Barclays clocks largest UK exposure to Greece April 28, 2010 BARCLAYS is likely to be hit the hardest of all the UK banks in the event of a Greek debt default, according to estimates released yesterday. Analysts at Evolution Securities calculated Barclays’ exposure to Greek bonds at €4.6bn (£4.0bn), or 10 per cent of tangible net asset value (tNAV), due to Barclays Capital’s position as [...]
Boots tops reputation poll as banks languish April 28, 2010 Alliance Boots knocked Marks & Spencer off the top spot, in a survey of company reputation. The Reputation Institute’s UK Pulse Report 2010 ranked retail brands highly but the list of 140 firms made torrid reading for the finance industry. Royal Bank of Scotland languished at 138, with Lloyds at 136 and Barclays at 129. [...]
New volatility products help investors to hedge April 28, 2010 EUROPE’s sovereign debt crisis has gained momentum this week after Greece’s debt was downgraded to junk status. Similar to the financial shock in 2008, this has rocked global stock indices and volatility has spiked higher in recent days. Volatility indices, such as the Vix in the US and VSTOXX in Europe, measure the “fear” in [...]
FTSE drops after Spain downgrade April 28, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index closed lower yesterday, extending the previous session’s steep falls, after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s cut Spain’s credit rating to AA, overshadowing strong corporate earnings. The FTSE 100 index closed down 16.91 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 5,586.61, after it tumbled 2.6 per cent on Tuesday — its biggest one-day [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 28, 2010 HSBC Private Bank The private bank has appointed Daniel Ellis as a managing director and head of the private bank investment group for the UK and Channel Islands, based in London. Ellis is currently head of structured products for HSBC Private Bank Suisse, having joined the group in 2001 to help build the ‘over the [...]
FTSE sees biggest fall in five months after S&P slashes rating on Greece April 27, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index dropped 2.6 per cent yesterday, the biggest fall in over five months as S&P downgrades for Greece and Portugal fuelled debt crisis contagion worries, smacking banks and commodity issues. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 150.33 points at 5,603.52, easily snapping an 88 point rally seen in the [...]
Barclays sells Africa custody unit April 27, 2010 Barclays said yesterday it would sell its African custody business to Standard Chartered, its emerging markets-focused rival. The bank, which did not disclose the value of the deal, said it had exited the global custody business outside Africa in 1998 and that the remaining African unit is profitable but “would benefit from the synergies a [...]
RBS competition fine will solve nothing April 27, 2010 THE ROYAL Bank of Scotland was recently fined £28.6m by the Office of Fair Trading for breaking competition law after the bank shared information with Barclays. But the case raises a number of questions, not least about the regulator’s intentions in imposing the fine, and its efficacy in deterring such behaviour in future. Firstly there [...]
German delay on Greek deal rocks market April 26, 2010 GERMANY and the International Monetary Fund demanded clearer details on Greece’s planned budget cuts yesterday, spooking markets into pushing the country’s borrowing costs to the highest level in 12 years. German chancellor Angela Merkel said the €45bn (£38.8bn) support package offered by the European Union and the IMF would stand firm provided “tough measures” were [...]
BlackRock shares slide after its anaemic results April 26, 2010 BlackRock, the giant money management firm, reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings as its funds businesses saw outflows and customers shifted to passive funds over more actively-managed ones. The asset management firm’s shares were down as much as 8.8 per cent as investors focused on the weaker-than-expected earnings as well as weaker-than-forecast revenue numbers even as overall [...]