CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 1, 2011 Safestore Holdings The self-storage retailer has appointed Peter Gowers as chief executive, following the retirement of his predecessor Steve Williams. Gowers, 38, joins from InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), where most recently he was chief executive, Asia Pacific. Gowers began his career at Arthur D. Little before joining the strategy group of Bass in 1999. He [...]
Barclays to buy Egg credit card assets March 1, 2011 Barclays is to buy the British credit card assets of online bank Egg from US lender Citigroup for an undisclosed price, as part of plans to boost its retail banking business. “The acquisition of Egg’s UK credit card accounts has been priced at a significant discount to gross receivables. Based on current projections, we expect [...]
Chicago boom looks good for US factories February 28, 2011 CHICAGO’S purchasing managers’ index (PMI) reached a 22-year high in February, surprising economists and boding well for today’s US-wide manufacturing results. The PMI hit 71.2 this month, driven upwards by growth in production and new orders, which reached their highest level – 75.9 – since 1983. All index scores above 50 indicate economic expansion. “This [...]
Eurozone inflation revised down but oil and food costs expected to weigh February 28, 2011 INFLATION in the Eurozone was revised down to an annual rate of 2.3 per cent in January, yesterday – surprising economists who had expected it to be held at the earlier estimate of 2.4 per cent. However, strong pressures from oil and food prices are expected to increase the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) [...]
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 [...]