CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 22, 2010 KPMG The accountancy giant has appointed Michelle Quest as its new head of people in the UK, having spent the past 13 years of her career at the firm. Quest joined KPMG from Robson Rhodes in 1997 and became an M&A tax partner in the tax and people services practice in 2003. She takes over [...]
Conditions are brewing for strong coffee prices February 22, 2010 WHILE the surge in sugar has dominated the headlines and the commodity markets over the past six months, prices of other soft commodities such as coffee have been steadily rising. Coffee has risen 23.2 per cent over the past year and there is now speculation that it could be the next bull story in the [...]
RBS boss Hester to waive £1.6m bonus February 22, 2010 ROYAL Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester has decided to waive the bumper £1.6m bonus to which he is contractually entitled for this year, amid a fierce torrent of populist anger over remuneration in the banking sector. The news comes after Barclays chief executive John Varley and president Bob Diamond set the bar for [...]
Public is still angry at City February 22, 2010 THERE is overwhelming public support for a cap on bankers’ pay and a windfall tax on bonuses, according to a poll. A YouGov poll has found that 76 per cent of people would support a cap on bonuses, while 59 per cent would back a windfall tax on bankers’ bonuses. Of that, 60 per cent [...]
SPREAD BET GURU February 21, 2010 Q.Dear Josh, does Barclays’ stellar results for 2009 mean that RBS and Lloyds will follow suit this week? A.My first thoughts are to be careful as this is not a straightforward trading strategy. While there is always some form of a correlation between companies that are in the same sector, stocks can become very volatile [...]
State-owned banks lag their peers February 21, 2010 BANKS were the star performers in the FTSE 100 last week, after Barclays reported its best ever profit of £11.6bn in 2009, an increase of 92 per cent in just 12 months. This week the focus shifts to RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, who will announce earnings on Thursday and Friday respectively. After the turmoil [...]
Retail sales down by 1.8pc February 19, 2010 UK retail sales fell by 1.8 per cent between December and January – the biggest drop in 18 months – according to official figures. The reduction in sales volumes in the month after the Christmas period plunged three times faster than analysts had forecast. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) report said unusually heavy snow [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 18, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES RIPOSTE BY 60 ECONOMISTS TO CALL FOR CUTS More than 60 leading economists have backed Alistair Darling’s decision to delay spending cuts until 2011, creating a dividing line within the profession on the crucial general election issue of how to tackle the UK’s huge public debt. Two letters in today’s Financial Times warn [...]
Lloyds Banking Group to dole out £200m to staff February 18, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group is set to dish out around £200m to staff in its upcoming annual bonus round, it emerged yesterday. The bonus pool is significantly lower than the pot at Barclays and RBS, due to the fact that most of Lloyds’ 120,000 UK staff work in the retail and commercial bank and earn an [...]
Firms look to offload pension liabilities as burden intensifies February 18, 2010 ALMOST two fifths of UK firms plan to offload some of their dangerously bloated pension scheme liabilities within the next three years, paying a massive premium to insurance companies to take them off their books. One in ten expect to completely shift their pension pots to an insurance firm by 2013, according to the research [...]