WOULD YOU SUPPORT SCOTLAND’S SEPARATION FROM THE UK? May 9, 2011 JACQUELINE CANSELLA | LLOYD’S OF LONDON “Yes, providing they don’t come back to us if it fails. They also need to stop Scottish MPs coming here. It’s not right they get the benefits of the UK but we don’t get the benefits they have.” JASON WARD | MARKETRESEARCH.COM “Yes. They’ve wanted to stand on their [...]
Hiscox poised for rate rises after Japan May 9, 2011 CATASTROPHE losses in the first three months of 2011 have “changed the market” for insurance firms and pushed up rates, Lloyd’s insurer Hiscox said yesterday. Bermuda-based Hiscox wrote eight per cent less business in the first-quarter compared with the same period in 2010 as it pulled back from insuring risk at unprofitably low rates. But [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 9, 2011 James Caird Asset Management The hedge fund has appointed Mary Goodman, former special assistant to the president for financial markets at the Nation Economic Council and senior adviser to the US Treasury, as managing director of the firm’s US business, based in Washington DC. Goodman will advise on global macroeconomic outlook and on monetary, fiscal, [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 5, 2011 Norton Rose The law firm has appointed renewable energy finance specialist Antje Günther as a partner in the firm’s Frankfurt office. Günther, who joins from DLA Piper, where she has worked since 2006, represents financial institutions, corporates and funds in domestic and cross-border transactions. Norton Rose opened a third German office in Hamburg on 1 [...]
CANDY BROTHERS TUNE IN TO FOLLOW THEIR REAL-LIFE GOSSIP GIRL May 4, 2011 PROPERTY developer Nick Candy famously revealed his guilty pleasures as “fine wine, good Italian pasta, massages and Starbucks coffee”. But from next Monday, no doubt the One Hyde Park developer will be adding new reality show Made in Chelsea – the West London answer to hit show The Only Way is Essex – to his [...]
UK’s million pound home sales surge May 2, 2011 SALES of properties worth over £1m have shot up at the fastest rate in four years, research by Lloyds TSB showed yesterday. Million pound house sales numbered 7,185 last year, up 54 per cent from 2009. “This is the largest annual increase since 2006 and suggests a real resurgence at the very top end of [...]
FTSE slips as earnings news dominates April 21, 2011 The FTSE pushed downwards at the close for the Easter break despite a strong start boosted by a positive round of US results last night. The FTSE 100 closed down 3.96 points or 0.1 per cent at 6,018.30, having jumped 2.1 per cent over the day to close back above the 6,000 level for the [...]
AIG’s Chartis sells $3.5bn asbestos risk April 20, 2011 WARREN Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway struck a deal with US insurer American International Group (AIG) yesterday to take a package of high-risk asbestos insurance policies held by AIG subsidiary Chartis off its books. AIG has paid Berkshire-owned National Indemnity, the US’s largest reinsurer, $1.65bn (£1bn) for a retroactive insurance policy that will cover up to $3.5bn [...]
Banks sued in Libor case April 19, 2011 A EUROPEAN asset manager yesterday sued twelve US, European and Japanese banks, accusing them of conspiring to manipulate Libor, a benchmark used to set interest rates on hundreds of trillions of dollars of securities. Vienna-based FTC Capital and two funds it operates in Luxembourg and Gibraltar accused the banks of conspiring to artificially depress Libor, [...]
FTSE shares rebound but debt worries still dog bank stocks April 19, 2011 STRENGTH in oversold commodity issues fuelled a modest rally by Britain’s top share index yesterday, while sovereign debt worries continued to dog banking stocks. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was up 26.79 points, or 0.5 per cent at 5,896.87, having dropped 2 per cent on Monday to hit its lowest level since March [...]