BP shoulders blame for spill September 14, 2011 AN OFFICIAL US government report has heaped most of blame for the country’s biggest ever oil spill on BP yesterday, chastising the company and other parties for poor management and a string of critical mistakes that could have been prevented. “BP’s cost or time saving decisions without considering contingencies and mitigation” were “contributing causes” of [...]
Economy not rebalancing fast enough September 14, 2011 IT is not good news on the jobs front. Unemployment jumped by 80,000 over the past three months; employment is up by just 24,000 over the past year. The post-recession jobs rebound has ground to a halt. The economy is rebalancing towards the private sector but no longer quickly enough. Private sector employment peaked at [...]
E&Y to face Irish probe September 14, 2011 ACCOUNTANCY giant Ernst & Young is to face an investigation into its alleged failure to audit the accounts of Anglo Irish Bank properly in the run-up to the financial crisis. The Irish Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board (CARB) reported yesterday that it has found enough evidence to justify a probe into E&Y’s role regarding the bank’s [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 14, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES DEUTSCHE BÖRSE-NYSE DEAL TO SAVE EXTRA $1BN FOR CUSTOMERS Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext, the exchange operators planning to create the world’s largest bourse, have significantly raised their estimate of savings by banks from the deal, saying customers would save about $1bn more than previously estimated. VICKERS MEMBER CALLS FOR REPEAL OF BANK [...]
Lehman Bros bonus case fails September 14, 2011 A bankruptcy judge has denied Lehman Brothers Holdings’ attempt to recover $500m (£317m) it alleges was supposed to go toward employee bonuses from Barclays. Lehman had said Barclays never gave the money to the employees and should send it back to Lehman for the benefit of Lehman’s creditors. Wednesday’s ruling is the latest instance of [...]
HSBC dropped from silver probe September 14, 2011 HSBC has for now been dropped from an investor lawsuit accusing it of conspiring to drive down silver prices, leaving JP Morgan Chase as the only bank defendant in the case. Investors had in a raft of complaints filed in 2010 and 2011 accused banks of amassing hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal profit [...]
Markets rally after promise of euro-bond September 14, 2011 MARKETS rallied yesterday after European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso promised to unveil new proposals for euro-bonds in the near future. Speaking to the European Parliament, he said: “This is a fight for the economic and political future of Europe. This is a fight for European integration itself.” A euro-bond would effectively see paymaster economies [...]
BNP Paribas avoids Moody’s downgrade of French banks September 14, 2011 MOODY’s downgraded Credit Agricole and Société Générale – two of France’s biggest lenders – yesterday on the basis of Credit Agricole’s exposure to Greece’s ailing public finances and SocGen’s reliance on wholesale funding. But BNP Paribas avoided a downgrade and fought back against its critics by unveiling a dramatic restructuring that will see the bank [...]
Facebook could delay $60bn float to second half of 2012 September 14, 2011 FACEBOOK will delay its initial public offering (IPO) until the end of next year so employees can focus on developing products for the social networking website, according to reports. Facebook, which is expected to have one of the biggest IPOs in history, plans to go public at the end of 2012, a later public debut than [...]
Public sector jobs slashed at record rate September 14, 2011 NEW jobs in the private sector failed to offset major declines in state sector employment in the second quarter of the year, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed yesterday. With chancellor George Osborne’s austerity plans beginning to kick in, government roles were down by 111,000 in the three months to June — [...]
