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 [...]
At a glance: everything you need to know from the Vickers report September 12, 2011 ICB: THE BENEFITS OF RING-FENCING Sir John Vickers, chair of the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), stuck to his guns in insisting that his ring-fence proposal is the best way to ensure Britain’s banks are more stable and do not require costly bailouts if they fail. His main argument is that a ring-fence will make it easier to [...]
Weak commodities take toll on FTSE but banks rebound September 12, 2011 BRITAIN’S leading share index fell yesterday, on weakness in heavyweight mining and energy issues as commodity prices retreated, while a partial recovery by banks brought blue-chips back from intra-days lows for the month. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 85.03 points, or 1.6 per cent, at 5,129.62, having bounced off the session [...]
Economic fears stoke slowdown in August September 11, 2011 ONLY London and three other English regions recorded economic growth in August, according to a survey released this morning, with most areas of England either in stagnation or going backwards. Growth came to a grinding halt across the UK as a whole, collapsing to an 28-month low of 50.6 in Lloyds TSB’s latest PMI reading [...]