State Street hit by restructuring costs January 19, 2011 STATE Street, one of the world’s largest institutional investors, said quarterly earnings dropped due to costs of repositioning its portfolio and cutting jobs. The company, which also earns fees for services like record-keeping to mutual and hedge funds, said that net income fell to $81m (£50m), or 16 cents a share, from $498m, or $1 [...]
FSA sees fresh senior departure January 19, 2011 THE Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) head of supervision for UK life insurers is leaving the regulatory agency, the latest in a string of senior-staff departures. Stuart King, who has been with the regulator in a variety of roles since its creation in 1998, is leaving to become a managing director at regulatory-consulting firm Promontory Financial [...]
Swiss Wikileaks banker is guilty January 19, 2011 A SWISS banker who publicised private client data on Wikileaks was found guilty yesterday of breaching strict banking secrecy and threatening former colleagues, but was given only a suspended fine. Judge Sebastian Aeppli acquitted Rudolf Elmer on charges he sought $50,000 for returning client data to former employer Julius Baer and that he made a [...]
Stress tests come early January 19, 2011 THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) will launch the first of its mandatory health checks on big banks this week under a beefed-up inspection scheme following criticism of previous tests. The probes will start in Britain, to be followed by IMF tests of banks in Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg ahead of wider tests by [...]
Europe to share audit info globally January 19, 2011 MICHEL Barnier, the EU markets commissioner, stepped up efforts yesterday to extend scrutiny of auditors beyond the borders of the European Union. In a bid to ensure EU states access to more information about the audits done on major companies, the internal market and services commissioner has added ten non-EU states, including China, Switzerland and [...]
EU amends Solvency II guidelines January 19, 2011 THE EU clarified the powers of its new insurance and markets “super-regulators” in proposals published yesterday. The commission is to change two existing financial services directives to clear the way for the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and the European Securities and Markets Authority. The amendments, set out in its Omnibus II proposals, identify [...]
Weber is top choice for ECB January 19, 2011 THOUGH Jean-Claude Trichet does not step down as ECB president until October, the race has long been on to replace him, with Germany’s Axel Weber at the top of the pile. Weber, a former economics professor and president of Germany’s Bundesbank since 2004, has emerged as the frontrunner ahead of Bank of Italy governor Mario [...]
Demand high for UK gilts January 19, 2011 BRITAIN received a flood of bids at a sale of 25-year government bonds yesterday, after a sharp rise in inflation spurred demand for good-value gilts that are less vulnerable to a rise in Bank of England interest rates. This healthy demand for British government debt at a time of heavy public borrowing highlights the sharp [...]
Sherborne ups ante in F&C pursuit January 19, 2011 F&C Asset Management’s rebel shareholder Sherborne Investors stepped up its attack on the current board yesterday with a critique of its strategy. In a letter to shareholders, Sherborne said it had invested in F&C due to its persistently poor performance compared with peers and it believed investor concerns over strategy were the cause of its [...]
Kesa profit squeezed by Comet sales January 19, 2011 ELECTRICALS retailer Kesa yesterday warned that profits would be at the lower end of expectations due to weaker sales at its UK chain Comet. Total like-for-like sales for the period between 1 November and 18 January were down four per cent. But Comet sales plummeted 7.3 per cent as tough competition, lukewarm consumer sentiment and [...]
