Profile: Andrea Orcel October 30, 2012 WHEN Andrea Orcel left Bank of America Merrill Lynch earlier this year to join UBS as its co-head of investment banking, many in the City believed it was only a matter of time before he claimed the top job, writes David Hellier. Yesterday the Swiss bank announced that Orcel will be leading the advisory functions [...]
Debt business lifts Deutsche Bank’s profits October 30, 2012 IMPROVED investor sentiment and rising market activity pushed Deutsche Bank’s debt incomes up in the third quarter, the institution reported yesterday, contributing to a boom in profits. And the bank plans to continue to grow strongly by seizing market share from Swiss bank UBS, which is cutting back its investment business to focus on areas [...]
Standard Chartered gets close to settling Iran sanction claims October 30, 2012 STANDARD Chartered saw profits rise in the third quarter, according to its update published yesterday, although its progress was slowed by the cost of settling claims made by US regulators that it broke sanctions against Iran. The emerging market specialist recorded “high single-digit” profit growth, knocking its hopes of upping profits by 10 per cent [...]
Disney feels the force with $4bn Star Wars deal October 30, 2012 DISNEY yesterday shocked the film industry by announcing it was buying Lucasfilm, the owner of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, for $4.05bn (£2.52bn). The American media giant’s purchase follows on from multi-billion dollar acquisitions of superhero franchise Marvel and animation studio Pixar in recent years. Disney, famous for animated films featuring the likes [...]
HBOS risk boss says lessons of failure have not been learned October 30, 2012 A FORMER whistleblower and risk head at failed bank HBOS yesterday warned lessons had not been learned from the crisis. Paul Moore told peers and MPs that there was a “threatening” culture at the bank, where senior executives ignored his warnings over risk and stability. “If your job was to check people out, there was [...]
Hurricane Sandy leaves insurers with $10bn bill October 30, 2012 INSURERS yesterday began counting the cost of this week’s US superstorm, amid predictions that it will be even costlier than last year’s Hurricane Irene. Disaster exposure specialist RMS said the insurance bill will be larger than the $4.5bn (£2.8bn) that the industry paid out after Irene. This follows early estimates from rival firm Eqecat that [...]
New York Stock Exchange set to resume full trading today October 30, 2012 THE NEW York Stock Exchange will re-open today, little more than 24 hours after the passing of the monster storm and severe flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy. “NYSE Euronext will open for normal trading operations in coordination with all US equities, bonds, options and derivatives markets,” the exchange said. “Trading will commence on the New [...]
Freeze delays firms’ results October 30, 2012 DOZENS of US companies were forced to delay the release of earnings reports yesterday as the market was frozen for a second day. The likes of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, financial news provider Thomson Reuters and power firm NRG, were all set to report either today or yesterday, but delayed until later in the week. Others [...]
Obama consoles heartbroken cities ahead of looming vote October 30, 2012 PRESIDENT Barack Obama cancelled campaign appearances in Ohio due today and scheduled a trip to New Jersey instead to survey damage caused by powerful storm Sandy, a move designed to portray him as a strong leader a week before the election next week. Obama, who is in a close race with Republican rival Mitt Romney, [...]
UBS trader Adoboli tells court that he lost control October 30, 2012 FORMER UBS trader Kweku Adoboli told a London court yesterday he “lost control” in the summer of 2011 but insisted he never acted dishonestly in the frantic weeks that resulted in losses of $2.3bn (£1.43bn). Ending an emotional three-day defence against charges of fraud and false accounting, a tearful Adoboli said he was “devastated” and [...]
