Banks stocks fall as FSA calls for tighter regulation December 12, 2011 The FTSE 100 was pegged back by miners and banks in early trading as the Eurozone continued the struggle to dig itself out of the sovereign debt crisis Domestically the decision by the Government to shun a Eurozone agreement on closer fiscal ties was sinking in with cracks appearing in the coalition over the move. [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK December 11, 2011 BARCLAYS boss Bob Diamond last week revealed he encouraged up to 40 of his staff he considered “too ostentatious” to find other jobs. Something of a U-turn from the firm where a group of bankers famously spent £44,000 in the restaurant Petrus in 2001, but no matter – the point is that the six European [...]
Markets choppy as Europe rift widens December 9, 2011 The FTSE began to slip this morning as investors digested the impact of a new Eurozone agreement over fiscal integration which was shunned by Britain. Britain torpedoed the chances of a consensus as Prime Minister David Cameron refused to accept plans for a financial transactions tax that would clobber the City. Three French banks were [...]
PIPPA MIDDLETON JOINS BANKERS AT MAHIKI DUO’S LOW-KEY LAUNCH December 8, 2011 PIPPA Middleton is out and about again after splitting from her boyfriend Alex Loudon, an analyst at brewing giant SAB Miller. And one of the first places Middleton has patronised in her newly single life is the Markham Inn on Elystan Street, the latest restaurant venture from Mahiki owners Nick House and Piers Adam that [...]
Standard Chartered forecasts 10pc profits rise December 8, 2011 Standard Chartered Bank has said that it expects pretax profit to rise by at least 10 per cent this year to another record, helped by a strong performance in emerging markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Net interest margins were also expected to rise from 2010 levels, it said in a filing to the [...]
Banks buy own debt to raise new capital December 7, 2011 EUROPEAN banks are turning to buying back their own debt in order to raise some of the billions in extra capital required by regulators. At least six major banks have launched debt buybacks in the last two weeks and investment bankers say more are likely. Barclays announced the repurchase of £2.5bn of its own debt [...]
Barclays scales back £1bn retail presence in India December 7, 2011 BARCLAYS said yesterday it has decided not to book new retail loans in India, while maintaining its deposit business as part of a restructuring to focus on its corporate banking, wealth management and investment banking businesses. UK-based Barclays plans to sell its retail loan book of more than $580m (£369m) in the next six months [...]
BRICS expansion isn’t always easy December 7, 2011 Talk about counterintuitive. India, we’re always told, is the place to be for Western companies who want to move beyond mature markets at home. Now Barclays is scaling back its operations there, selling its $580m loan book and $35m credit card portfolio. In recent years, it has been the done thing to try to build [...]
FTSE see-saws on doubt over outcome of summit December 7, 2011 BRITAIN’S top shares fell yesterday after comments from a German government official eroded optimism about a comprehensive deal to solve the Euro zone’s debt crisis at this week’s crunch EU summit. The FTSE 100 index ended down 21.81 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 5,546.91, after a choppy day when the index hit an intra-day [...]
Banks and miners fuel FTSE gains December 7, 2011 Miners and banks fuelled a lift in the FTSE 100 as investor sentiment improved ahead of a crunch Eurozone summit. The blue chip index mirrored Asia and the US where markets recovered from the ratings blow from Standard & Poor’s, which threatened to downgrade 15 nations, including Germany. There is mounting optimism that Eurozone leaders [...]