Tottenham set to report financial boost November 15, 2011 Last season’s run to Champions League knockout rounds swells Spurs’ revenues TOTTENHAM is today expected to report the club’s strongest set of financial results since its listing, with income boosted significantly by last season’s run to the Champions League quarter-finals. Revenue from broadcast, matchday and commercial streams have all increased while pre-tax profit is expected [...]
Motorists are massively over-taxed November 15, 2011 BRITISH motorists are massively over-taxed. In 2009/10, 66p in each pound spent on petrol and diesel was pocketed by the Exchequer, with just a third going to retailers and oil companies. Taking just fuel and vehicle excise duty (and ignoring other taxes, including value added tax) the government raises about £31.5bn a year from motorists. [...]
Think-tanks: UK’s reply to Tobin is weak November 3, 2011 A EUROPE-WIDE financial transactions tax (FTT) could cost the UK’s economy tens of billions of pounds, the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) warned yesterday – and yet the government is failing to act to stop such a tax being introduced, said the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS). The ASI calculated that the UK will be hit [...]
Four years into a succession of crises and still no reform: Time for some Long Finance November 3, 2011 FOUR years into a series of financial crises, from Bear Stearns and liquidity shocks in 2007, to Lehman and RBS failures, Irish and Icelandic collapses, and now Eurozone currency-quakes, there have been no financial reforms to match the magnitude of the problems. An Olympiad later, the world feels more brittle and people jump at any [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 1, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BIG AREAS STILL LACK 3G, SAYS OFCOM Nearly 90 per cent of the UK’s land mass and a quarter of buildings are unable to receive all five 3G phone networks a decade after the introduction of the mobile licences, according to the telecoms regulator. In its first report on the UK’s communications infrastructure, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 24, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES ABN AMRO SEEKS NEW LIFE AS GLOBAL FORCE ABN Amro, the Dutch bank that has seen two of its three post-crisis owners collapse, is on a mission to re-emerge as a force in the sector and has promised to be a buyer of Eurozone financial assets that capital-stretched banks are preparing to sell. [...]
Lending to businesses is still subdued, says Bank October 20, 2011 LENDING to businesses fell again in the three months to August, Bank of England figures showed yesterday. On an annualised basis, the stock of lending from financial institutions fell by 2.1 per cent, or £2.5bn. The decline represents a slowing rate – lending was down 5.8 per cent in the three months to July and [...]
Reforms set to cut back chaotic audit regulator October 17, 2011 INCOHERENT growth of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has created an inefficient shambles, its chief executive told City A.M. yesterday. “Following scandals like Enron and Equitable Life, the FRC’s responsibilities grew from accounting standards originally to cover areas like corporate governance, professional oversight, and actuarial work,” Stephen Heddrill told City A.M. “However, the whole body [...]
Crunch time as firms seek women directors October 11, 2011 FORTY-FOUR per cent of the UK’s top 350 companies still have no women representatives on their boards, despite a recent push to improve boardroom diversity and encourage the appointment of female executives. Over the past decade, the proportion of women on the boards of the UK’s biggest 350 public companies has increased from five to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 9, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES WATCHDOG HITS FRENCH AUDITORS French auditors have been lambasted by the UK’s leading accountancy regulator for their performance during the Greek debt crisis. Stephen Haddrill, chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council, criticised the way French banks and insurers had been allowed by their auditors to post smaller losses on Greek government bonds [...]