EU cracks down on hedge funds June 28, 2012 EUROPEAN regulators published draft rules yesterday to crack down on excessive bonuses for managers of hedge funds. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said yesterday the curbs bankers’ face must be extended to managers of alternative investment funds, including hedge funds and private equity and real estate funds. The rules could have a huge [...]
Cable refers HBOS to FSA June 28, 2012 BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable yesterday threatened HBOS with a regulatory probe relating to the bank’s role in the collapse of Christmas savings firm Farepak. Cable said he would refer HBOS to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) after a high court judge said it was the bank’s decision to extract around £10m from Farepak that pushed [...]
Diamond in defiant mood as he attempts to justify Barclays’ acts June 28, 2012 A DEFIANT but apologetic Bob Diamond insisted last night that the bank was acting to protect itself when it manipulated the key interest rate known as Libor. Amid calls for his resignation, Diamond in an open letter to Treasury Select Committee chief Andrew Tyrie, said the actions were made essentially to protect the interests of [...]
Legal cost over Libor could run into the billions June 28, 2012 BARCLAYS could face legal claims running into billions of pounds after it admitted trying to rig the Libor rate, analysts have warned. The bank, which will pay £290m in fines to regulators in Britain and the US, is expected to face legal action around the world and still faces punishments from authorities in other jurisdictions, [...]
JP Morgan stock plummets after reports of bigger trade losses June 28, 2012 SHARES in JP Morgan plunged 2.45 per cent yesterday on reports that its London Whale derivatives trading loss could end up costing the bank much more than first thought. JP Morgan, which declined to comment, said it expected to lose at least $2bn on a bungled credit derivatives trade when it disclosed the position in [...]
Audit reform makes rate fixing harder June 28, 2012 INTERNAL auditors at leading banks must now report directly to an organisation’s board in an attempt to stop bad news being blocked by senior management, regulators announced yesterday. The decision – taken by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision – helps plug a gap highlighted by the £290m of fines levied on Barclays after the [...]
Bank shares get bashed but aren’t necessarily mis-sold June 28, 2012 BUY when there’s blood in the streets, goes the old saying. So was yesterday a good day to be buying UK bank shares? The growing outrage over the Libor scandal saw Barclays plunge 18 per cent before pulling back slightly, and RBS was also down more than 11 per cent, although HSBC and Lloyds Banking [...]
Spain and Italy under pressure June 28, 2012 SPAIN and Italy faced mounting pressure yesterday as their borrowing costs continued to spiral. Spain saw its 10-year bond levels surge briefly above the dangerous seven per cent level yesterday, while Italy was forced to pay its highest interest rate in over six months at an auction of ten and five-year debt. The endebted nations [...]
JUNCKER TO STAY ON AS EUROGROUP PRESIDENT June 28, 2012 LUXEMBOURG Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured right) is likely to stay on as the president of the Eurogroup, while the head of the temporary Eurozone bailout fund Klaus Regling (pictured left) is likely to become the head of the permanent fund, Eurozone officials said yesterday. The appointments are expected to be formally announced today.
German unemployment rises June 28, 2012 German joblessness rose for the third month in a row in June, data showed, signalling that Europe’s largest economy is not immune to the euro debt crisis and cannot be relied on to prop up growth. The Labour Office said yesterday the number of people out of a job rose by a seasonally-adjusted 7,000 to [...]
