Lenders and housebuilders summoned for Help to Buy meeting July 23, 2013 CHANCELLOR George Osborne has summoned Britain’s housebuilders and mortgage lenders for a meeting today, to discuss the second phase of the Help to Buy Scheme. The scheme was first launched four months ago and allows people to buy new homes with just a five per cent deposit. The biggest lenders, including Lloyds, RBS, Nationwide and [...]
Benchmarks on the front foot with code of conduct for indices July 21, 2013 FINANCIAL index providers today stuck back at the wave of regulatory interest in the sector by proposing their own code of conduct to improve behaviour in the sector. Indices have been under intense scrutiny since the Libor fiddling scandal emerged last summer, with officials becoming increasingly involved in setting standards for how they operate. Today [...]
Emerging financial centres to watch for a future career July 19, 2013 AS THE world’s leading financial centre, London is one of the best places in the world to work in finance. The Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) 2013 gives London a rating of 807 – far ahead of rivals New York (787) and Hong Kong (761).But more cities are making their mark, and Richie Holliday of Morgan [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 19 July 2013 July 18, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Sheikh in Barclays rescue sells stake The Abu Dhabi sheikh who came to the rescue of Barclays Bank with a £3.5bn capital injection at the height of the financial crisis, has sold his stake in the UK bank. The sale of the seven per cent stake – which took place three weeks ago [...]
LSE shares soar as acquisition boosts revenues July 18, 2013 SHARES in the London Stock Exchange (LSE) topped the FTSE 100 yesterday, rising more than seven per cent after first-quarter revenues at the group beat expectations. Revenues in the three months to the end of June were £249.7m – 39 per cent higher than a year ago when they came in at £179m, and comfortably topping [...]
Inside track: When banks become unwelcome investors in property July 18, 2013 TWO INVESTMENT banks, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, will for the next few months be keeping a beadier eye than usual on the German property market. The pair have just emerged as holding a combined stake of around 13 per cent in Gagfah, the second-largest owner of German homes, as a consequence of not being [...]
Rise in profits at BlackRock as investors flock July 18, 2013 BLACKROCK, the world’s largest money manager, said yesterday that its second-quarter profit rose 32 per cent, citing strong global demand from its retail and institutional clients and growth in markets. Net income at the New York-based company totalled $729m (£479m), or $4.19 per share, up from $554m, or $3.08 per share, a year earlier. Excluding [...]
FTSE surges upward to join US stock markets July 18, 2013 Following record breaking gains from US stock markets (the S&P also broke new highs shortly after posting), the FTSE is up over one per cent, driven by rallies in the Royal Bank of Scotland, Aberdeen Asset Management, Barclays and the London Stock Exchange. Lloyds Banking Group, Kingfisher and ASOS have also hit new highs. This [...]
Morgan Stanley revises down US GDP forecast July 18, 2013 Morgan Stanley has cut its second quarter GDP forecast for the US to 0.3 per cent from 0.4 per cent. The unexpected fall in housing starts and permits in June was probably temporary, said economist Ted Wieseman, but enough to warrant cutting the outlook. After a 9.4 percent pullback from the February cycle high, single-family [...]
London Stock Exchange reports solid revenue growth and a good start from new acquisition July 18, 2013 The London Stock Exchange has reported a 39 per cent annual increase in revenues to £249.7m for the three months ended 30 June 2013, boosted by £49m in revenues from its LCH.Clearnet acquisition and growth across all business divisions. Commenting on performance in the past quarter, group chief executiveXavier Rolet said: The Group has made [...]