S&P CASTS DOUBT ON BANK REVIVAL August 26, 2010 RATING agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) cast doubt on the strength of the UK banking sector’s recovery yesterday, saying lenders had been buoyed by a rising economic tide. The claim, made after this month’s bumper first-half earnings season, was immediately rebuffed by banking industry figures. While institutions realise they have been helped by an improving [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS August 26, 2010 RECESSION FLAT SHARE ANYONE? According to a new survey by easyroommate.co.uk there has been a surge in the number of people looking for flat shares in the wake of the recession. It found that flat sharing was up 59,000 since the start of the crunch and now the total number of people who flat share [...]
Watchdog slaps £1.6m fine on SocGen August 25, 2010 THE Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulator fined French bank Societe Generale £1.575m yesterday for failing to provide accurate transaction reports. The fine handed out to SocGen, which in 2008 lost around €5bn (£4.1bn) in a trading scandal, follows previous penalties handed out to Barclays, Credit Suisse and Commerzbank for similar failings. The FSA said that [...]
Getting a grip on listed products August 25, 2010 TOO much choice can be a problem for investors these days. Online consumer champion Which? singled out structured products as being some of the most confusing instruments on offer and was particularly unhappy about their lack of transparency, particularly when it comes to counterparty risk. The UK Structured Products Association hit back at the research [...]
FTSE hits seven-week closing low as fears over recovery’s strength intensify August 25, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index fell to a seven-week closing low yesterday on growing unease that the global economy may slip back into another recession following further weak economic data from the United States. New orders for long-lasting US made goods rose far less than expected in July and, excluding transportation equipment, posted their largest decline [...]
TRADERS SEX UP THE DULL WORLD OF FOREX August 23, 2010 THE THINGS that bored traders get up to when they get a minute, eh? The Capitalist chances upon an, err, enterprising website set up by a pair of forex traders, who claim to have cracked the conundrum of how to dispense a barrage of information to their peers while simultaneously holding their interest – by [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 23, 2010 Future Group The media business has appointed former ITN chief executive Mark Wood as chief executive of its UK business. Wood, who stood down from ITN last year, has been a non-executive director at Future since April 2009. He will leave the board on taking up his new post at the end of the month. [...]
Barclays hit by computer glitch August 22, 2010 THOUSANDS of Barclays customers were unable to access their bank accounts or withdraw money from cash machines this weekend after a system crash caused chaos nationwide. The problems, which began at around 1.30pm on Saturday, hit telephone and online banking services and caused frustration at retail outlets as embarrassed shoppers were forced to abandon purchases [...]
The car insurance boss who wants to motor into new foreign markets August 22, 2010 It is a case of ‘Recession? What recession?’ for motor insurance firm Admiral, which is in the middle of taking on 750 staff in the UK alone this year. And that means an awful lot of meetings for the Cardiff-based firm’s 53-year-old chief executive Henry Engelhardt. The Chicago-born boss meets every one of his new [...]
FTSE falls to lowest level in a month on US jobless figures August 19, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index fell to its lowest close in a month yesterday, as weak US labour and other data cast further doubt on the strength of the global recovery and as oil stocks fell on lower crude prices. The FTSE 100 fell 91.58 points, or 1.7 per cent, to 5,211.29 points, the lowest close [...]