Osborne eyes change of strategy to boost liquidity June 13, 2012 GEORGE Osborne is expected to use tonight’s Mansion House speech to reveal a new strategy aimed at boosting liquidity in the banking system. The chancellor’s attempt to ease the credit logjam comes as both companies and households continue to struggle to access finance. The move follows Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker’s acknowledgement on [...]
It is clear that the Eurozone can no longer do anything right June 13, 2012 COULD Brussels have been taken over by saboteurs, a secret army of eurosceptic infiltrators and spies masquerading as officials? I only ask because it now almost seems as if Spain’s bailout was deliberately designed not merely to fail but to inflict maximum damage on the Spanish economy and the entire Eurozone. Rarely have I seen [...]
Jeremy Hunt survives crunch ministerial vote June 13, 2012 CULTURE secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday survived a crunch House of Commons vote on his future by a narrow margin of 290 to 252, following a major operation by Conservative whips. Labour had forced a vote on whether Hunt should be investigated for breaches of the ministerial code in relation to his handling of the BSkyB takeover. [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 13, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Banks bow to EU bonus limit Bankers’ bonuses across the European Union are set to be limited by law, with many bank lobbyists admitting in private that they have lost the fight against a European Parliament initiative to limit the size of bonuses relative to salary. Some banks still hope to increase the [...]
Man United drops Asia IPO for US June 13, 2012 Manchester United, the world’s best-supported football club, has ditched its plans for an Asian stock market flotation and is preparing to list in the United States, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. After first eyeing a Hong Kong IPO, the Premier League runners up, owned by the Glazer family, had planned a $1bn [...]
Blankfein: Goldman is job for life June 13, 2012 The chief executive and chairman of Goldman Sachs said yesterday he has no plans to relinquish his duties running the bank. Speaking to reporters after a breakfast appearance in Chicago, Lloyd Blankfein quipped: “I’m 57. What am I going to do with the other 60 years of my life?” Blankfein said five of his predecessors [...]
Auditor backs HMRC tax deals with Goldman June 13, 2012 BRITAIN’S top tax officials were justified in making secret deals worth billions of pounds with major five major corporates, a report says today. HM Revenue & Customs achieved a “good” outcome for the public purse by resolving a series of long-running disputes with the five unnamed firms but was criticised for bypassing proper governance procedures over the [...]
Jamie Dimon blames $2bn loss on management chain failure June 13, 2012 JPMORGAN Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon used his much anticipated appearance before lawmakers to apologise for the bank’s multi-billion dollar trading loss but made clear he will still criticise how Washington tries to curb Wall Street. The Senate Banking Committee scheduled the hearing to grill Dimon on how a hedging strategy in a seemingly low-risk [...]
Coalition claims that it is still committed to High Speed Two June 13, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT was last night struggling to reaffirm its commitment to the controversial High Speed Two (HS2) railway project following a claim that it has been “quietly dropped”. An anonymous Conservative minister quoted in today’s edition of The Spectator is reported to have said: “The project is effectively dead. The only thing keeping it on life [...]
Both Spain and Cyprus see their ratings slashed June 13, 2012 STRUGGLING Eurozone members Spain and Cyprus both saw their credit ratings slashed last night as Moody’s warned that they had been effectively shut out of international markets. Spain’s government bond rating was cut to just one notch above junk status – to Baa3 from A3 – with Moody’s saying its banking bailout would take years [...]