Banks to be hit with bigger bill for FSA May 28, 2010 MAJOR banks must dig deeper into their pockets over the coming year to pay for tougher supervision, the Financial Services Authority has said. The FSA is wholly funded from levies on financial firms and said its annual bill for 2010-11 will jump ten per cent to £454.7m though 60 per cent of firms will actually [...]
Pru faces growing rebellion May 26, 2010 PRUDENTIAL’S quest to buy AIA is turning into “a high-stakes gamble”, one major shareholder said last night, as it emerged 15 per cent of investors may vote against the deal. Referring to the insurer’s plan to take over AIG’s Asian arm for $35.5bn (£25bn), the top-20 shareholder said: “There are a number of issues you [...]
ABI NAMES L&G BOSS AS CHAIRMAN May 26, 2010 TIM Breedon, chief executive of executive of Legal & General, has been appointed the new chairman of the Association of British Insurers. The 51-year-old said it was “an honour to be asked to become ABI chairman at this vital time for the insurance industry”.
Investor pay rebellion rises May 16, 2010 THREE more of the UK’s biggest companies are preparing to face shareholder wrath over generous executive pay schemes, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The ABI has issued “amber top” alerts over remuneration at HSBC, engineer Tomkins and electronic chipmaker Wolfson Microelectronics, indicating a “considerable” level of concern. HSBC investors have signalled anger [...]
Cookson and SIG hit by pay protests May 13, 2010 COMPANIES SIG and Cookson Group faced investor opposition to their executive pay schemes yesterday as pressure grows for shareholders to challenge excessive boardroom rewards. In a poll at SIG’s annual general meeting, two-thirds of shareholders voted against a proposal to give chief executive Chris Davies a 15 per cent pay rise despite the company having [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 10, 2010 Conduit Capital Markets The derivatives and securities dealer has hired ex-3i managing partner Bruce Carnegie-Brown as its new non-executive chairman. Carnegie-Brown has been working for 3i since 2007, latterly as managing partner and chairman of the financial services practice. Prior to that, he was chief executive of Marsh, and spent 18 years at JP Morgan, [...]
Lloyds wins bonus showdown May 6, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group managed to get approval for controversial plans to award executives bonuses yesterday, despite expectations of a shareholder rebellion. Nearly 91.5 per cent of the government-owned bank’s shareholders voted through its remuneration programme. Although chief executive Eric Daniels will waive his £2m bonus, directors Tim Tookey, Helen Weir and Truett Tate will take [...]
Volcanic ash shows need to pick the right travel policy April 22, 2010 AEROPLANES might be returning to the skies once again, but for many business travellers and holidaymakers who have been stranded abroad or had their plans disrupted, the fallout is only just beginning as they start the process of claiming back their money. While the volcanic eruption was an unprecedented event, it has brought home the [...]
All City firms to be hit by IMF tax April 21, 2010 NON-BANK financial firms were left reeling yesterday as it emerged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) proposes to levy new taxes on all financial institutions, crippling insurers, hedge funds, private equity firms and asset managers as well as banks. Analysts at Credit Suisse estimated that the taxes could cost the European banking industry as much as [...]
ABI director quits for FRC April 21, 2010 THE Association of British Insurers (ABI)’s director of investment affairs is to stand down after a decade at the institution. Peter Montagnon will take up a new role as senior investment adviser to the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). Montagnon said: “After nearly a decade in this role, now is the right time to take up [...]