Let us hope we get the right reforms April 10, 2011 It was spun by George Osborne as an attempt to take the politics out of banking. Yet the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) has achieved the opposite: its interim report, out this morning, will merely kick-start the bitter row over how banks should be regulated. Banker-bashing, which had subsided in recent weeks, will rear its [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 10, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BIG MEDIA NAMES BACK BOUTIQUE BANK RAINE Eric Schmidt, Sean Parker, Peter Chernin and other big names from the media and technology sectors have invested in a merchant bank started by two ex-Wall Street dealmakers and Ari Emanuel, head of William Morris Endeavor talent agency. CAPITAL RULES DEAL A BLOW TO LIFE ASSURERS [...]
Citigroup tower up for sale April 10, 2011 The iconic Citigroup tower in Canary Wharf has been put on the market for more than £1bn, according to a report in the Financial Times. Private investors Glenn Maud and Derek Quinlan have hired agent Jones Lang LaSalle to scope out interested bidders for 25 Canada Square, which is currently the UK’s third-tallest building. Maud [...]
Ronson forms private equity firm April 10, 2011 Property tycoon Gerald Ronson has launched a private equity group, backed by Middle Eastern investors, to buy up central London real estate. Ronson Capital Partners is funded by the Heron founder’s personal fortune and investors including an Omani sovereign wealth fund. Its first investment is an office building in Marylebone, which was owned by Targetfollow [...]
NYSE rejects merger bid from Nasdaq April 10, 2011 THE DIRECTORS of NYSE Euronext have snubbed a rival merger bid from Nasdaq OMX Group, giving rise to the possibility of a hostile takeover attempt. The firm said it still firmly backs an offer from Deutsche Boerse, saying the joint Nasdaq / InterContinental Exchange offer carried significant execution risk and was less likely to close. [...]
Iceland faces court over its refusal to pay out for Icesave April 10, 2011 LEGAL action will be taken to claw back billions of pounds of British savers’ cash from collapsed Icelandic banks, the chief secretary to the Treasury has signalled. Plans to pay back money lost in Icesave accounts were rejected for a second time by Icelanders in a referendum held over the weekend. Danny Alexander called the [...]
Tide is turning towards interest rate hike, says Bank’s Sentance April 10, 2011 THE BALANCE of opinion is turning towards a gradual rise in interest rates, the Bank of England’s chief hawk Andrew Sentence said yesterday. “I’m not sure I am swimming against the tide because I think the balance of opinion has been shifting in that direction,” Sentance said, referring to the growing support for normalisation of [...]
Boris favours ring-fencing of UK banks April 10, 2011 LONDON mayor Boris Johnson, a staunch defender of the City, has said that he supports a form of ring-fencing, or subsidiarisation, of banks’ activities to promote financial stability. The mayor was speaking a day before the publication of an interim report by the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), which will release its initial findings this [...]
Spotlight on famous five of the Commission April 10, 2011 The spotlight will today be on the “famous five” members of the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) as it presents its 200-page interim report. Two of the commission’s five members come from a banking background, which banks might hope will make them sympathetic to the difficult of running a major lender in current regulatory conditions. [...]
City in partial support of Vickers April 10, 2011 THE majority of people working in the City believe banks should be forced to draw up contingency plans for their own demise, with eighty-four per cent in favour of mandatory ‘living wills’ for banks, according to the latest City A.M./PoliticsHome “Voice of the City” poll. The support for wind-down plans throws the weight of the [...]
