Carry trading geysers a risk for Iceland August 31, 2011 ON the surface of things, Iceland appears to be on the road to recovery. However, trouble could be bubbling under the country’s crust. On 17 August, it took the decision to raise its main interest rate by a quarter point to 4.5 per cent, the first such move since the country’s banks collapsed in 2008. [...]
Banking profits face Vickers hit August 31, 2011 BRITAIN’S banks could see earnings slashed by nearly a third due to reforms proposed by John Vickers and his Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), analysts have said. But they will at least have several years to implement the reforms. An aide to Nick Clegg has told City A.M. that despite fiery rhetoric from Vince Cable, [...]
US tries to block $39bn AT&T bid August 31, 2011 US regulators have sensationally moved to block AT&T’s $39bn (£24bn) takeover of T-Mobile USA over competition concerns. The move, which AT&T has vowed to fight, could cost the telecoms provider a staggering $6bn in break-up fees, including $3bn in cash, mobile spectrum and a roaming agreement. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit yesterday claiming that eliminating [...]
Darroch invests salary in Sky August 31, 2011 BSkyB’s chief executive could be set for a bumper payday after piling the equivalent of a full year’s wage into a lucrative share plan. Jeremy Darroch has agreed to buy £384,670 worth of shares at £6.41 a share, accounting for almost his entire after-tax salary of £426,240. Sky will match his investment with £1.3m worth [...]
Bank reforms missing the big picture August 31, 2011 IT is hard to know whether to laugh or whether to cry about the latest round of banker-bashing, fuelled as ever by Vince Cable, who always knows exactly what the public wants to hear, though rarely what the economy actually needs. The biggest problem, as ever, is that the argument about the Independent Commission on [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 31, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES TOBACCO TRADE GROUP CHIEF QUITS The head of the UK tobacco industry’s main trade body has resigned after failing to persuade the coalition government to rescind anti-tobacco measures introduced under Labour. Christopher Ogden will step down in October following a review of the organisation’s structure initiated by its members, British American Tobacco, Imperial [...]
Record yen intervention in Japan August 31, 2011 Japanese authorities splashed a fresh daily record high of 4.513 trillion yen (£36.2bn) on currency intervention last month, official data revealed yesterday. The measures were overseen by then-minister of finance Yoshihiko Noda, who has since been named as the country’s new Prime Minister. The Bank of Japan is believed to have intervened in the currency [...]
Triple IPO for Mongolian miner August 31, 2011 Mongolia’s government plans to list state-owned Erdenes-Tavan Tolgoi, which controls one of the world’s largest untapped coking coal deposits, in Hong Kong, London and Ulan Bator. The initial public offering in the three cities would take place if the government could “overcome technical and logistical hurdles”, it said. The Tavan Tolgoi deposit, in Mongolia’s south [...]
Merkel gets bailout relief August 31, 2011 GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel won vital backing from her cabinet for changes to the Eurozone’s main bailout fund yesterday, prompting a short relief rally in the euro. The proposed changes to the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) must now go to Germany’s lower house for ratification on 29 September, where Merkel is expected to face [...]
Darling: I almost got rid of exasperating Mervyn King August 31, 2011 FORMER chancellor Alistair Darling has revealed that he and Gordon Brown almost fired Bank of England governor Mervyn King in 2008. In extracts of his forthcoming memoir that have appeared online, Darling calls King “amazingly stubborn and exasperating” and suggests that his term as governor would not have been renewed for a second time had [...]
