Treasury looking to LSE to boost lending to small firms October 30, 2011 BOOSTING access to debt markets and forcing state-owned banks to lend to smaller firms are among plans being discussed by the Treasury to increase lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). One idea is to use the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) order book for retail bonds (ORB) market, allowing smaller debt issuances with lower minimum [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 30, 2011 Premier Cru Fine Wine Investments Serial entrepreneur Sir Eric Peacock has joined the board of Premier Cru Fine Wine Investments, the fine wine investment adviser, as a non-executive chairman. Sir Eric is a non-executive director of UKTI and the chairman of Baydonhill Fx, Buckley Jewellery, Halo Furniture and Stage Technologies. Earlier in his business career, [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 27, 2011 Otkritie Financial Corporation Howard Snell (pictured) has been appointed as the chief executive of Otkritie Securities in the UK, reporting to Vadim Belyaev, who has been appointed as chairman of the board of directors at the group’s investment banking arm Otkritie Capital. In addition, Roman Lokhov has been promoted to first deputy chairman of Otkritie [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE STATE OF THE UK ECONOMY? October 26, 2011 PETE GOAD | LLOYD’S OF LONDON “I am not overly concerned at the moment; it is definitely getting worse but I have every confidence that it will turn around over the next couple of years.” PAUL CLAYTON | JRP UNDERWRITING “Not really, not more than it was worrying me 20 years ago. What increasingly affects [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 26, 2011 Chaucer Syndicates Mark Wood (pictured) has been appointed as chairman of Chaucer Syndicates, the specialist insurance group that underwrites risk at Lloyd’s of London. Wood, who replaces Bob Deutsch, was previously deputy chairman and chief executive of Paternoster UK, chief executive of Prudential’s UK and European insurance businesses, and UK chief executive of AXA. In [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 25, 2011 Pemberton Capital Advisors The private equity firm has appointed Christopher Higgins as chief operating officer and Sarah Whitehead (pictured) as internal legal council. Prior to joining Pemberton, Higgins was chief adminstration officer of the non-core division of RBS and held a number of management roles in the debt and credit markets businesses of RBS’s global [...]
CITY VIEWS: WOULD YOU USE NETFLIX? October 24, 2011 PETER GODFREY | JRP UNDERWRITING “Yes. I have used similar things in the past. Whether I use this new one over the previous ones like LoveFilm depends mainly on the cost.” ALAN WALSH | LLOYD’S OF LONDON “I would not subscribe to Netflix. As I work in the City there isn’t very much time for [...]
Miners lead FTSE up after China boost October 24, 2011 Markets have risen this morning triggered by hopes that a deal to resolve the Eurozone debt crisis can be put together while manufacturing data showed China’s growth is picking up. Although a weekend summit of Eurozone leaders was inconclusive with bickering clouding the talks. The skeleton of a deal was agreed with a summit to [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 23, 2011 Little Chef The roadside chain has appointed Graham Sims as its new chairman. Sims is currently chief executive of Qunatilis, a non-executive board member at the UK Border Agency, and chairman of Kensington Consultancy Group. Earlier in his career, he spent seven years at BP, rising from operations manager for Portugal to UK retail managing [...]
FTSE steady as investors eye Eurozone crisis summit October 21, 2011 Banks and miners helped to give the FTSE 100 a lift in early trading as investors looked to a key weekend in the Eurozone for signs that the bloc’s debt crisis could be brought under control. Leaders are still sharply divided over how to strengthen a Eurozone rescue fund and meet on Sunday to once [...]