Former AIG boss blames Goldman for its collapse January 10, 2010 The former head of American International Group is urging a closer look at the actions of Goldman Sachs, claiming the investment bank contributed to the insurer’s near-collapse, the Wall Street Journal reported this weekend. Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, former chief executive of AIG, said in an interview he believed not enough attention was being paid to [...]
Virgin Money moves into retail banking January 8, 2010 VIRGIN Money has moved into the retail banking sector after taking over a small private bank in a £50m deal. The move to buy Church House comes two years after the company failed to win control of Northern Rock. Virgin Money will pay £12.3m for the bank while pumping in a further £37.3m of capital [...]
Miners push FTSE higher but M&S weighs on retail shares January 7, 2010 BRITAIN’S top shares added 0.1 percent yesterday as a rally by heavyweight miners, in tandem with stronger metal prices, offset weakness in energy issues, with retailers upset by a disappointing update from M&S. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was 7.54 points higher at 5,530.04, another 16-month closing high. “It looks like the big [...]
Iceland prepares referendum as credit status worries grow January 6, 2010 ICELAND is set to hold a referendum on 20 February on whether to repay Britain and the Netherlands more than £3bn their savers lost when Icelandic banks collapsed. The date was announced as ratings agency Standard & Poors placed Iceland on a “negative credit watch” and warned it could downgrade the country’s credit rating “by [...]
Iceland sees the first anti-bailout revolt January 5, 2010 SOMEONE should give Gordon Brown a copy of John Maynard Keynes’ The Economic Consequences of the Peace. Published in 1919, it addressed post-war Germany – but the book is uncannily relevant to the situation in today’s Iceland, explaining how crippling reparations enforced by powerful foreign nations on an unwilling population are counter-productive. Iceland – unlike [...]
Outlook for sterling is getting even grimmer January 5, 2010 BAD noises have been rumbling around sterling for months now, but they got considerably uglier in the past days. The world’s biggest bond fund, Pacific Investment Management Co (the cutely-acronymed Pimco), announced earlier this week that it is to cut its exposure to UK government bonds. This raises the spectre of other large investors losing [...]
Why the UK’s factories are back to 1973 January 4, 2010 EVERYBODY knows that financial services have been the hardest hit sector during the recession, right? Wrong. Manufacturing has been by far a greater drag on UK plc than services, including finance; factories have suffered more than offices, including trading floors. Virtually all our beliefs about the slump turn out, on closer scrutiny, to be incorrect. [...]
OFT attacks Ryanair over fee loopholes January 4, 2010 BUDGET airline Ryanair has been branded “puerile and childish” for using a legal loophole to hit online customers with an extra credit card charge. Office of Fair Trading (OFT) chief executive John Fingleton yesterday attacked the company for hitting customers with a £5 booking fee for using all but one credit card. The fee has [...]
Mining and oil stocks drive London to a 16-month high January 4, 2010 Strength in commodity stocks and banks drove Britain’s leading share index to a 16-month closing high yesterday, the first session of 2010, outweighing falls from real estate firms and life insurers. The FTSE 100 closed up 87.46 points, or 1.6 per cent, at 5,500.34, its highest close since Sept. 2, 2008 – the month when [...]
Ryanair branded “puerile and childish” over credit card charges January 4, 2010 BUDGET airline Ryanair has been branded “puerile and childish” for using a legal loophole to hit online customers with an extra credit card charge. Office of Fair Trading chief executive John Fingleton attacked the company for the £5 fee charged on all but one credit card. The fee has been added to payments with Electron [...]