Coalition’s attacks on City must stop September 21, 2010 PLAIN awful. That is the only way to describe yesterday’s government borrowing figures, which saw the deficit jump to another record for August, dashing hopes the public finances were improving of their own accord. Revenue growth was tolerable at 6.3 per cent. What was shocking was that government current spending jumped 11 per cent year [...]
HSBC to pick new chair September 21, 2010 HSBC will choose and announce a replacement for outgoing chairman Stephen Green at a board meeting in Shanghai next Tuesday. Current chief executive Michael Geoghegan is understood to be hopeful of his imminent appointment, given the company’s track record of elevating chief executives to the role of chairman. However, former Goldman Sachs investment banker John [...]
Public sector borrowing hits record levels September 21, 2010 PUBLIC sector net borrowing reached a record high in August, surprising analysts who had expected the figure to have dropped since last year. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) said public sector net borrowing stood at £15.9bn in August, up from £14.1bn in the same month last year and the highest rate since records began [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 21, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES MOVES TO WEAKEN YEN NOT OVER, SAYS KAN Japan stands ready to intervene again in foreign exchange markets, but also plans to put in place broader economic and monetary policies that will help to weaken the yen, according to Naoto Kan, the prime minister. Mr Kan stressed that Tokyo’s yen-selling intervention last week [...]
US Fed makes waves with hints of QE2 September 21, 2010 THE US Federal Reserve suggested it could enter another round of quantitative easing (QE) yesterday, as its rate-setting panel met in Washington to decide whether to intervene in the shaky economy. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) departed from previous language in its monthly statement, saying it “is prepared to provide additional accommodation if needed [...]
BoA Merrill investment bank staff set for job cull September 21, 2010 ALMOST three per cent of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s 13,000 investment banking staff are set to be culled in order to improve performance, including employees in Europe. Nearly 400 people are due to be chopped from the global banking and markets division across all global regions, though twice that number have been hired already [...]
Deutsche Bank set for a third quarter loss September 21, 2010 Deutsche Bank yesterday said sales and trading activity during July and August was weaker than a year ago, providing a warning shot that third-quarter investment banking earnings could be weak across the board. In a trading update provided as part of the prospectus for Deutsche Bank’s planned €10.2bn (£8.6bn) capital increase, Germany’s flagship lender said [...]
Turner warns over costs of FSA shake-up September 21, 2010 FINANCIAL Services Authority (FSA) chairman Lord Adair Turner last night warned there would be transitional problems when the watchdog is disbanded and replaced. “All operational demergers entail some costs as well as benefits, and some risk to current operations,” he said at his Mansion House Speech. Turner assured his audience that within two years the [...]
Politicians target the City September 21, 2010 FIGURES?from across the political establishment lined up to renew their attacks on the City yesterday, in a sign that populist banker bashing is unlikely to fizzle out any time soon. Senior Liberal Democrats led the pack at their conference in Liverpool, as party leaders tried to convince members they have not sold out by sharing [...]
Graduate tax will reward dropouts, say directors September 21, 2010 A coalition plan to replace upfront university tuition fees with a graduate tax has come in for fierce criticism from company directors, who say it will reward failure. The Institute of Directors said the levy, which would be applied to future earnings, would hit hard working students and encourage people to quit the UK to [...]
