Tesco names City grandee as new chair May 11, 2011 TESCO yesterday announced that Sir Richard Broadbent will become its next chairman. Sir Richard (pictured), who is deputy chairman at Barclays, will join Tesco as a non-executive director in July. He will take over the reins from Tesco chairman David Reid, who retires in November. The City grandee was tipped to take over at insurer [...]
HSBC plans £2.1bn savings May 11, 2011 HSBC is reviewing its US cards business and streamlining its wealth management and retail banking operations as it eyes savings of up to $3.5bn (£2.1bn), Europe’s biggest bank has said. HSBC said the savings would help it reduce the proportion of revenue spent on expenses to 48-52 per cent by 2013 from 61 per cent [...]
Barclays wins $1bn on Lehman payout May 10, 2011 BARCLAYS yesterday won a $1.1bn (£682m) payout from the trustee of Lehman Brothers’ estate after agreeing a value for disputed assets linked to its purchase of Lehman’s US arm. The payment settles a dispute over how much “clearance box” assets that were held to facilitate the clearance of securities trading should be worth. A US [...]
Huge Chinese trade surplus provokes US May 10, 2011 CHINESE exports hit a record high in April, it was revealed yesterday, pushing its trade surplus to nearly four times the expected level. The news coincided with the third round of official talks between Chinese and US authorities in Washington DC, with the spotlight yet again on Beijing’s management of the yuan. US Treasury secretary [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 9, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES SAMOA TO MOVE BACK TO THE FUTURE Samoa, the tiny Pacific Ocean island state, is travelling through time to improve its economic prospects. In a vote of confidence for the Asian century, the country has decided to shift the jagged International Date Line to its east at the end of this year, which [...]
Banks take hit on mis-selling May 9, 2011 BRITAIN’S banks bowed to the inevitable and dropped their appeal against the FSA on the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) yesterday, as Barclays and RBS became the latest lenders to reveal multi-million pound bills from the debacle. Barclays said it is putting aside £1bn and RBS £850m to pay compensation to customers who were [...]
FSA GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO TWITTER HEDGE FUND May 9, 2011 GOOD news for Paul and Simon Hawtin, the brains behind the world’s first social media-based hedge fund, after the FSA yesterday gave the venture the green light to open for business. The approval for the fund, a spin-off of Derwent Capital that will monitor sentiment threads on Twitter to predict swings in the Dow Jones [...]
German exports surged in March May 9, 2011 German exports soared in March by 7.4 per cent compared to the previous month, official data showed yesterday. The spike saw the German trade surplus reach a six-month high of €15.3bn (£13.4bn), up from €11.2bn – the third sharpest monthly increase in the last nine years. Imports grew by 3.3 per cent compared to February. [...]
Weak banks and fears over Eurozone debt drag on FTSE May 9, 2011 BANKING stocks weighed on Britain’s leading share index yesterday, with the sector hit by their capitulation in a fight over loan insurance mis-selling, and by Eurozone debt concerns after S&P cut Greece’s credit rating. The British Banking Association said members would not appeal a ruling that they compensate customers wrongly sold payment protection insurance (PPI). [...]
Barclays takes £1bn hit on insurance claims May 9, 2011 Barclays is to take a £1bn provision to cover compensation for people who were mis-sold certain insurance policies, the bank said. Barclays and the country’s other banks will also drop a planned appeal against an earlier court ruling which had made them liable to the compensation claims over the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI). [...]