Sunak to confirm plan to give Treasury call-in powers over City regulators October 31, 2022 Rishi Sunak is set to push ahead with plans to give ministers the power to overrule decisions made by City regulators. The Treasury has confirmed the government will still go-ahead with the Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng initiative, despite concerns from the Bank of England about the measure. The new call-in power will see ministers [...]
Eurozone inflation breaches forecasts to hit record 10.7 per cent October 31, 2022 Eurozone inflation has surged past expectations to 10.7 per cent this month in a further sign the European Central Bank (ECB) will have to keep heaping misery on businesses and households to tame prices. Prices continued to climb rapidly in all the bloc’s major economies, signalling the effects of the ECB’s pivot from years of [...]
Bank of England, Home Office, MI5 and News Corp HQ targeted by Just Stop Oil vandalism October 31, 2022 The Bank of England was among London landmarks targeted by environment activists this morning, along with the Home Office, MI5 and headquarters of News Corp. Two Just Stop Oil demonstrators were arrested by City police outside the Bank of England, after the building was covered in orange paint. The City of London Police said the [...]
All eyes on the EU as ECB faces ‘nightmare scenario’ of record inflation and need to hike rates again October 31, 2022 Last week was the fourth successive week of gains for equity markets in Europe as well as the US, despite some high-profile earnings misses. It’s been particularly notable that while there were some notable earnings misses, especially in the tech sector, by and large the more traditional areas of the market have performed better. “While [...]
Soaring interest rates could spark five per cent London house price fall October 31, 2022 Soaring interest rates and a tough cost of living crisis could send London house prices on a downward spiral, new research published today warns. Home prices in the capital are on course to shed five per cent next year, driven by sellers dropping prices to attract buyers hit by an affordability crunch, according to property [...]
Difficult decision to come from Sunak and Hunt on bank surcharge October 30, 2022 The government has not ruled out reversing a tax cut on the UK’s biggest banks as it scrambles to overfill a huge hole in the public finances. Asked today by City A.M. if chancellor Jeremy Hunt and prime minister Rishi Sunak would commit to cutting the bank surcharge, an effective windfall tax, the Treasury said [...]
Week ahead: Bank of England to rock markets with 75bps rate hike October 30, 2022 Markets are preparing for a steep rate hike by the Bank of England on Thursday, but not as bad as first feared after former prime minister Liz Truss’s tax cutting mini-budget last month. London’s premier FTSE 100 index posted a decent performance last week, adding 1.12 per cent to close at 7,047.67 points, while the [...]
Weekend read: Volatile month in UK gilt market turns the Old Lady into a hawk October 29, 2022 As October is coming to a close, it’s been a rollercoaster month for the UK’s financial market. Following the bungled mini-budget on 23 September that sent equities spiralling, the pound plummeted to an all-time low against the dollar and bond yields soaring higher. In the first few days following Kwasi Kwarteng’s announcement of the mini-budget, [...]
Ex Fed official says Bank of England ‘contributed to the Truss govt’s demise’ October 28, 2022 A top former official with the US Federal Reserve has claimed the Bank of England ousted Liz Truss. Narayana Kocherlakota, the ex president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, made his comments in a piece for Bloomberg this week. This comes after Truss left office following weeks of chaos in UK financial markets sparked [...]
Government eyes bank surcharge U-turn despite Lloyds profits tumbling October 27, 2022 Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, Lloyds Bank, has set aside hundreds of millions of pounds in preparation for a surge in loan defaults caused by the rising cost of living and higher interest rates squeezing household budgets. The lender today said it had banked £668m over the three months to September to absorb souring loans, primarily [...]