PPI complaints soar as banks struggle under weight of claims September 11, 2012 COMPLAINTS over banks’ slow or unsatisfactory responses to PPI complaints soared over the first six months of 2012, according to data published yesterday by the financial ombudsman service (FOS). The mis-selling scandal has seen banks and other financial institutions pay billions in compensation to customers, and shows little signs of slowing down. The FOS received [...]
French perfume maker Coty buys time on flotation plans September 11, 2012 COTY, the perfume maker behind the Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs fragrance brands, is understood to have postponed plans to float in New York later this year. The French company, which filed documents with American regulators at the end of June for an initial public offering, is reconsidering the float to give Michele Scannavini, who [...]
FTSE 100 down as blue chip Burberry leads fallers September 11, 2012 The leading share index opened down this morning, tracking falls in the US and Asia, as investors waited for key decisions over European Central Bank bond buying and US quantitative easing. Fashion retailer Burberry led the fallers, down almost 19 per cent as the firm warned of a sales slowdown. It said annual profit would [...]
New Barclays boss Jenkins vows to review every unit in the bank September 10, 2012 NEW BARCLAYS boss Antony Jenkins yesterday committed himself to keeping the universal banking model and maintaining a strong investment bank, but told analysts that every individual unit would need to prove its worth or could be scrapped. His tough review of the bank’s operations will be “granular and comprehensive” and will see units without a [...]
Nasdaq vows to stand by its Facebook plan September 10, 2012 NASDAQ yesterday vowed to stand by it $62m (£39m) compensation plan for firms harmed by a glitch in Facebook’s market debut and defend itself against any related lawsuits. The news came as Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz hampered the firm’s share price further by selling off more than $108m-worth of stock. Lee Shavel, Nasdaq’s chief financial [...]
BlackRock’s Fink pledges lower ETF fees September 10, 2012 BLACKROCK chief executive Larry Fink yesterday announced plans to lower fees on some of its iShares Exchange Traded Fund products with a strategy change this autumn. Speaking at the Barclays’ Global Financial Services Conference in New York, Fink said growing competition in the ETF sector meant the firm was going to unveil a new strategy [...]
South Korean stimulus fails to stir markets September 10, 2012 SOUTH Korea will engage in additional fiscal stimulus, in order to carry its export-driven economy through the world slowdown, it announced yesterday. Policymakers in Seoul cannot do anything about their beleaguered export markets directly, and are therefore adding nearly £3.3bn worth of stimulus to the near-£4.5bn announced in June. But markets were disappointed by the [...]
FTSE 100 opens flat as investors bide time September 10, 2012 The leading share index opened modestly lower this morning, as investors were cautious ahead of key Eurozone and US Federal Reserve meetings this week. A selection of miners and retailers led the index up. Specialist engineering company Lamprell added nearly five per cent in early deals on news that it signed a joint venture deal [...]
Lagarde backs ECB plan to buy Spanish bonds September 9, 2012 CHRISTINE Lagarde yesterday pledged to help the European Central Bank (ECB) in designing and monitoring its programme of bond buying, intended to help ease the pressure on indebted governments such as Italy and Spain. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) boss said those governments had taken enough action on state finances to merit more help from [...]
Financials and miners lead the FTSE 100 up September 7, 2012 The blue chip index rose in early deals this morning, following positive gains in Asia and the US as investors reacted positively to European Central Bank (ECB) plans to spend billions of euros shoring up troubled governments. Miners Evraz and Ferrexpo led the index up, by 8.51 and 7.11 per cent respectively, as the ECB’s [...]