LENDERS WIN CONTROL OF CHEZ GERARD July 20, 2009 THE CHEZ Gerard and Bertorelli restaurant chains fell under the control of bankers yesterday. Silverfleet Capital, the private equity company, sold the chains’ owner Paramount Restaurants to its bankers, RBS, HSBC, Barclays and Sankaty for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to cut Paramount’s debts by around half to £65m.
Osborne to scrap FSA and beef up the Bank July 20, 2009 THE BANK of England will become the UK’s main financial regulator and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) will be abolished if the Conservatives win the next election, shadow chancellor George Osborne said yesterday. In the Tory response to chancellor Alistair Darling’s white paper on financial regulation, Osborne said he would “lead the British economy from [...]
Cable would carve up rescued lenders July 20, 2009 AS Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne was laying out his blueprint for regulatory reform, Liberal Democrat counterpart Vince Cable was proposing his own solutions to the financial crisis, including the break-up of Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. Speaking at the London Stock Exchange, Cable said: “The Lloyds-HBOS merger should be unscrambled … [...]
ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH CONSERVATIVE PROPOSALS ON REGULATION? July 20, 2009 ANGELA KNIGHT CHIEF EXECUTIVE, BBAWe’re pleased to see the highlighting of the European dimension within these proposals. There has to be a higher degree of engagement at a senior level with European authorities. We want to see a proportionate and stable regulatory framework that ensuresthe industry can compete.RICHARD LAMBERT DIRECTOR GENERAL, CBIThis is a very [...]
THE FSA’S SHORT HISTORY July 20, 2009 The Financial Services Authority was born when former chancellor Gordon Brown overhauled the financial regulatory system following Labour’s landslide election victory in 1997. Brown’s revamp saw responsibility for banking supervision transferred to the FSA from the Bank of England, which had historically performed that function. The City watchdog later took on responsibility for regulating mortgages, [...]
CIT gets stay of execution July 20, 2009 THE board of stricken US lender CIT yesterday agreed a $3bn (£1.82bn) rescue loan from key bondholders, saving it from the jaws of bankruptcy. With the US government making it clear that CIT is not systemically important enough to warrant a bailout, the financing package is aimed at buying the bank time to restructure its [...]
Treasury accounts held back as auditor refuses to sign off July 20, 2009 THE National Audit Office (NAO) has refused to sign off the accounts of five public bodies – including the Treasury – it was revealed yesterday. It raised questions over the Treasury’s accounts because the department failed to to agree its toxic assets insurance scheme with parliament. And it emerged that the NAO had “qualified” the [...]
INM extends standstill on debt for a third time as talks continue July 20, 2009 INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) is set to announce a third standstill agreement with its creditors as talks continue regarding the debt-laden firm’s financial restructuring. INM, which owns The Independent newspaper, is still locked in talks with banks and investors over the refinancing of a €200m (£178m) bond. Sources close to the company said “constructive [...]
THE RED BARON July 20, 2009 ENTREPRENEUR Sir Alan Sugar yesterday took his seat in the House of Lords as Baron Sugar of Clapton. The businessman and star of BBC TV series The Apprentice was enobled by Gordon Brown last month and asked to fill an advisory post as enterprise tsar. Lord Sugar’s official role is to help guide firms through [...]
Home loans hit six-month high in June July 20, 2009 GROSS mortgage lending hit a six-month high in June according to data released yesterday by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Figures from the CML showed that gross mortgage lending rose 17 per cent in June to £12.3bn from £10.5bn in May, but was still 48.4 per cent lower than in June 2008. Gross lending [...]
