Italy gridlocked by angry voters February 25, 2013 ITALIAN voters left the Eurozone’s third biggest economy a gridlocked political mess yesterday, with a hung parliament clobbering the euro, spooking stock markets, and sending measures of volatility soaring. Pier Luigi Bersani’s centre-left bloc managed to win a majority in the lower house by dint of the electoral system’s generous winner’s bonus. But projections late last [...]
RBS under orders from the Treasury February 25, 2013 GEORGE Osborne yesterday revealed he is putting unprecedented pressure on RBS to change its business model, pushing the lender to cut its US operations, shrink its investment banking arm and focus on UK household and business lending. In the past the government has kept out of the day-to-day running of the bank, operating at arm’s [...]
BP goes to court over 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion February 25, 2013 OIL GIANT BP faced its first day in court over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill yesterday, in a trial that could drag on the company for up to a year and cost it billions of dollars in fines. The trial – in New Orleans, Louisiana – could last up to a year, and will see [...]
Met Police launch probe into Lib Dem sex claims February 25, 2013 SCOTLAND Yard yesterday confirmed it would investigate sexual harassment claims made against a former Lib Dem official as the scandal continued to engulf the party. The news came as a former party insider told City A.M. that female Lib Dems decided to go public with their claims against Lord Rennard after the peer was allowed to [...]
Study Italy’s election: It is the shape of things to come in UK February 25, 2013 ITALY has spoken. Few in the City like what they are hearing, but they should listen carefully. Bond yields, which had fallen when it was thought the centre-left was cruising to victory, shot back up when it emerged that Silvio Berlusconi and a new, populist protest party were doing well. This bitterly divided vote is [...]
The race is on to find new body to control Libor February 25, 2013 BANKS’ customers and regulators will decide which body should take over key interbank interest rate Libor, as the Treasury yesterday appointed a panel of senior figures to run the tender process. The British Bankers’ Association has run much of the process in the past, but yesterday member banks agreed to pass control to a regulated [...]
Goldman set to axe equity trading jobs February 25, 2013 GOLDMAN Sachs Group will begin a fresh round of job cuts as early as this week, with its equities-trading business braced for bigger cuts than fixed-income trading. While the bank usually culls the weakest five per cent of its employees around this time of year, the cuts are likely to be deeper in some businesses, [...]
What the other papers say this morning February 25, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES JP Morgan sees surge in revenues Executives at JP Morgan Chase will announce a jump in international revenues and increased cross-selling between the commercial and investment banks today, in the first investor day since the “London whale” trading debacle. The US bank’s executives are planning to announce that the prime brokerage, which serves [...]
Osborne fights Balls on blame for downgrade February 25, 2013 GEORGE Osborne launched a staunch defence of his economic policy yesterday after Labour’s Ed Balls attacked him for losing the UK’s triple-A credit rating from agency Moody’s. The chancellor had previously staked his reputation on the top credit rating, arguing that his deficit reduction plan would safeguard the seal of approval from the agency. But [...]
Carney calls for focus on values and capitalism to rebuild banks February 25, 2013 BANKS need an infusion of capitalism as well as a focus on core values to rebuild their image in the eyes of society, Mark Carney said yesterday evening. The perception banks were too big to fail – or seen as too big to fail by regulators and governments – has dealt a “fatal blow to [...]
