City Moves | Who’s switching Jobs August 22, 2012 EDM Group Iain Ferguson has been appointed non-executive chairman of the information management services provider. He is a previous executive vice-president of Havas, the French advertising company. Ferguson was also formerly chief executive of Mission Marketing Group, where he led its independent price offering. In his new role, he will identify and execute acquisition opportunities [...]
Virgin Money aims for 5m bank customers by end of the year August 19, 2012 VIRGIN MONEY said yesterday it is on course to reach 5m customers by the end of the year as it reaps the benefit of rival banks’ scandals and payment problems. Virgin, which had around 4m customers after it spent £747m buying Northern Rock from the government in November, said that since the January merger it [...]
City Moves | Who’s switching Jobs August 16, 2012 RSA The insurer has appointed Matt Hotson as its investor relations director. He joins from Cable & Wireless Worldwide, where he was responsible for corporate finance and investor relations. Hotson was also previously director of investor relations and strategy at Legal & General. Mercer Edmund Teo has been appointed director of wealth management, Asia, at [...]
Standard Life’s profits expand ahead of reform August 14, 2012 INSURANCE giant Standard Life yesterday reported an unexpectedly large jump in profits and said it expects to grow even more thanks to forthcoming regulatory changes. Chief executive David Nish told City A.M. that the imminent implementation of the retail distribution review – which will outlaw commission payments to financial advisers – will benefit Standard Life [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 8, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Square ties-up deal with Starbucks Square, the mobile payments start-up created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, yesterday took a big step towards the mainstream when Starbucks announced it would use its smartphone technology to replace transaction systems in its US coffee shops. Under the deal, Square will process all Starbucks transactions done with [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 8, 2012 Utilyx The energy management specialist has appointed Jo Butlin as its managing director. She has an extensive career in the energy sector, including senior roles at Powergen, and she most recently worked as vice president, operations at SmartestEnergy. Bahrain Mumtalakat The investment arm of the Kingdom of Bahrain has appointed Tony Robinson as its new [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 31, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Insurers warn on too big to fail plans Regulators’ plans to designate big global insurers as too big to fail could have unintended consequences that risk “destabilising the financial system”, an industry body has claimed. The Geneva Association said they might prompt insurers to cut holdings of government bonds as well as bank [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 29, 2012 Lloyds Bank Matthew Packham has been appointed head of the trade, industrials and services sectors at Lloyds Wholesale Banking and Markets. He was previously regional director of the bank’s business support unit, and has also served as head of credit for Lloyds’ US structured finance and financial institutions business. Norton Rose Neil O’May has been [...]
LONDON WEEK AHEAD July 29, 2012 RESULTS season continues with a slew of banks, energy and leisure firms due to update this week, while the Bank of England’s monthly decision on interest rates is due on Thursday. Today’s biggest news comes in the form of interims from under-fire banking giant HSBC and household goods behemoth Reckitt Benckiser. The Bank is set [...]
Rising headcount at Moody’s cancels out jump in revenues July 26, 2012 RATING agency Moody’s Corporation reported an 8.7 per cent slide in profit yesterday, blaming increased expenditure on staff numbers and IT systems. Net profits fell to $172.5m (£109.9m) at the end of June, down from $189m in the second quarter of 2011, with earnings per share hitting 76 cents, down from 82 cents last year. [...]