Lloyds of London sinks to £697m loss triggered by disasters September 21, 2011 The Lloyd’s of London insurance market crashed to a first-half loss of £697m, weighed down by record claims from natural catastrophes including the March 11 Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The loss compares with a profit of £628m a year earlier, and reflects a total of £6.7bn in claims absorbed during the first half, making it [...]
Insurance chief secures hefty fees if Omega bid turns sour September 20, 2011 MARK Byrne, the former reinsurance executive who has launched a bid for 25 per cent of the Lloyd’s of London insurer Omega, will be entitled to a £2m payment if the company terminates his employment within 12 months of any change of control. The entrepreneur will be on a rolling contract as executive chairman of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 19, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES SIEMENS SHELTERS CASH AT ECB Siemens withdrew more than half a billion euros in cash deposits from a large French bank two weeks ago and transferred it to the ECB, in a sign of how companies are seeking havens amid Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. The German industrial group withdrew the money partly because [...]
Pressure piled back on banks amid Eurozone gloom September 19, 2011 World markets slumped today as the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis appeared to be deepening as German Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a regional election defeat which undermined her power. With the world looking to Germany to help steer the Eurozone out of stormy economic waters the confidence of investors was sapped. Meanwhile a series of meetings [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 18, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES FEARS OVER RETREAT ON VOLCKER BANK RULES The Volcker rule, which bans US banks from trading for their own account, is set to include exemptions that some officials fear will weaken its impact, people familiar with the situation have warned. In the wake of UBS’s $2.3bn (£1.4bn) loss last week, alleged to have [...]
Banks breathe new life into markets September 16, 2011 Markets across Europe regained their footing today as moves by Eurozone chiefs to provide more liquidity buoyed banking stocks. Five central banks yesterday released potentially unlimited dollar liquidity to breathe new life into flagging world markets. A meeting today between US Treasury Secretary and European finance ministers to discuss leveraging the bloc’s bailout fund was [...]
Jardine Matheson pays £166m to up JLT stake September 16, 2011 SHARES in insurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) jumped more than seven per cent yesterday after one of its biggest shareholders paid £166m to increase its stake. Conglomerate Jardine Matheson will buy an additional ten per cent of JLT, upping its stake to 40.4 per cent of the fast-growing broker. The two companies said the [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 16, 2011 BlackRock Amra Balic has joined the asset manager as the EMEA head of corporate governance and responsible investment. Balic joins BlackRock from Standard & Poor’s, where she was a director in European Corporate Credit Ratings, responsible for corporate governance into the credit ratings process. Prior to joining S&P’s Corporate Governance Services team in 2000, Balic [...]
WILL THE NEW WESTFIELD CENTRE ENCOURAGE YOU TO SHOP IN EAST LONDON? September 14, 2011 KIM WAKE | ETHOS COMMUNICATIONS “Yes I think so. It’s only a short trip from London and colleagues who have already been have told me it’s really impressive. I think it can be a real asset for London and really expand on what’s already on offer here.” JAMES MILNE | LLOYDS “It’s completely out of [...]
Hong Kong: UK banks welcome September 13, 2011 BRITISH banks looking to move abroad would be welcome in Hong Kong, the country’s chief executive Donald Tsang said yesterday. Tsang said that he would “absolutely” be happy to see HSBC and Standard Chartered move their headquarters from the City. “If HSBC or Standard Chartered were to change headquarters it would not undermine their business [...]