News International ready to pay £3m to family of Milly Dowler September 19, 2011 THE FAMILY of the murdered schoolgirl whose phone was hacked by News of the World journalists are close to finalising a record £3m payout from the paper’s owner. Milly Dowler’s parents are understood to be ready to accept the mammoth sum from Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper business, with a sizable portion earmarked for a charity. Sources close [...]
It’s time to quit investment banking September 19, 2011 UBS SHOULD quit investment banking. Not because it is inherently risky, nor because regulators or politicians say so. It should shut – or at least dramatically shrink – the investment bank because it isn’t very good. Consider this: since the start of 2009, the investment bank at UBS has only posted a pre-tax operating profit [...]
UBS executive Kengeter hits out at media September 19, 2011 UBS’s investment banking chief Carsten Kengeter has blamed the media for providing “ill-informed” coverage of the lender’s losses from its “rogue” trading fiasco. In a letter sent to employees of the battered division yesterday, he wrote: “Do not be distracted by the often ill-informed media commentary around this event. It will fade quickly as the [...]
Oh for the days of the Warburg powerhouse September 19, 2011 EVEN before the discovery of the rogue trades at UBS last week, there had been much discussion about the future of the Swiss-based bank’s investment arm. Sceptics say that UBS, which owns the Warburg name that was such a powerhouse in London until its sale to Swiss Bank (itself later taken over by UBS) in [...]
Credit Suisse to settle tax case September 19, 2011 CREDIT Suisse is to pay a fine of €150m (£130.5m) to end an investigation of its employees in Düsseldorf over allegations they helped citizens dodge taxes. Switzerland’s banking secrecy rules, which have been used by foreigners to hide money, have come under pressure in recent years as their cash-strapped governments try to crack down on [...]
Swiss reject ban on risky banks September 19, 2011 THE Swiss parliament narrowly rejected a bid yesterday to ban risky investment banking at its big lenders, put forward by in response to UBS’s statement it had lost $2.3bn (£1.47bn) on unauthorised trades. Social Democrat Susanne Leutenegger Oberholzer yesterday asked parliament to discuss a ban on investment banking as part of a debate on tough [...]
Lloyds begins hunt for new finance chief September 19, 2011 LLOYDS has kicked off the search to replace its chief financial officer Tim Tookey after he quit to move back into the insurance industry at Friends Life. Tookey’s departure makes him the third executive to fall by the wayside during chief executive during Horta-Osório’s seven-month tenure, completing a clean-out of the executive board that was [...]
Buxton: Vickers’ bad ideas will drive our banks to Asia September 19, 2011 A MAJOR investor in British banks has slammed the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) as “completely unnecessary” and likely to drive HSBC and Standard Chartered to Asia. Speaking during a web-conference, Schroders’ head of UK equities Richard Buxton (pictured), who manages a £2.9bn UK fund, said: “On a three-year time horizon, is it extremely likely [...]
Ocado slumps as its margins are squeezed September 19, 2011 ONLINE grocer Ocado said yesterday that sales growth slowed in the third quarter and full-year profit margins were likely to be lower than expected as the company ploughed cash back into the company. The company, whose stock floated at 180p in July 2010, said growth was held back by capacity constraints. Ocado said gross sales [...]
French Connection boosted as profits begin to recover September 19, 2011 FASHION group French Connection said it was firmly back on a growth path, highlighting major overseas opportunities as it posted a rise in half-year profit yesterday. The retailer, which has sold off or closed a string of underperforming businesses, including Nicole Farhi, made a pre-tax profit of £700,000 in the six months to 31 July, [...]
