Eurozone action helps stem bank losses June 29, 2012 The FTSE 100 rose this morning as a string of measures aimed at patching up the Eurozone injected more confidence into markets. Leaders of the bloc agreed to take emergency action to bring down Italy and Spain’s surging borrowing costs, create a single supervisory body for eurozone banks, and enable the bloc’s ESM bailout fund [...]
From boom to bezzle: this banking scandal will run and run June 29, 2012 CAN it get any worse for Britain’s banks? Well, yes. Much, much worse. Not only is Barclays merely the first firm to settle when it comes to the despicable Libor scandal – others are also being investigated – but the FSA is about to announce that it will penalise a number of banks for a [...]
BANK SHARES PLUNGE AS SCANDALS SPREAD June 28, 2012 AROUND £3.7bn was wiped off the value of Barclays’ shares yesterday as anti-fraud investigators looked into the interest rates scandal and George Osborne said the bank’s executives should “pay the price”. Barclays’ shares fell up to 18 per cent as chief executive Bob Diamond and chairman Marcus Agius were left clinging on to their jobs. [...]
From boom to bezzle: this banking scandal will run and run June 28, 2012 CAN it get any worse for Britain’s banks? Well, yes. Much, much worse. Not only is Barclays merely the first firm to settle when it comes to the despicable Libor scandal – others are also being investigated – but the FSA is about to announce that it will penalise a number of banks for a [...]
Diamond in defiant mood as he attempts to justify Barclays’ acts June 28, 2012 A DEFIANT but apologetic Bob Diamond insisted last night that the bank was acting to protect itself when it manipulated the key interest rate known as Libor. Amid calls for his resignation, Diamond in an open letter to Treasury Select Committee chief Andrew Tyrie, said the actions were made essentially to protect the interests of [...]
Legal cost over Libor could run into the billions June 28, 2012 BARCLAYS could face legal claims running into billions of pounds after it admitted trying to rig the Libor rate, analysts have warned. The bank, which will pay £290m in fines to regulators in Britain and the US, is expected to face legal action around the world and still faces punishments from authorities in other jurisdictions, [...]
Audit reform makes rate fixing harder June 28, 2012 INTERNAL auditors at leading banks must now report directly to an organisation’s board in an attempt to stop bad news being blocked by senior management, regulators announced yesterday. The decision – taken by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision – helps plug a gap highlighted by the £290m of fines levied on Barclays after the [...]
Bank shares get bashed but aren’t necessarily mis-sold June 28, 2012 BUY when there’s blood in the streets, goes the old saying. So was yesterday a good day to be buying UK bank shares? The growing outrage over the Libor scandal saw Barclays plunge 18 per cent before pulling back slightly, and RBS was also down more than 11 per cent, although HSBC and Lloyds Banking [...]
WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 28, 2012 BAE Systems Tom Arseneault has been appointed executive vice president, product sectors, and chief technology officer of the defence giant. He most recently served as president of BAE’s electronic systems sector, and joined the company in 2010. Additionally, Larry Prior, current executive vice president, service sectors, will become chief operating officer. Mercer Aled Jones has [...]
Libor scandal drags FTSE 100 into the red as banking stocks plunge June 28, 2012 BANKING shares dragged Britain’s FTSE 100 into negative territory yesterday, battered by concerns over the financial impact of an investigation into the fixing of interbank lending rates that has already engulfed Barclays. Barclays slumped 15.5 per cent in its worst daily fall since 2009, with four times the usual number of shares traded in London. [...]