A new world of Tesco-style law for all October 20, 2009 SIX artfully stacked cans of baked beans adorn the desk of the Legal Services Board’s first chairman David Edmonds. This isn’t some clever executive desk toy nor is it evidence of a limited culinary imagination. Instead it’s a playful reference to “Tesco Law”, the shorthand for the ongoing liberalisation of the legal profession under the [...]
Rathbone to buy fund unit from Lloyds October 15, 2009 LLOYDS Banking Group is in advanced talks with private bank Rathbone Brothers over the sale of its Scottish private fund management operations, the bank confirmed yesterday. The bank said it was selling the Bank of Scotland Portfolio Management Service (PMS), a business with a headcount of around 50 staff that specialises in putting together investment [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 13, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES RBS EYES SELL-OFF OF 300 BRANCHESRoyal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is exploring a government-backed plan to give up all its 312 RBS-branded branches in England and Wales, in a radical move to satisfy Brussels state-aid authorities that could boost business banking competition on the high street. Officials close to the negotiations say the [...]
Why the special relationship is still important October 4, 2009 AHEAD of this week’s Conservative Party conference, it is perhaps a good time to recollect the wise words of one of the party’s and country’s most celebrated leaders. In response to a crisis far graver than the one we have just experienced, Winston Churchill coined the phrase “special relationship” to describe the close connection between [...]
Fresh tax hikes on business are senseless October 1, 2009 IF you want a taste of things to come, look no further than the devastating tax hikes that are about to hit London’s struggling private sector firms. Business rates are about to jump, in many cases by 30-40 per cent or more. The reason: the tax, which is set by the Treasury but collected by [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 24, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES DNO AIMS TO SAVE KURDISH VENTUREShares in DNO International, the Norwegian oil company, plunged more than 45 per cent on Thursday as trading resumed in the stock for the first time since Kurdish authorities threatened to cancel its licence to export oil from Iraq. Helge Eide, chief executive of DNO, told the Financial [...]
EU unveils its banking plans and watchdog September 23, 2009 THE European Union yesterday unveiled its blueprint for an overhaul of the way banks and financial markets are policed, a central plank in new rules designed to prevent a repeat of the global economic crisis. It plans to create a banking super-watchdog, with powers to overrule countries such as Britain, and a pan-European supervisor that [...]
OFT SENDING OUT MESSAGE TO BUSINESS September 22, 2009 MICHAEL GRENFELLCOMPETITION LAW PARTNER AT NORTON ROSE LLP THE huge fines imposed yesterday by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on UK construction companies for cartel activity send a strong signal to British business generally: the authorities will penalise anti-competitive behaviour, even in a recession. The fines totalling £129.5m on 103 construction firms for bid [...]
US to revamp M&A code in blow to firms September 22, 2009 US ANTITRUST authorities are revamping guidelines on company mergers and takeovers in a bid to encourage greater competition, potentially causing a headache for firms looking to tie the knot. The 17-year old guidelines are to be overhauled amid expectations that the Obama administration will give corporate combinations a tougher review. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon [...]
GOLD’S HIGHS OFFER SELLING POTENTIAL September 13, 2009 JANE FOLEYRESEARCH DIRECTOR, FOREX.COMTHE market returned from its summer holidays last week with a hearty appetite for risk, undermining the US dollar so much that euro-dollar rallied into a new trading range and, unsurprisingly, boosting the price of oil and metals. What was surprising, however, was the surge in gold, which broke the $1,000/oz level [...]