CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 19, 2010 DTZ The property advisory group has appointed Hugh Radford as head of UK retail – a division whose clients include the Crown Estate, Land Securities, Hermes, Aviva and Henderson. It is also currently leasing Westfield’s newest shopping centre development at Stratford. Radford has been a director at DTZ since 2007, when the firm acquired retail [...]
Aviva hunts for Sharman’s replacement September 16, 2010 INSURANCE group Aviva has begun its search for a new chairman in time for Colin Sharman’s planned departure in 2013, people close to the company confirmed yesterday. Potential candidates for the job include former Aviva chief executive Richard Harvey, outgoing Barclays chief executive John Varley and ex-financial services minister Paul Myners. Myners declined to comment, [...]
Don’t get caught out by CGT September 16, 2010 BRITONS are set to waste over half a billion pounds this tax year in unnecessary capital gains tax (CGT) payments, research from unbiased.co.uk revealed earlier this week. The professional advice website said that UK taxpayers will waste £552m by not being CGT-efficient and warned that the capital gains tax rate rise to 28 per cent [...]
EU wages war on derivatives September 15, 2010 RADICAL curbs on short selling and derivatives trading proposed by the European Commission to bring the multi-trillion dollar industry in from “Wild West territory” were condemned as costly and potentially uncompetitive by hedge funds yesterday. The proposals, released to coincide with the collapse of Lehman Brothers two years ago, require increased disclosure of short selling [...]
Lloyds launches a thirty-year sterling bond September 15, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group launched a rare 30-year senior sterling bond yesterday, capitalising on the upbeat tone of the credit markets and on demand from pension funds and insurers for long-dated sterling assets. The bond deal is the bank’s first ever sterling issue with a 30-year maturity, an official with the bank said. Initial guidance on [...]
Be ready to leap when the market turns September 15, 2010 THE popular obsession with City pay has not gone away, as was in evidence recently when the news that Bob Diamond will become CEO of Barclays was accompanied by lurid headlines about the “bonus banker”. City remuneration might be a dog-whistle issue for tabloids, but it’s also a big issue for everybody who works here, [...]
Lloyds Group tops ombudsman’s list for most complaints September 14, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group topped the list of financial services companies that consumers have registered complaints with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) about in the last six months, its latest figures revealed yesterday. Government-backed Lloyds TSB, was the subject of some 12,750 complaints during the six-month period. That was almost 5,000 more than Barclays Bank, which [...]
Check through Basel III’s small print September 13, 2010 BANKS around the world are rightly cheerful after the announcement of Basel III minimum capital requirements less stringent than many had feared and, in the UK, still far lower than major banks’ existing capital reserves. The inevitable gasp of relief following this news has brought an immediate uplift for most, but should not divert attention [...]
UK shares surge as global deal boosts banks and China data cheers investors September 13, 2010 THE UK’s top share index ended higher yesterday after banks rose sharply in response to a new deal over global banking rules while mining shares gained on the back of bullish China industrial data. The FTSE 100 closed up 63.89 points, or 1.2 per cent, at 5,565.53 points, a fresh four-month closing high. “It has [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 12, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES RESPITE OVER CITY BONUSES DETAILS Britain’s banks will be spared the embarrassment of giving details of big bonus payments to staff in their annual reports next spring after the Treasury admitted the relevant legislation will not be on the statute book in time. The delay to new disclosure requirements is likely to create [...]