Marks & Spencer hit by summer rains July 10, 2012 Retailer Marks & Spencer posted its worst underlying quarterly sales performance for three and a half years after the wettest April and June since records began hammered trade in womenswear. The firm, which sells clothes, footwear and homewares as well as upmarket foods, also said on Tuesday that the head of its non-food business Kate [...]
Tucker: I did not tell Barclays to rig rate July 9, 2012 PAUL Tucker, the deputy governor of the Bank of England, yesterday denied claims that members of the Labour government pressured him to encourage Barclays to lower its Libor interest rate submissions in 2008. “Absolutely not,” he said when asked to say whether government officials had asked him to “lean on Barclays” at the height of [...]
Heywood emails reveal a rising panic on key rates July 9, 2012 CABINET secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood was in frequent contact with the Bank of England over the Libor rate during the height of the financial crisis, according to emails revealed yesterday. Correspondence from 2008 between Sir Jeremy, then principal private secretary to chancellor Gordon Brown; Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker, then the central bank’s [...]
Osborne and Tucker have both been damaged by Libor row July 9, 2012 THERE will be two immediate consequences from Paul Tucker’s grilling by MPs yesterday. The first is that George Osborne has just been plunged into a political crisis of his own making; his strategy to implicate senior Labour party figures such as Ed Balls and Shriti Vadera has backfired spectacularly. Tucker, the Bank of England’s deputy [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 9, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Morgan Stanley sheds staff as transactions fall Morgan Stanley will this week complete a round of job cuts that will ultimately see the company shed 100 sales and trading staff, underscoring what is expected to prove a dismal second quarter for Wall Street banks. The cuts are across Europe, the Middle East and [...]
Mitsubishi UFJ sacks traders as probe hots up July 9, 2012 TWO traders in London have been suspended by Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ as regulators extend their investigations into the alleged fixing of benchmark interest rates. Both traders previously worked at Rabobank, one of several banks being probed. They were confirmed as having been struck off last week, Bloomberg reported late last night. A spokesperson for [...]
Tucker suffers interview woes July 9, 2012 PARLIAMENT witnessed the job interview from hell yesterday. We’ll call the most hellish aspect Tucker’s Dilemma, named after the deputy governor of the Bank of England who was considered a shoe-in for the top job on Threadneedle Street before being dragged into the Libor scandal. The dilemma was simple: to stay in the running for [...]
Labour cries victory as outcome clears Balls of backing rate scam July 9, 2012 ASTOUNDED MPs expressed shock last night at Paul Tucker’s evidence, struggling to accept the Bank of England deputy governor’s claims that Libor manipulation is not a problem for the Bank to deal with. Meanwhile Labour politicians claimed vindication, arguing Tucker has cleared ex-ministers of any wrongdoing. Tucker repeatedly stressed that no pressure was put on [...]
Focus back on Barclays as Agius faces committee’s questioning July 9, 2012 MARCUS Agius, the chairman of Barclays, will today face questioning from MPs over his knowledge of the extent of the Libor scandal, following the appearance of former chief executive Bob Diamond and yesterday’s questioning of the deputy governor of the Bank of England, Paul Tucker. Agius, who stepped down as chairman last week but remains [...]
Samsung wins Apple battle by not being cool July 9, 2012 SAMSUNG Electronics defeated Apple in the latest spat in the rivals’ patent wars yesterday as a British judge ruled Samsung’s Galaxy tablets did not infringe the U.S company’s designs for the iPad because they were “not as cool”. In the High Court judgment Judge Colin Birss said that Samsung’s Galaxy tablets belonged to the same [...]
