Cyber crime costs £27bn February 17, 2011 INTERNET crime costs the British economy more than £27bn a year and appears to be “endemic”, according to the first government-sponsored study of online fraud, released yesterday. Businesses are worst affected, taking an estimated £21bn hit last year, though the government also lost £2.2bn and individuals were ripped off to the tune of £3.1bn in [...]
New universal credit will make work pay: Cameron February 17, 2011 PRIME Minister David Cameron yesterday promised his new welfare reforms would “make work pay” and simplify the benefits system. The changes would replace all existing working age benefits with a single “universal credit,” and ensure that claimants are always better off when they find work, Cameron claimed. “The benefit system has created a benefit culture,” [...]
Credit Suisse sells $2bn at coco auction February 17, 2011 CREDIT Suisse yesterday sold $2bn (£1.24bn) of contingent convertible bonds (cocos) at a public auction that saw strong demand, following its issuance of €6bn’s worth of the convertible bonds to longstanding investors. They were sold with a coupon rate of 7.88 per cent, lower than expected given that the three-year cocos the bank sold earlier in [...]
ECB overnight lending up to 20-month high February 17, 2011 FIGURES released yesterday show that use of the European Central Bank’s overnight lending facility spiked to a twenty-month high at €15.8bn versus a usual amount of below €1bn. The spike prompted fears that a Eurozone bank could be encountering trouble as the ECB attempts to withdraw emergency liquidity, although some analysts blamed it on a “fat [...]
Morgan Stanley to get Northern Rock UKFI deal February 17, 2011 UK FINANCIAL Investments, the government body in charge of managing public stakes in bailed-out institutions, is soon to appoint Morgan Stanley to advise on the sale of the Northern Rock “good bank” later this year. The sale will follow the auction of 318 RBS branches sold to Santander UK last summer for £1.65bn and is likely to attract [...]
CITY VIEWS: DOES CYBER CRIME WORRY YOU? February 17, 2011 ADIL KHAN | ERNST & YOUNG “I have been a victim of online fraud and my bank was quite helpful and refunded it, so it’s clearly widespread. The £27bn figure doesn’t surprise me, given the scale of online shopping these days. It’s only going to increase as more is done on the internet.” VINAY SHRIVASTAVA | [...]
Profits at BNP hit by one-off writedown February 17, 2011 BNP PARIBAS fourth-quarter profits missed analysts’ expectations yesterday despite a rise in revenue, after it had to write down the value of its stake in insurance firm Axa. The €534m (£348m) Axa charge was put down to stock market volatility, which saw Axa shares drop well below their book value. BNP holds a 5.2 per [...]
Axa profit down on life sale losses February 17, 2011 FRENCH insurer Axa saw its 2010 profits cut by almost a quarter after losing €1.64bn (£1.38bn) from the sale of part of its UK life business last year, it said yesterday. Profit fell 24 per cent to €2.75bn from €3.6bn after it sold the majority of its life business to closed-end life manager Resolution for [...]
Swiss Re repays Buffett’s $1.1bn February 17, 2011 THE world’s second-largest reinsurer Swiss Re reported a lower-than-expected $863m (£536m) net profit yesterday after announcing it had repaid $1.1bn in loans extended by Warren Buffett in the financial crisis. Analysts had expected $1.2bn profits but the final figure was still 74 per cent higher than in 2009. Chief executive Stefan Lippe said the company [...]
IT’S A NEW CHANNEL, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT February 17, 2011 WITH viewers of Virgin Media unable to watch Sky’s new flagship channel Sky Atlantic because of a failure of the two groups to agree on price, chief executive Neil Berkett and his team were keen to downplay its attractions yesterday. Berkett described the channel as “completely unproven” while a colleague somewhat contemptuously chipped in to [...]
