China delaying credit default swaps project May 31, 2010 CHINA has delayed a pilot project to trial credit default swaps (CDS) in its domestic bond market after the national banking regulator expressed concerns over their side-effects. CDS, derivatives that provide insurance against a bond defaulting, have been blamed for amplifying the financial crisis as their use spread from hedging credit portfolios to speculating. It [...]
Franco-German moves needed on short-selling, says regulator May 27, 2010 FRANCE’S financial watchdog yesterday called for urgent Franco-German initiatives to combat short-selling, a week after it slammed its neighbour for taking unilateral action to ban naked short-selling of some instruments. Jean-Pierre Jouyet, head of French financial markets regulator AMF, said he wanted to see better supervision of the market for credit default swaps (CDS), which [...]
AIG probe is abandoned May 23, 2010 The US Justice Department has dropped a probe of American International Group executives involving the credit default swaps that sent the insurer to the brink of bankruptcy and forced a huge taxpayer bailout, lawyers for the executives said. The criminal probe had focused on whether Joseph Cassano, who ran the financial products unit, and Andrew [...]
Markets face huge annual losses May 20, 2010 STOCK MARKETS worldwide plunged for the third consecutive day yesterday amid growing fears that the European chaos could lead to a financial collapse on the scale of the 2008 banking crisis. The FTSE 100 flirted briefly with the 5,000 point mark, eventually finishing the day down 1.7 per cent at 5073.13, while the French CAC [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU SPENDING MORE? May 20, 2010 DAVID KESBY | KESBY & COMPANY “I am spending more because business is better and I am more confident than I was a year ago when my business went through a dip. Although the retail index is up, consumer confidence is still wavering because there are still fears of a double dip.” DAVOR LALIC | [...]
MAN FROM THE PRU IN SPOT OF PULP FRICTION May 20, 2010 SEASONED investors will be familiar with the mountain of paperwork that traditionally accompanies any City deal, but it does rather take the biscuit when recipients are actually forced to order waste-disposal skips in order to get the documents off their hands. Yet this, ladies and gents, is the position which stockbroker Charles Stanley finds itself, [...]
£850,000,000: What Pru’s banks will make in fees May 18, 2010 CITY investment houses opened fire on Prudential last night for paying banks the “obscene” sum of £850m to orchestrate its controversial rights issue and takeover of AIA. Shareholders told City A.M. they were dismayed at the fees being handed over by the insurer to push through its $21bn (£14bn) cash call and $35.5bn buyout of [...]
Europe plans tougher rules on derivatives May 17, 2010 THE EUROPEAN Union is ratcheting up its crackdown on the City, announcing tough new rules governing derivatives traders on the eve of a crucial vote on anti-hedge fund and private equity legislation. EU Financial services commissioner Michel Barnier yesterday said he would draft legislation forcing all derivatives products and trading to be registered with trade [...]
Brussels is about to clobber the City May 16, 2010 HOW absurd. A successful British industry, one which even banker-bashers admit wasn’t responsible for the financial crisis, will this week be hammered by the European Union, marking the new government’s first foreign policy defeat and the latest blow to London’s prosperity. I’m of course referring to the EU’s attack on alternative investment managers, including hedge [...]
Swiss Re fights break-up plans May 16, 2010 Walter Kielholz, chairman of insurer Swiss Re, yesterday spoke out against the proposals of Switzerland’s “too big too fail” commission, saying it would be unwise to split up banks. Kielholz, who also sits on the board at Credit Suisse, told a paper that splitting up banks could lead foreign regulators to resort to retaliatory measures, [...]