LLOYDS POISED TO PAY £100M IN BONUS TAX December 14, 2009 LLOYDS Banking Group, which yesterday successfully completed a record-breaking £13.5bn rights issue, is preparing to pay out its bonus pool in full. The move, which follows mounting anger in the City over the government’s super-tax, will see the firm having to hand over an estimated £100m in payments to the Treasury as part of the [...]
FIRST TULLETT – NOW US BANKS MULL EXIT December 14, 2009 WALL STREET banks are seriously considering relocating many of their European bankers out of London following the bonus super-tax, sources have told City A.M. The industry has been working closely with its US-based lobby group, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), to decide whether to relocate some Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) [...]
NEWS | IN BRIEF December 14, 2009 Google to pair phone with T-Mobile Google plans to sell two versions of its own-branded mobile phone: one with a service contract with T-Mobile USA and another that is unlocked, a source familiar with the matter said last night. The phone, manufactured by HTC, has a number of code names such as HTC Passion, Dream [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 14, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES COUNCILS THREATEN ICELAND BANK ACTION Council leaders have threatened to launch legal proceedings against a failed Icelandic bank which they fear will not repay £150m in deposits made by local authorities before the credit crunch. British councils had £900m of deposits in Iceland when a trio of its banks collapsed. So far barely [...]
BA in winter of discontent December 14, 2009 BRITISH AIRWAYS (BA) is facing hundreds of thousands of pounds of losses after its cabin crew voted overwhelmingly in favour of a 12-day strike, threatening to paralyse the airline over the peak Christmas and New Year period. A bitter row over jobs, pay and working conditions escalated yesterday, when more than 12,000 BA members of [...]
Selfish strikes to cripple British Airways December 14, 2009 WHAT a tragic outcome at British Airways. The airline’s management is hardly perfect but it is almost unbelievable that BA’s staff have chosen to walk out like this. The strike – supported by an astonishing 92 per cent of those voting – will last for 12 hellish days from 22 December to 2 January, ruining [...]
BNYM man will not run BofA December 14, 2009 BANK of New York Mellon chief executive Bob Kelly said in a memo to employees yesterday that he was not leaving the bank, quashing speculation he was in new talks to become Bank of America’s next chief executive for the second time in two months. “Given some of the press reports we have seen in [...]
Sarkozy unveils €35bn state aid December 14, 2009 FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday unveiled a €35bn (£31bn) “grand loan” the government will take out to fund universities, renewable energy and the digital economy. Of the total, €22bn will be raised through government borrowing, with the rest coming from bailout money repaid by banks to the French government. France’s universities are the main beneficiary [...]
Citi and Wells Fargo to pay back bailouts December 14, 2009 CITIGROUP and Wells Fargo yesterday became the last two major US banks to repay the bailout money they received from the US government. This means they will escape the restrictions on cash bonuses imposed under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp). Citigroup said it would repay $20bn (£12bn) while Wells Fargo will pay back $25bn. [...]
Obama criticises banks over lending December 14, 2009 PRESIDENT Barack Obama took top US bankers to task yesterday, telling them to lend more money to small businesses and to embrace financial reforms. A day after calling bankers “fat cats,” Obama said since they had benefited from taxpayer bailouts they owed “an extraordinary commitment” to help rebuild the economy. “Given the exceptional assistance banks [...]
