Fraud squad loses 32,000 pages of probe documents August 8, 2013 THE SERIOUS Fraud Office admitted yesterday that it accidentally sent 32,000 pages of evidence to the wrong person in the wake of its investigation into BAE Systems’ arms deal with Saudi Arabia. The SFO revealed that it took a year for it to realise the mistake, in the latest embarrassment for the fraud-fighting body. Officials [...]
Bubblenomics will fuel total demand in the British economy August 8, 2013 IF THE UK economic rebound continues, the total amount of demand in the economy is likely to rise more strongly than most people realise. I write this even though I don’t think that the recovery is ultimately sustainable: it remains based on rock-bottom interest rates, excessive consumption, insufficient investment and will in any case eventually [...]
Buy-to-let loans surge to 5-year high in fresh boom August 8, 2013 LENDING to buy-to-let landlords has soared to its highest level in nearly five years thanks to strong tenant demand and increased mortgage availability. Lenders advanced 40,000 mortgages worth £5.1bn in the three months to the end of June, up 21 per cent in value on the previous quarter and the highest since 2008, according to [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 9 August 2013 August 8, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Norway’s oil fund plans to turn active Norway’s $760bn (£489bn) oil fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, is stepping up its efforts to be a more active investor by appointing a corporate governance advisory board. Having quadrupled in size in the past eight years, the vehicle is seeking to play a bigger [...]
Canary Wharf jobs up 350 per cent in a decade August 8, 2013 DESPITE the impact of the financial crisis, there were nearly four times as many employees in Canary Wharf last year than there were in 2001. According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of people working in the bustling financial centre in 2012 was 100,500, in comparison to only 27,400 eleven years earlier. Perhaps [...]
No US charge for London whale August 8, 2013 The trader at the center of JPMorgan Chase’s $6.2bn (£4bn) trading loss last year will not face US charges related to the incident, a source familiar with the matter said last night. Meanwhile, another source said JPMorgan is close to reaching a settlement with securities regulators over the trading loss. Bruno Iksil, who worked in [...]
Goldman to sell Rothesay stake August 8, 2013 Goldman Sachs is planning to sell a majority stake in its European insurance business over the next year, according to a filing. The UK-based life insurer, Rothesay Life, was established in 2007 and is currently run by Goldman partner Addy Loudiadis. As of June this year, Rothesay had $9.66bn (£6.2bn) in assets, Goldman said in the [...]
Tesco linked to China merger August 8, 2013 Tesco is expected to announce today an agreement to merge its operations in China with a division of state-run retailer China Resources Enterprise. Citing people close to the talks, Sky said that the supermarket group, is set to sign an agreement to merge its store estate in China with that of Vanguard, which is a [...]
Fannie Mae sends further $10bn to US Treasury as profits double August 8, 2013 FANNIE Mae, the US mortgage finance firm bailed out by the government at the height of the financial crisis, saw profits double over the past quarter, enabling it to pay a further $10.2bn (£6.4bn) dividend to the US Treasury. Thanks to a sharp rise in house prices, the firm yesterday reported a profit of $10.1bn [...]
Minister says all of UK must be open for fracking August 8, 2013 NO PART of Britain should be considered off-limits when it comes to fracking for shale gas, the energy minister responsible has told City A.M. Michael Fallon said anywhere with shale gas reserves must be open for drilling, despite concerns about the environmental effect of the process used to extract the fuel. “What would be quite wrong [...]
