Tyrie: banking commission must be more transparent July 20, 2011 CRUCIAL reforms to the British banking system are being put together in too much secrecy, an influential committee of MPs has said. The Treasury Select Committee, led by Andrew Tyrie MP (pictured), released a report on the Vickers Commission yesterday warning that the reforms risk lacking “public credibility and acceptability” if they are not discussed [...]
BEHIND THE LINES | WHAT THE TREASURY COMMITTEE REPORT MEANS July 20, 2011 Sir John Vickers should consider whether an enhanced divestment is really necessary and whether by calling for such a step the ICB is treating the symptom of inadequate competition rather than the cause. It should also confirm whether it has examined the case for further divestments of branches from other banks. The ICB places the [...]
Fund managers’ views improve July 20, 2011 The outlook of global fund managers became slightly sunnier over the last month, despite dire sentiment towards Europe. A net 19 per cent think the economy will improve in the coming year, up from net 10 per cent in May. But a net 57 per cent of European respondents hold an underweight position in the [...]
Dell to buy Force10 Networks July 20, 2011 Dell Inc has agreed to buy Force10 Networks, a privately-held technology firm, in a move to expand into datacentre networking and increase its enterprise portfolio. Force10 serves booming social media companies like Facebook and Zynga has nearly $200m in annual revenues. Dell did not disclose the value of the deal.
Windfarm deal hits turbulence July 20, 2011 Climate Change Capital has postponed raising money to buy a stake in a Scottish wind farm, and said it would consider withdrawing from other projects due to “difficult market conditions”. CCC had agreed three weeks ago to spend £61.3m to take a 50 per cent stake in a farm owned by Scottish and Southern Energy.
ANALYST’S BRIDE LIVID AS CLIENTS COME FIRST July 20, 2011 SANDY Jadeja, the chief technical analyst at CityIndex, has such a ferocious work ethic that his colleagues place bets on whether he will actually take time off. So when he had to make a tough call between presenting a fully-booked spreadbetting seminar to clients or attending his own pre-wedding celebrations, there was only one option: [...]
Bank minutes show no sign of a rate hike July 20, 2011 DESPITE warning of even higher than expected inflation to come, the Bank of England appears increasingly reluctant to raise interest rates. Minutes of the Bank’s July meeting, released yesterday, suggest that bearish economic news has pushed the rate-setting committee even further from the first step in normalising rates. “Recent developments had reduced the likelihood that [...]
Consumer morale slides after early summer boom July 20, 2011 MORALE on the British high street has slumped back down again, following a brief spike caused by the royal wedding and early summer sun. In June the Nationwide consumer confidence index fell four points to 51 – a year on year drop of 11 points. Sentiment had soared from 44 to 55 in the previous [...]
Mortgage lending on the increase July 20, 2011 GROSS mortgage lending picked up strongly in June, according to figures released yesterday. Lending came in at £12.6bn, up 16 per cent from the £10.8bn lent in May. Yet the figure was still nearly three per cent lower than at the same time last year, showing that the UK’s sluggish housing market is not out [...]
LSE bats away deal talk with strong results July 20, 2011 THE London Stock Exchange reassured investors of its financial clout at its shareholder meeting yesterday but refused to be drawn on any potential partners following the collapse of its merger with Canada’s TMX Group. LSE chairman Chris Gibson-Smith blamed the breakdown of the £2.4bn merger firmly on TMX for failing to marshal its shareholders to [...]
