Consumer spending up in the US January 31, 2011 American consumer spending jumped higher than expected in December, official data showed yesterday. Spending was up 0.7 per cent, while personal income grew by 0.4 per cent. “This represents a very solid end to the year,” commented Peter Newland of Barclays Capital. With spending increasing at a greater rate than income, the savings rate fell [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 31, 2011 HSBC HSBC today announces the appointment of Richard Jablonowski as managing director and head of investment counsellors to its private banking division. Based in London, he will report to Daniel Ellis, managing director and head of the investment group at HSBC private bank. Jablonowski joins from Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management where he spent 11 [...]
Desert sands blowing into the gears of the economy January 31, 2011 THE LAST time Egypt unsettled international markets this badly was in 1973. On 6 October of that year, the Egyptian army mounted a shock assault on the Israeli occupied Sinai Peninsula. After initially losing ground, the Israeli army rapidly recovered, fighting back until a ceasefire was agreed on 25 October. The war, though relatively small, [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 30, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BANKS WATCH BARCLAYS’ COCO PLANS Big banks on both sides of the Atlantic are weighing whether to follow Barclays as it pushes ahead with a plan to pay bonuses with innovative bonds, dubbed cocos. According to several banks present at last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, the idea of using contingent convertible [...]
Barclays boss Diamond coached by Mandelson January 30, 2011 LABOUR peer Lord Mandelson coached Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays, ahead of a high-profile public hearing earlier this month. Mandelson, who once said Diamond was the “unacceptable face of banking”, is understood to have offered only “informal advice” and did not receive any payments for his services. Diamond made waves at the Treasury select [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 30, 2011 KPMG Dr Nicola Mazzarotto (pictured) has been appointed as head of competition economics for financial advisory and accountants KPMG. The appointment means that he is now a director in the firm’s economics practice. He joins the firm from the competition commission, where he performed economic analysis for eight years on several high-profile mergers, including a [...]
Blocking out the sirens’ call: how to protect your wealth from emotion January 30, 2011 JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES once said that “there’s nothing so dangerous as the pursuit of an rational investment policy in an irrational world”. Despite that advice, every day, people try to construct rational, risk balanced portfolios. And often they fail, instead buying what is fashionable, or panicking when they should be cool-headed. According to Dr Greg Davies, [...]
Goldman’s Cohn’s warning makes hedge funds furious January 27, 2011 COMMENTS made by Goldman chief operating officer Gary Cohn in Davos this week have sparked fury among hedge fund investors, who form a large part of Goldman’s client base. Cohn sounded a warning about banking regulation on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum, saying that over-regulation could push dangerous practices into “the shadow banking system”. [...]
Geithner backs bankers on push for regulation clarity January 27, 2011 THE heads of the world’s biggest financial players met in Davos yesterday to try to mend their relationship with regulators who are crafting tougher rules to prevent another financial crisis. At a meeting on the fringes of the World Economic Forum, the bankers including the heads of JP Morgan Chase, UBS, Credit Suisse and Barclays, discussed [...]
High street sales growth in slowdown January 27, 2011 RETAIL sales for January are up on the same time last year, yet sales growth slowed considerably, according to the Confederation for British Industry (CBI). And consumer confidence has plummeted to a 12 month low, separate data from researchers GfK NOP revealed today. The positive balance of retailers reporting a year-on-year increase in sales dropped [...]