PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS June 3, 2010 NO OVERSEAS FX FEES WITH KALIXA Whether you are heading to South Africa for the World Cup or elsewhere this summer, you ought to be thinking about your currency arrangements as early as possible. Kalixa, the pre-paid Mastercard, has announced this week that it will be waiving its standard foreign exchange fee for all point-of-sale [...]
Barclays buys Tricorona in climate push June 2, 2010 BARCLAYS yesterday agreed to buy Swedish carbon credits trader Tricorona, cementing the bank’s position as the biggest player in the emissions market. Barclays has offered eight Swedish kronor (70p) per share for Tricorona, representing a total consideration of around 1.13bn kronor, or £98m, and a premium of 40 per cent to the firm’s last closing [...]
Banks drag FTSE down even lower June 2, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index fell yesterday, led down by banks, but finished well off session lows on fresh hopes for economic recovery after strong US pending home sales data. The FTSE 100 closed 11.98 points or 0.2 per cent lower at 5,151.32, having dropped as low as 5,072.53. The index fell 0.5 per cent on [...]
UK bank stocks are attractive but precarious June 2, 2010 COMPARED to some of the financial institutions in continental Europe, Britain’s banks, even the part-nationalised ones, are managing to exude an air of respectability and even strength. While French and German financial institutions – banks and insurers – are estimated by Barclays Capital to hold just under €80bn of Greek debt, British banks have minimal [...]
Big oil will live on, but faces a harder future June 2, 2010 AS BP steps up its efforts to stem the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the speculation surrounding the costs associated with the clean-up continues to increase. BP estimates that the cost will be roughly $4bn, while some analysts predict that the clean-up, along with related lawsuits, could be as high as $10bn. While [...]
European insurers line up to buy half-stake in Barclays Vie June 1, 2010 A QUEUE of European insurers is waiting in the wings to snap up half of Barclays’ French life insurance business, Barclays Vie, after the bank last week entered talks to offload a 50 per cent stake in the venture for around €65m (£54.2m). French groups CNP Assurances, Axa and La Mondiale are all thought to [...]
Diversify your exposure June 1, 2010 NAVIGATING market volatility is always tough for any fund manager seeking to generate alpha and the ongoing sovereign debt and banking crisis in Europe has been a definite test of managers’ mettle. Recent data shows that worried investors have been redeeming assets held in funds. Outflows from European equity funds in the week ending 19 [...]
CITY VIEWS: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE IPAD – IS IT THE FUTURE FOR BUSINESS? June 1, 2010 DANIEL MORGAN | VTB CAPITAL “It really is the biggest waste of money ever. I can’t see what the ? difference is between the iPad and other computers. If it was a standalone device I could see the attraction, but it needs to link with a Mac computer to get the most out of it.” [...]
Shopping around is the future of law June 1, 2010 COMMENTATORS talk excitedly about “Tesco Law” and the ongoing liberalisation of legal services as though it were a latter day gold rush led by big name supermarkets and banks. But what is it that consumers want? New research suggests that there is little enthusiasm on the part of the public to associate legal services with [...]
Banks to be hit with bigger bill for FSA May 28, 2010 MAJOR banks must dig deeper into their pockets over the coming year to pay for tougher supervision, the Financial Services Authority has said. The FSA is wholly funded from levies on financial firms and said its annual bill for 2010-11 will jump ten per cent to £454.7m though 60 per cent of firms will actually [...]