Spain’s debt costs rise June 15, 2010 SPAIN’S financing costs jumped at a T-bill auction yesterday but demand was solid as a newspaper reported a government move to reassure investors over the strength of Spanish banks. The Treasury issued just over €5bn in 12-month and 18-month bills. Average yields jumped more than 70 basis points from May’s auction in a sign of [...]
European Commission asks for fresh austerity plan details June 15, 2010 SPAIN’S and Portugal’s fiscal tightening plans this year and next are appropriately ambitious but both countries should spell out in more detail austerity steps planned for 2011, the European Commission said yesterday. Apart from Spain and Portugal, in focus because of some financial market concerns about their ability to service debt, the European Union’s executive [...]
Greek bonds face a 5pc penalty when used as security at ECB June 15, 2010 GREEK government bonds will attract an extra five per cent penalty when banks use them as security for European Central Bank funds, an ECB spokesman said yesterday after Moody’s cut the country’s debt to junk status. The extra “haircut” means commercial banks will receive less money in exchange for Greek bonds than they would if [...]
IMF set for crunch talks June 15, 2010 The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, will travel to Spain this Friday for talks on the economy with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. “He is in Europe this week, and is taking this opportunity to discuss global economic developments with the Prime Minister, and to consult with him on developments in [...]
Germany keeps focus on exports June 15, 2010 Germany has no intention of dropping its focus on exports to help boost the economies of its European Union partners, it said yesterday, despite adopting a conciliatory tone towards France on EU economic management. Ahead of this week’s European Union summit, chancellor Angela Merkel met France’s Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday and agreed that Europe needed [...]
Euro at two-week high June 15, 2010 The euro rallied to a two-week high against the dollar yesterday due to solid demand at European debt auctions soothed worries about the debt crisis. It rose 0.9 per cent to $1.2330.
SocGen rogue faked a name to cover bets June 15, 2010 FORMER Société Générale trader Jérôme Kerviel admitted creating a fake client called “Matt” to cover massive unauthorised bets with a broker yesterday. The 33-year-old told a court on the sixth day of his trial how he had lied to broker Moussa Bakir about the driven, rugby-loving “Matt”, who worked for a hedge fund, in response [...]
Sole bidder Santander makes £1.5bn pitch for RBS branches June 15, 2010 ROYAL Bank of Scotland is hoping to seal a £1.5bn sale of its 318 Williams & Glyn branches to Santander by the third quarter, a source said last night, as the Spanish bank tabled the only final-round bid. The deadline for offers was Monday. RBS, 83 per cent state-owned, is being forced to sell the [...]
Trio of efficiency experts drafted in to mobilise review of spending June 15, 2010 THE government has appointed cost-cutting stalwarts Sir Peter Gershon, Dr Martin Read and Lucy Neville-Rolfe to advise on tackling waste in public services, the Cabinet Office announced yesterday. The trio will form part of the Efficiency and Reform Group which is charged with finding savings in procurement, property and workforce costs. All three have advised [...]
Spice rejects £200m offer June 15, 2010 UTILITIES support firm Spice rejected a takeover bid by private equity group Cinven in May, the company said yesterday. Cinven announced the spurned bid after shares in Spice jumped seven per cent during trading yesterday. The offer of 56p per share took place on 24 May, a week before Spice disposed of its loss-making gas [...]
