Tchenguiz to hire Leeson’s star lawyer March 15, 2011 VINCENT Tchenguiz, who has blamed the recent Serious Fraud Office (SFO) raids at his offices for one of his companies falling into administration, yesterday appointed Stephen Pollard (pictured), rogue trader Nick Leeson’s former lawyer, as his new legal adviser. Pollard, who is one of the City’s most experienced criminal lawyers, takes the reins from John [...]
BoE board critical of King’s politics March 15, 2011 MEMBERS of the Bank of England’s oversight board voiced their unease at its politicisation at a parliamentary meeting yesterday. Four members of the supervisory Court of the Bank of England admitted they were uncomfortable with how the Bank had been drawn into politics and governor Mervyn King’s words had been used by ministers. Former industrialist [...]
KBC cancels bank sale to Hindujas March 15, 2011 Belgian bancassurer KBC Group yesterday cancelled the proposed €1.35bn (£1.2bn) sale of its private banking arm to Indian group Hinduja after failing to win regulatory approval for the deal. The collapse of the deal sets back KBC’s plan to free up capital to pay back state aid and means any eventual sale could be done [...]
Openreach hires new chief exec March 15, 2011 BT’s local access network business, Openreach, has promoted Olivia Garfield to chief executive, taking over from Steve Robertson who has led Openreach since it was founded in 2005. Garfield has been a director for the group covering strategy and regulation since 2005. In her new role as Openreach CEO, she will be in charge of [...]
Too big to fail firms face new rules March 15, 2011 US regulators yesterday laid out plans for dismantling “too big to fail” financial firms to avoid future bailouts or bankruptcies. The Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law is aimed at giving government powers they lacked in 2008 when big financial firms that weren’t organised as banks were collapsing. Under new rules the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp can take [...]
UBS subpoenaed by SEC March 15, 2011 INVESTORS ditched UBS shares yesterday after the bank’s annual report said that it is being investigated for possible manipulation of data submitted to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA). The bank’s stock closed down 2.34 per cent at SwFr16.7 after the shock revelation that it has been subpoenaed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [...]
Barclays in rush to exit Protium March 15, 2011 REGULATORS could try to force Barclays to shift a raft of toxic assets back onto its balance sheet, the bank’s annual report revealed yesterday. In a section regarding the special purpose vehicle (SPV) Protium, which Barclays created last year for accounting purposes, the bank said: “The ongoing review of Barclays financial statements by regulators includes [...]
Deutsche’s Jain trumps Ackermann March 15, 2011 DEUTSCHE Bank paid the head of its investment banking division, Anshuman Jain, just under €12m (£6.57m) in salary, bonus and benefits last year, more than chief executive Josef Ackermann’s €9m compensation The bank’s annual report, published yesterday, reveals that board salaries and bonuses alone amounted to €32.43m last year, of which €9.41m was salary and [...]
Collins Stewart brand to add Hawkpoint March 15, 2011 MID-CAP broker Collins Stewart is to re-brand itself to reflect its growing number of joint mandates with its recent acquisition, Hawkpoint. The resulting entity, Collins Stewart Hawkpoint, would only use the new name for specific advisory work and is subject to shareholder approval. The announcement came as the broker posted a moderate increase in earnings [...]
Profits up at Close Bros March 15, 2011 INVESTMENT bank Close Brothers grew its pre-tax profit by five per cent and funds under management by a fifth to £8.3bn in the six months to January 2011, it said yesterday. Banking division profits – its core activity – rose by a third as it extended more lending, pushing its loan book up nine per [...]
