US banking failures top 120 for the year November 8, 2009 United Commercial Bank, a big San Francisco bank with branches in China, was closed by state regulators this weekend and its operations were acquired by East West Bancorp, also active in both nations. East West said the transaction made it the second-largest independent bank in California. Based in Pasadena, East West has 137 US branches, [...]
QE has worked it’s time to wind it down November 5, 2009 IT is nonsense to believe that quantitative easing has had no effect on the economy. It has prevented a collapse in the money supply, which would have triggered a collapse in output. It has also led to a surge in asset prices and started to fuel new bubbles in Britain and abroad, which is why [...]
THE LONDON REPORT November 4, 2009 LONDON’S leading shares ended 1.4 per cent higher yesterday, boosted by a rebound from miners and banks, with retailers Next and Marks & Spencer also higher after posting forecast-beating figures. At the close, the FTSE 100 was up 70.68 points at 5,107.89, recouping all of Tuesday’s losses when the index fell 1.3 per cent to [...]
GMAC posts third-quarter loss on its mortgage loans after housing crash November 4, 2009 GMAC Financial Services, a US lender that has received $12.5bn ($7.54bn) in government assistance, posted a third straight quarterly loss yesterday as its mortgage business continues to reel from the housing market collapse. The third-quarter net loss for Detroit-based GMAC was $767m, compared with a loss of $2.5bn a year earlier. GMAC’s auto finance unit [...]
REVOLUTION ON THE BANKING HIGH STREET – KEY POINTS November 3, 2009 ASSET PROTECTION SCHEMERBS:• Will receive a £25.5bn capital injection from government: £13bn upfront; £6bn of discretionary capital; and £6.5bn in a fee taken as capital.• Toxic assets placed in the APS cut from £325bn to £282bn.• RBS must cover first £60bn – not the £42bn that was first envisaged?– of losses on toxic assets in [...]
TIMELINE: HOW BRITAIN’S BANKING SECTOR WENT SOUR November 3, 2009 21 February, 2008Britain passes legislation allowing the government to nationalise Northern Rock after rejecting two private bids. Northern Rock is nationalised months after the Bank of England stepped in to provide support. 21 AprilThe BoE unveils the Special Liquidity Scheme to swap banks' risky mortgage assets for at least £50bn of government debt. 18 SeptemberLloyds [...]
Stocks in London rise on end of US recession and miners October 29, 2009 BETTER-than-expected economic growth from the United States and gains in banks and miners pushed Britain’s leading share index 1.1 percent higher yesterday. The FTSE 100 closed up 57.30 points at 5,137.72, reversing earlier losses, as US data signalled the country had come out of recession. The index has gained 49 per cent since hitting a [...]
MetLife posts its third quarterly loss in a row October 29, 2009 METLIFE, the largest life insurer in the US, yesterday posted a quarterly loss, hurt by investment losses, some of which were tied to improvement in the company’s own credit spreads. The group’s operating results in the latest quarter matched Wall Street expectations and the results showed growth in sales across most of MetLife’s business operations, [...]
Money supply growth still disappointing October 29, 2009 WEAK growth in the broad money supply in September has raised further questions over the effectiveness of the Bank of England’s quantitative easing (QE) policy and raised the likelihood that the central bank may extend the programme further when it meets next week. Headline M4, the measure for money supply, grew by 0.8 per cent [...]
City Moves for 28 October 2009 | Who’s switching jobs October 27, 2009 GAMThe investment management firm has appointed Niall Gallagher as an investment director, effective from 2 November. Gallagher, who will be responsible for managing GAM’s European long-only equity strategies, previously managed pan-European and continental European equities at T. Rowe Price. He also formerly worked at BlackRock for nine years, having begun his career as an economist [...]