Barclays to hold internal review of its practices July 2, 2012 BARCLAYS yesterday promised to hold an independent audit of its business practices following its record-breaking £290m fine for abuse of the Libor interest rate. Pledging that all findings will be made publicly available, Barclays said it will “undertake a root and branch review of all of the past practices that have been revealed as flawed [...]
Paul Tucker could be called before MPs over Libor scandal July 2, 2012 TOP Bank of England policymaker Paul Tucker could face a grilling from MPs over his relationship with embattled Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond, if members of the influential Treasury Select Committee (TSC) get their way. “It is highly likely we will want to cross-examine top officials from the Bank of England, as well as the [...]
PROFILE: DEPUTY BANK GOVERNOR PAUL TUCKER July 2, 2012 BEING dragged into the Libor fixing scandal has done no favours for Paul Tucker’s ambitions of becoming the next governor of the Bank of England. Current Bank chief Mervyn King is due to step down in the summer of 2013, and Tucker has long been expected to have his hat in the ring to replace [...]
Bob Diamond says sorry to staff for reputational damage to bank July 2, 2012 BARCLAYS chief executive Bob Diamond yesterday tried to put to bed any rumours that he might be leaving the bank after it was shamed with a £290m fine for fixing the Libor interest rate. In a memo issued to staff, the Barclays chief executive said: “I understand why the reaction has been severe. No one [...]
Regulator says fine will not be isolated case July 2, 2012 BARCLAYS’ record fine for rigging Libor interest rates should be a “watershed” moment for the wider financial industry to clean up its act and restore public trust, the head of enforcement at the City watchdog said yesterday. The Libor penalty and last week’s news that the UK’s top four banks mis-sold interest rate swaps to [...]
Sir Stelios calls for Rake’s head over the fiasco July 2, 2012 EASYJET founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou yesterday weighed in to the furore surrounding the Barclays Libor-fixing scandal, calling for the head of Sir Mike Rake. Rake, the Barclays senior independent director who was yesterday promoted to deputy chairman, also serves as chairman of EasyJet. “As Mike Rake is chairman of the relevant audit sub-committee and a [...]
Why rivals are banking on Diamond’s downfall July 2, 2012 Whenever a banking scandal breaks in the City, be it rogue trade allegations at UBS, a massive trading loss at JP Morgan or the current Libor interest rates scandal, the first concern is for the reputation of the industry as a whole. But, investment bankers being possibly the most competitive bunch on the universe, the [...]
Cotton lawsuit hits Louis Dreyfus July 2, 2012 COMMODITY trading giant Louis Dreyfus has been sued by a former senior trader at rival Glencore, who alleges that Dreyfus illegally cornered the cotton market last year as prices tumbled from record highs. The trader, Mark Allen, accused Dreyfus of violating antitrust law by artificially inflating prices of Intercontinental Exchange cotton futures contracts expiring in [...]
Manufacturers report gloomy EU conditions July 2, 2012 EUROZONE manufacturing was hammered again by political and financial worries last month, according to survey data released by Markit yesterday. The overall purchasing managers’ index (PMI) remained at 45.1 for the Eurozone in June, slightly up from the preliminary estimate of 44.8, following the same pace of decline in May. The index records firms’ views [...]
Governor King calls for proactive Bank as QE bloats balance sheet July 2, 2012 BANK of England governor Sir Mervyn King has said it must continue to “pilot the economy” through tough times, as the Bank’s annual report revealed a £315.5bn balance sheet caused largely by quantitative easing (QE). Writing in the report, released yesterday, King defended the Bank’s loose monetary policy and new credit boosting policy, named the [...]
