BoE rebuffs SLS payback request March 22, 2011 THE Bank of England has told Barclays and HSBC they cannot repay their remaining exposure to its Special Liquidity Scheme (SLS) early. It is understood it is worried the exit of key members from the scheme could undermine those remaining in it – most importantly state-backed Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland. Barclays [...]
FSA makes up rising costs in higher penalties March 22, 2011 A BUMPER year for enforcement fines means that financial firms will pay less for the FSA’s upkeep despite a ten per cent rise in its costs, the Authority’s business plan for 2011/2012 revealed yesterday. Fees will drop two per cent because revenues from financial penalties doubled from £33.2m in 2009/2010 to £79.1m in the year [...]
Barclays offloads toxic assets but Protium still awaits buyer March 21, 2011 BARCLAYS has managed to offload $586m (£359m) of toxic assets to an American real estate investment trust (REIT), but investors are waiting to hear about the sale of Protium, the £7.5bn’s worth of toxic assets that Barclays converted into a loan in 2009. The bank would not say what profit or loss it made on [...]
Upbeat engineers and banks drive FTSE 100 to 1.2pc gain March 21, 2011 MINERS, banks and engineers drove gains in Britain’s top share index by the close yesterday as hope grew that the nuclear crisis in Japan is easing, while heavyweight Vodafone was boosted by M&A activity. The FTSE 100 closed up 67.96 points, or 1.2 per cent, at 5,786.09, its third straight session of gains. The index [...]
BNP Paribas chief gets €1.67 bonus March 21, 2011 BNP Paribas, France’s biggest listed bank, awarded chief executive Baudouin Prot a €1.67m (£1.5m) bonus for 2010. Prot, one of the few bank chiefs to have kept his position throughout the crisis, will receive 60 per cent of the bonus, or €1m, as a deferred payment over 2012, 2013 and 2014, BNP said on its [...]
FTSE rebounds as investor confidence returns March 21, 2011 Stocks regained considerable ground today, consolidating their gains this afternoon, as reassuring action in Japan and Libya gave investors confidence. The morning’s announcement of telecoms giant AT&T’s $39bn (£24bn) takeover of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA also lifted both the UK and US markets. The FTSE 100 closed up 1.2 per cent at 5,786.09. “Equity markets [...]
Diageo turns to tequila for its next buy March 20, 2011 DRINKS group Diageo is considering a bid for tequila firm Jose Cuervo, people with knowledge of the company confirmed yesterday, as part of chief executive Paul Walsh’s multi-billion pound acquisition spree. Diageo, which already distributes Cuervo on behalf of the Beckmann family that owns the brand, is said to be considering a $2bn (£1.2bn) takeover [...]
Net borrower banks targeted in Libor probe March 20, 2011 INVESTIGATIONS into the possible “manipulation” of data relating to the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) are likely to focus on banks that were net borrowers during the financial crisis rather than lenders, an industry source told City A.M. yesterday. UBS has said that it was subpoenaed by US and Japanese regulators regarding Libor investigations. Barclays, [...]
Arcus aims to bid for Forth March 20, 2011 ARCUS Infrastructure Partners aims to announce a formal £744m takeover offer for FTSE 250-listed Forth Ports tomorrow, alongside the target’s full-year results, a source familiar with the company confirmed yesterday. Arcus, which already owns a 22.8 per cent stake in Forth, is likely to keep its offer in line with the £16.30 per share indicative [...]
The number of millionaires in the UK has risen by 17 per cent since 2008, new data reveals March 20, 2011 There are now 619,000 millionaires in the UK, up from 528,000 in 2008, new figures from Barclays Wealth revealed today. And 86,000 people in the UK have wealth in excess of £5m, its wealth map shows. The majority (46 per cent) of UK-based millionaires live in London and the South East. The number of millionaires [...]