Deloitte axes 190 HMV jobs January 31, 2013 HMV administrator Deloitte has axed 190 jobs from the business, it announced this afternoon. The redundancies have been made in HMV’s head office and distribution network. No retail jobs have been cut and the stores remain open, Deloitte said today. Giving an update on the potential sale of the business, joint administrator Nick Harding said: [...]
FTSE 100 hurt by AstraZeneca and banking shares January 31, 2013 The leading share index fell back this morning beneath the 6,300 level that it hit yesterday, as AstraZeneca and banking shares weighed on the FTSE 100. The pharmaceutical firm dropped more than four per cent in early deals, as it posted a drop in fourth quarter profit. “As largely expected, investors will have to wait [...]
Banks to review sale of interest rate swaps to small businesses January 31, 2013 The big four banks will start a review into the sale of complex interest rate hedging products that might have been mis-sold to small businesses. The Financial Services Authority, which last said it had found serious failings in the sale of interest rate hedging products (IRHPs), said Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and RBS would review individual [...]
UK house prices tick up in January January 31, 2013 UK house prices edged up in January, boosted by the Funding for Lending scheme, mortgage lender Nationwide said this morning. According to the lender, house values ticked up 0.5 per cent in January, although values were flat year on year, avoiding a decline for the first time since February. The typical UK home is now [...]
Shell annual profits tumble January 31, 2013 Annual profits at oil giant Shell dropped six per cent to $27bn (£17.07bn) compared with $28.6bn in 2011, as it was hit by weaker oil and gas prices. Fourth quarter earnings on a current cost of supply rose to $7.3bn compared with $6.5bn in the fourth quarter of the previous year, helped by refining margins. [...]
US growth falls off a cliff again January 30, 2013 THE US economy shrank unexpectedly in the final three months of 2012, official figures showed yesterday, taking markets and analysts by surprise. Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve responded by holding interest rates at record lows and continuing to print $85bn (£53.8bn) a month to buy government bonds and mortgage backed securities. Stocks dipped on [...]
Ex-Barclays pay boss attacks Diamond’s reward for failure January 30, 2013 FORMER Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond did not deserve a bonus in 2011 because the bank gave poor returns for shareholders, former director and remuneration committee head Alison Carnwath said yesterday. The ex-non-executive said she worked to pull down investment bank bonuses by 30 per cent, but could not rein in Diamond who, she said, [...]
Mobile lifts Facebook to record sales January 30, 2013 FACEBOOK’S revenues hit new heights at the end of last year, as the social network cashed in on more people using it on smartphones. Turnover during the final three months of 2012 hit $1.59bn (£1bn), a 26 per cent rise on the previous quarter, and 40 per cent up year-on-year, the company said yesterday. Facebook [...]
New lending scheme fails to boost small businesses January 30, 2013 EFFECTIVE interest rates on new deposits have dived from 3.01 per cent in August, when the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) started to provide banks with cheap funds, to just 2.11 per cent in December, the Bank of England revealed. But the cheaper funds have started to divert cash back into the mortgage market, the [...]
Flawed government policy is wiping out struggling savers January 30, 2013 ONE of the government’s daftest policies is its underpinning of bank lending, a nationalisation of credit in all but name. The biggest losers from the funding for lending scheme have been savers. The effective average savings rate for new deposits has collapsed from 2.75 per cent in September to a miserable 2.11 per cent in [...]
