CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 28, 2011 Amlin The insurance group has appointed Andreas Luberichs, formerly of Chubb Europe, to the new role of group head of underwriting. Luberichs joins on 7 March as a member of the group executive management team and will be based in the London headquarters. Luberichs has spent the past seventeen years of his twenty year career [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 27, 2011 HSBC Holdings Europe’s largest bank has appointed Laura May Lung Cha as independent non-executive director. She previously served as vice-chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and she is currently a non-executive deputy chairman of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. Vincent Cheng also announced his retirement as executive director at HSBC. Barclay Meade [...]
Saudi oil pledge fuels FTSE rally February 25, 2011 The FTSE has rallied strongly this afternoon, shaking off the technical glitch that upset morning trading to finish just above the 6,000 level. The FTSE 100 closed up 1.37 per cent at 6,001.2 after oil price fears subsided following a Saudi announcement that it had increased output to make up for any shortages as a [...]
Hester says?untenable war on pay is driving away bank’s most talented staff February 24, 2011 RBS is losing its best staff due to the stringent pay conditions imposed upon it by the government, said chief executive Stephen Hester yesterday. He told City A.M. that “regretted losses” – losses of the bank’s most valued staff despite efforts to keep them – are going up. “They’re too high. They need to come [...]
Tax bill is double that of its rivals February 24, 2011 RBS and its staff paid £3.9bn to the Treasury in taxes last year, the bank has revealed. The amount is almost double the UK?tax bills paid by other banks like Barclays and Goldman Sachs, because of the bank’s size and its concentration in the UK. The high costs of its taxes is despite the fact [...]
American jobless claims drop February 24, 2011 New unemployment benefit claims in the US dropped to 391,000 in the week ending 19 February, while continuing jobless claims fell below 3.8m. “The continued improvement in this week’s report signals that the weather-related spikes in January did not alter the downward trend in claims, and we take this as evidence that the labour market [...]
Energy stocks rally but RBS leads the FTSE downwards February 24, 2011 UNREST in the Middle East and North Africa hit Britain’s top shares again yesterday, though rising crude prices and upbeat comment from oil major BP on its Indian activities lifted energy stocks. The FTSE 100 closed down 3.55 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 5,919.98, pinned just below a seven-month technical support level of 5,920. [...]
Oil surges on Libyan crisis February 23, 2011 THE PRICE of oil continued to surge yesterday, after at least half of Libya’s production ground to a halt amid escalating violence. Brent crude for delivery in April soared six per cent to race to more than $112.12 a barrel, its highest level in two-and-a-half years. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery jumped 3.9 per [...]
Qatar keen to buy RBS and Lloyds stakes February 23, 2011 QATAR plans to buy stakes in RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, the nation’s Prime Minister told David Cameron yesterday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani said when asked about the state-owned banks: “We are very open to any investment in the UK and we have discussed some.” The Qatar Investment Authority already [...]
Barclays deal with Lehman cleared in US February 23, 2011 BARCLAYS is in line for an estimated £500m windfall after winning a legal battle with the bankruptcy estate of Lehman Brothers. Lehman’s creditors were attempting to extract $11bn (£6.8bn) from the bank on the grounds that it had improperly snapped up assets during a fire sale following Lehman’s collapse. But the bank’s lawyers fended off [...]