Darling: no pre-election giveaways March 21, 2010 ALISTAIR Darling yesterday said Wednesday’s budget would be “sensible and workmanlike”, as he dampened speculation over a raft of pre-election giveaways. Gordon Brown has been trying to convince the chancellor to unveil a series of vote-winning sweeteners ahead of an election on 6 May, because annual government borrowing is expected to undershoot forecasts by between [...]
Greece should stand unaided March 21, 2010 GREECE does not need any financial support and European Union leaders should not make the question of aid for the indebted country a focus of their summit this week in Brussels, Angela Merkel said yesterday. In a radio interview, the German Chancellor said she feared causing turbulence in financial markets by raising “false expectations” about [...]
A better scheme to reform March 21, 2010 GIVEN the unpopularity of the City, it is no surprise that the political parties are competing to introduce a Barack Obama-style tax on banks’ balance sheets. The Tories announced their unilateral plans at the weekend, supposedly to pay for the bailout; and Alistair Darling will reiterate his support for an internationally-agreed version to pay for [...]
Credit Suisse bans travel March 21, 2010 CREDIT Suisse said it is restricting its bankers’ travel to Germany after authorities there said they had launched 1,100 tax evasion probes against the bank’s clients and were investigating staff on suspicion of aiding evasion. The probe into Switzerland’s second-largest bank by assets relates to a CD with client data bought by the German state [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 21, 2010 THE SUNDAYS The Sunday Telegraph ITV’S NEW CHAIRMAN: UK FACES ‘NATIONAL CRISIS’ Archie Norman, the chairman of ITV, has said that the UK is facing an economic “national crisis” worse than that faced by Margaret Thatcher at the end of the 1970s. In his first interview since becoming chairman of the broadcaster, Norman also revealed [...]
Fuld faces fresh Lehman probe March 21, 2010 Dick Fuld, the former Lehman Brothers boss who became a symbol of the financial crisis when he was photographed surrounded by protesters’ placards in 2008, faces a congressional hearing into the bank’s collapse. Fuld will be questioned in April following a report into Lehman’s use of the controversial “Repo 105” accounting method which concealed a [...]
Virgin steps up bid to buy RBS branches March 21, 2010 VIRGIN Money is stepping up its plan to bid for 320 Royal Bank of Scotland branches with a book value of around £2bn. The firm confirmed it has hired Greenhill to help prepare a bid before the 6 April deadline for submissions of interest. It hopes to become a major player in the internet banking [...]
Tide of executive defections continues apace at Nomura March 21, 2010 JAPANESE bank Nomura has lost another of its top executives to a major rival, continuing the steady trickle of talent out of the bank in the wake of its acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ Asian and European businesses. Colin Banfield, Nomura’s co-head of investment banking for the Asia Pacific region, is thought to have agreed last [...]
Skype duo launch $165m fund March 21, 2010 Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis are making a comeback with a new investment fund for European technology start-ups. The pair are reported to have raised $165m (£110m) to launch a second fund under their Atomico Ventures umbrella. The vehicle will look to pick out the future Googles and Facebooks – young companies that are [...]
Ocado beefs up board for IPO March 21, 2010 Online retailer Ocado will boost its plans to float today when it announces it has reinforced its board with David Grigson, former finance director of Reuters and Ruth Anderson, the former vice-chairman of KPMG UK as non-executive directors. The 10-year-old internet firm will also say gross sales grew by a quarter to £427.3m in the [...]
