Brits employ selves in dip February 6, 2013 SELF-EMPLOYMENT has boomed through the slow economic recovery, driven by an influx of middle-aged men, according to data out yesterday. Since 2008, 367,000 more UK residents have become self-employed, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, bringing the total to 4.2m, an all-time record. The average age of this 4.2m cohort is 47, the ONS [...]
Turner calls for money printing February 6, 2013 PRINTING money should not be taboo, outgoing City watchdog boss Lord Turner said last night, as it can be beneficial in small doses. The Bank of England currently boosts the money supply through buying gilts, with most economists holding that printing cash instead could lead to hyperinflation like in Zimbabwe or early-1920s Germany. But departing [...]
New owners of Virgin Media to avoid TV war February 6, 2013 VIRGIN Media’s new owners yesterday pledged business would continue as usual, despite the telecoms firm’s chief executive announcing he would step down. After signing a $23.3bn (£14.9bn) agreement to buy the company, bosses at Liberty Global played down suggestions of massive investments in TV rights that would heighten Virgin Media’s competition with Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB. [...]
Results that show why Malone made his move February 6, 2013 ANOTHER day older and deeper in debt: that’s Virgin Media, with its new soon-to-be-owner Liberty Global announcing a plan to add $3bn (£1.9bn) to its existing £5.723bn net debt pile. Overall, however, the deal makes a great deal of sense for the UK’s quadruple-play specialist, as I discussed yesterday. An understandable interest in the nuts [...]
RBS wants to move on from Libor scandal February 6, 2013 STATE-BACKED bank RBS struck a two-year deferred prosecution deal with US authorities, admitting responsibility and paying an extra $100m (£63.8m) as one condition of the settlement agreed yesterday. The bank’s Japanese arm pleaded guilty to one charge of wire fraud under the deal with the American Department of Justice (DoJ), while the deferral agreement with [...]
Bankers lose bonuses to cover huge interest rate-fixing fine February 6, 2013 CHANCELLOR George Osborne yesterday claimed a victory for taxpayers as the bank said its bonus pool would be reduced and previous payouts to bankers clawed back in light of the fine. Over the weekend Osborne called for staff to pay the fine, and RBS said yesterday roughly £300m will be cut from pay packets. “What [...]
Hester sorry investment chief Hourican took fall for debacle February 6, 2013 RBS’ investment banking head has lost his job and around £4m in bonuses and shares because he is the senior banker closest to the Libor fixing, rather than because he was involved. Chief executive Stephen Hester said a head near the top of the bank had to roll to show bosses are accountable for the [...]
Euribor probe at Deutsche February 6, 2013 DEUTSCHE Bank is believed to have suspended five traders over its ongoing internal investigation into Euribor manipulation. The German lender suspended two others late last year for involvement in Libor rigging. “Upon discovering that certain employees acted inappropriately, we have suspended or dismissed employees, clawed back unvested compensation, and will continue to do so as [...]
Gulliver admits HSBC was too large to police February 6, 2013 HSBC was forced into its biggest restructuring in almost 150 years because the bank’s complex structure made it attractive to criminals, its chief executive admitted yesterday. “Our structure was not fit for purpose for a modern world,” Stuart Gulliver told the parliamentary commission on banking standards. “Our geographic footprint became very attractive to transnational criminal [...]
Osborne does the wrong thing while Hourican takes the fall February 6, 2013 DEPUTY heads must roll. It’s impossible to decrypt yesterday’s Libor-rigging settlement between Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and regulators in the UK and US without being reminded of that immortal phrase. John Hourican, who will step down as the boss of RBS’s investment bank at the end of April, is entitled to feel hard done [...]
