed the government will implement the Vickers Commission’s ring-fence proposal and said that semi-nationalised Lloyds had never faced any intervention to alter its sale of 632 branches. [...]
HSBC gets loophole in Vickers proposals December 19, 2011 HSBC scored a major lobbying victory yesterday after the government inserted a loophole into the Vickers Commission proposals that could exempt the bank from its most onerous capital requirements. The bank had warned that issuing a swathe of new debt instruments as per the Vickers recommendations could cost it $2.1bn extra a year. In response, [...]
Basel clarifies disclosure rules on bank capital December 19, 2011 BANKS across the world will have to use a common format for disclosing the size and quality of their capital safety buffers from 2013 to help reassure investors they are stable. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, made up of regulators from nearly 30 countries, including the US, China, Japan and large EU countries, published [...]
VICKERS: WHAT HAPPENS NOW? December 19, 2011 Q. Do we finally have all the details of the coalition’s bank reform? A. No. All we have are the main outlines of its response to the Vickers Commission. Although some elements are clear, the most important details, such as precisely where the Treasury will come down on capital requirements and how the ring-fence will [...]
