Barclays to add €1.3bn to Spanish unit’s capital April 7, 2011 THE Spanish arm of Barclays is to undertake a €1.3bn (£1.1bn) capital hike to meet new Bank of Spain minimum solvency ratios, the bank said yesterday. The parent bank will subscribe to the entire increase, a spokesman for Barclays Spain said. “The board approved the capital increase to meet new capital requirements in Spain,” said [...]
BoE holds at 0.5 per cent April 7, 2011 INTEREST rates in the UK have now been kept at a historic low for over two years, after the Bank of England voted for no change yesterday. The Bank’s monetary policy committee voted to keep rates at their “emergency” low of 0.5 per cent. Its policy on quantitative easing also remains unchanged. Despite inflation of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 7, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES MADOFF SEEKS TO SPREAD BLAME FOR FRAUD Bernard Madoff sought to spread blame for his $65bn Ponzi scheme to banks, regulators and some of his oldest business associates in a rambling jailhouse interview with the FT. The disgraced financier offered little evidence for his claims and admitted he had lied to investors and [...]
FACT CHECKER April 7, 2011 “IS SPAIN next?” seemed to be the question on every economist’s lips this week even before Portugal bowed to the inevitable. A Spanish bailout would swamp the current €440bn bailout fund and could take the single currency with it. But there are good reasons to think that the debt contagion will stop short of Madrid. [...]
Fury over UK Lisbon cost April 7, 2011 EUROSCEPTICS have told Prime Minister David Cameron to find a way to avoid stumping up billions for Portugal’s bailout costs. Backbench Tory MP Douglas Carswell has said that the cost is unacceptable in the context of cuts at home: “There’ll be many MPs on their Easter recess this month explaining to voters on the doorstep [...]
Q&A April 7, 2011 Q. What happens next? A. As with Greece and Ireland, the Eurogroup of Eurozone finance ministers will send the Troika – representatives of the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission – to Portugal. Over three to four weeks they will assess the size of the bailout needed and any conditions [...]
CITY VIEWS: SHOULD THE UK CONTRIBUTE TO A PORTUGAL BAILOUT? April 7, 2011 ADAM WHITE | BANK OF IRELAND “No. They are part of the Eurozone so I expect the Eurozone to bail them out, not us.” CAJETAN FURTADO | JUBILEE INSURANCE “No. I think countries should look after themselves. Individuals pay taxes and vote for their laws: why help them out for bad choices?” NEIL MCMANUS | [...]
Banks said to be petrified by ICB report April 7, 2011 EXECUTIVES at Barclays are preparing for a “disaster” scenario when the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) releases its interim report on Monday, which could involve an ultra hard-line ring-fencing of bank functions. Banks are said to be “petrified” that the report could signal a major industry overhaul. In pre-briefings this week, analysts have been told [...]
Exchange merger would hit Europe April 7, 2011 THE MERGER between NYSE Euronext and German exchange Deutsche Boerse would leave Europe bearing the bulk of cost cuts, regulatory filings showed yesterday. The filings with US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission showed talks between the two chief executives started in August last year. But it showed that most of the €300m of cost [...]
Japan tremor worries markets April 7, 2011 JAPAN was hit by another serious earthquake yesterday, causing a tsunami warning to be issued and shocking stock markets. The 7.4 magnitude aftershock hit the same devastated north-eastern coastal area as the 11 March quake. Stocks slumped in London and Europe as news of the quake reached markets, but the retreat seemed to be overblown, [...]
