Money supply and credit conditions remain tight May 4, 2011 CONSUMER credit, excluding mortgages, rose by just £100m in March, considerably below economists’ expectations, the Bank of England said yesterday, And the Bank’s preferred gauge of money supply, M4 excluding intermediate other financial corporations rose by 0.1 per cent on the month — down 1.1 per cent on the same time last year. “Today’s money [...]
Commodities drag on FTSE but high street names rally May 4, 2011 COMMODITY stocks pulled Britain’s top share index lower yesterday, ending the FTSE 100’s recent rally as disappointing US manufacturing data spoiled investors’ appetite for risk. The FTSE 100 closed down 98.81 points, or 1.6 per cent, at 5,984.07, with the FTSE volatility index up 11.4 per cent, hitting a near five-week high. The FTSE 100 [...]
HSBC to sell off $30bn of assets in strategic overhaul May 3, 2011 HSBC is set to announce some $30bn (£18.2bn) in asset sales as part of chief executive Stuart Gulliver’s strategic rebalancing of the bank. Insiders have confirmed the $30bn figure to City A.M., which was estimated by Barclays Capital analyst Rohith Chandra-Rajan in a note to investors. The sales will form part of implementing what Gulliver [...]
Banks face further restrictions in war to retain talented staff May 3, 2011 GUIDELINES on implementing the EU’s new bonus regulations will deprive banks of a major way of retaining their most talented staff, experts have said. In detailed guidance issued last week, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) gold-plated EU regulations on bonuses so as to effectively rule out retention bonuses to existing staff. PricewaterhouseCooper’s Jon Terry said: [...]
Trustee for Thornburg Mortgage sues five of its banks for $2.2bn May 3, 2011 THE trustee for home loan provider Thornburg Mortgage is suing Goldman Sachs, Barclays and other banks for a total of $2.2bn (£1.3bn), blaming them for the company’s bankruptcy. The trustee filed four separate lawsuits, one of which blames a “collusive scheme” by units of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse and UBS [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 3, 2011 Ashcourt Rowan Ashcourt Rowan, the wealth management division of Syndicate Asset Management, has appointed Paul Miles as director of intermediary services. Miles joins Ashcourt Rowan from discretionary fund management platform Parmenion, where he was sales director for the last three years. Miles will report to Christopher Jeffreys, Syndicate’s director of asset management, who has been [...]
Drugmaker deals buoy FTSE despite dragging miner shares May 3, 2011 DRUGMAKERS helped Britain’s top share index rise modestly yesterday, buoyed by deal activity in the United States, as traders mooted the possibility that a recent equity rally may falter. Miners hampered the FTSE 100’s progress though, hurt by easing metals prices on renewed fears about demand, with Rio Tinto off 1.6 per cent on talk [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 2, 2011 Brookland Partners The investment bank has appointed Griff Winkler as a director, where he will focus on expanding the firm through identifying investment opportunities from capital providers and other JV partners. Winkler joins from Hatfield Philips, where he was vice president of the non-performing commercial real estate loan group. He also brings five years of [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS May 2, 2011 ROYAL DUTCH SHELL RBS rates the oil group “buy” with a target price of £24 following the firm’s quarterly results last week. Shell’s net income was five per cent above the broker’s forecasts, mirroring BP’s strong performance earlier in the week. Only the upstream business fell short, coming in at two per cent below RBS [...]
Barclays suffers from indigestion after U-turn on Protium deal April 27, 2011 WHEN Barclays gave the name of Protium, an indigestion medicine, to an accounting trick it pulled off in 2009, the bank hardly imagined it would be forced to re-absorb most of the $12.5bn (£7.5bn) of assets that it had moved off balance sheet within 18 months. That was short-sighted, according to analysts who yesterday dubbed [...]