Libor: the vital number for every banker June 27, 2012 Q What is Libor? A The London interbank offered rate (Libor) is set daily for 10 major currencies and for 15 borrowing periods, ranging from overnight loans to 12 months. It is set by the British Bankers’ Association, after speaking to 16 banks and studying their data on the cost and price of lending to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 27, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Hague presses for audit on EU law William Hague, the foreign secretary, wants to launch a comprehensive audit of the impact of European Union law on Britain this summer, an exercise that could fuel a Conservative drive to repatriate powers from Brussels. 4,000 firms under tax investigation More than 4,000 companies are under [...]
Ultimatum is the name of the game if you aren’t playing fair June 27, 2012 WHAT are Xstrata’s shareholders playing at? The answer seems to be a game called Ultimatum. It’s a simple experiment that shows why shareholders can’t be relied on to accept that any deal is better than none. Here’s how Ultimatum works. Player G is told he can have £100. He has the option to give an [...]
Jubilee helped lift retail sales, survey shows June 27, 2012 HIGH STREET sales shot up in the year to June as a boost from the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations confounded the Eurozone crisis, according to a CBI survey published yesterday. Some 58 per cent of retailers reported increased sales volumes, as opposed to just 17 per cent stating reductions. In previous surveys retailers had only expected [...]
Yule Catto hit by weakening demand in Asia June 27, 2012 BRITISH chemicals maker Yule Catto saw its share price plunge yesterday after it announced that it expects its business to be hurt by a volatile euro and weakening demand in Asia. Yule Catto shares plummeted by 21.4 per cent making them one of the biggest percentage losers on the London Stock Exchange. The news undermines [...]
Barclays fined £290m in Libor settlement as Diamond loses bonus June 27, 2012 Barclays bank will pay at least $450m (£288m) to US and British authorities to settle a probe into manipulation of the Libor interbank lending rate. Regulators have been investigating allegations that several banks, including Barclays, sought to manipulate the London Interbank Lending Rate (Libor), which underpins trillions of dollars of derivatives contracts worldwide and is [...]
Banks fuel FTSE gains but Eurozone picture darkens June 27, 2012 Banks fuelled modest gains on the FTSE 100 in early trading but investor confidence remained weak overall as the Eurozone’s leaders failed to offer any evidence of a path to recovery for the bloc. Disagreements between the region’s policymakers over how to deal with the turmoil are weighing on investors’ confidence ahead of a European [...]
Barclays’ South African arm Absa issues a profit warning June 26, 2012 SOUTH African bank Absa, which is majority owned by Barclays, yesterday issued a profit warning that blamed an increase in mortgage-related bad debts, sending its shares tumbling. The bank warned its first-half earnings could fall as much as 10 per cent below last year’s 4.6bn rand (£347m), causing its stock to fall by seven per cent. [...]
FTSE slides on banking shares and scepticism over EU leaders’ summit June 26, 2012 BRITAIN’S top shares dipped into negative territory in a lacklustre session yesterday, hampered by banking stocks, with market movements likely to remain muted ahead of a summit of European leaders later in the week. While a two-day summit in Brussels on 28-29 June was very much the market focus, traders pointed to an element of [...]
Online blunder puts Hester’s bonus under threat again June 25, 2012 As the computer meltdown at NatWest entered another week, pressure mounted yesterday to make senior management pay the price for the disruption. Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott told Sky News that there was “no question that [RBS boss] Stephen Hester should not be eligible for a bonus after this fiasco.” Interviewed yesterday, Hester said management [...]