CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 1, 2010 Association of British Insurers Alain Dromer will join the ABI’s investment committee as chairman on 15 September. Dromer, who is currently chief executive of Aviva Investors, takes over the position from Keith Skeoch, who has spent three years in office. Dromer has also spent time as head of global investment at HSBC, head of insurance [...]
Bumper UK earnings fail to lift FTSE as bank sell-off weighs July 29, 2010 BRITAIN’S top shares closed easier yesterday as a retreat from banks and investor caution ahead of US growth data offset a batch of robust UK corporate earnings from companies including AstraZeneca. The FTSE 100 closed down 5.73 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 5,313.95, after it ended 0.9 per cent lower on Wednesday. AstraZeneca advanced [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK NEW START-UP BANKS HAVE A CHANCE OF July 29, 2010 ANDREW FRANCIS | MUNICH RE “The new start-ups are not likely to take major market share, but they probably will see an increase in customers who will move for customer service reasons because the big banks are lacking in that area. I doubt people will move because the start-ups have better rates.” CAROLYN BEGG | [...]
Market calm on bank tests July 26, 2010 EUROPEAN lenders’ credit default swap (CDS) spreads narrowed and the euro was steady yesterday as the market gave a mild thumbs-up to the region’s bank stress test results. The cost of insuring against default on debt issued by key banks fell after the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) said just seven of 91 institutions [...]
Morgan Stanley continues down the road to recovery July 21, 2010 WALL Street lapped up a solid set of second-quarter results from Morgan Stanley yesterday, buoying market sentiment after a disappointing performance over the same period from some of the bank’s peers, notably Goldman Sachs. Morgan Stanley beat analyst expectations with post-tax profit of $1.4bn (£921m) for the three months to June, swinging back into the [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 21, 2010 BANK OF IRELAND The bank has appointed Bill Greaves to the position of head of corporate banking in the UK. Greaves previously led the bank’s technology, media and telecoms team, which he established in early 2005 upon joining the group. Prior to that, he led the media team at Barclays. In his new role, he [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 18, 2010 Artemis Investment Management The fund management group has hired Giles Parkinson as a new investment analyst, tasked with supporting William Littlewood in managing the £567m Artemis Strategic Assets Fund, launched by the firm just over a year ago. Parkinson joins from Newton Investment Management, where he has been a research analyst for the past four [...]
Obama’s reforms at a glance July 15, 2010 SYSTEMIC RISK A council of regulators chaired by the secretary of the Treasury would be created to monitor big-picture risks in the financial system. The Financial Stability Oversight Council could identify firms that threaten stability and subject them to tighter oversight by the Federal Reserve. The Fed and the council could break up firms that [...]
Some good bits – but lots of bad stuff July 15, 2010 SO there you are: President Obama has finally got his Wall Street reform bill, a gargantuan, 2,315-page piece of legislation over which politicians and lawyers will argue for years. As we explain on page 1 and below, there is a huge amount of detail in the final version, with rules governing everything from investment banks [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 12, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES RIO CLASHEs OVER THE RIGHTS TO MONGOLIAN COPPER MINE Tensions are rising between Rio Tinto and Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines over rights to a world-class copper deposit in Mongolia as the multinational mining group releases hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the mine over which it has limited control. Ivanhoe, which owns the [...]