US plunges into technical recession as rest of world braces for similar fate July 28, 2022 The US economy has plunged into a technical recession in a sign of things to come for the rest of the world, figures published today revealed. The American economy unexpectedly shrank 0.9 per cent in the three months to June, marking the second successive quarter the economy has contracted, meeting the common definition of a [...]
Surge in loan-loss reserves poison Santander profits July 28, 2022 Funds set aside to deal with an expected jump in loan defaults caused by borrowers’ being squeezed by a historic inflation surge has whacked Spanish bank Santander’s profits. The lender, which has a big presence in the UK, banked over €500m (£420m) in loan-loss reserves over the three months to June, up 25 per cent [...]
The Big-Bang 2.0 fails to make City rules fit for an era of crypto and email not Telex July 28, 2022 THE Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022, introduced last week, failed to usher in the “Big Bang 2.0” of financial services regulation we were promised. It is true that many of the initiatives contained within the bill are sensible, welcome, and necessary – but they are nowhere near as radical as what is required to [...]
We should question the mandate of the Bank of England – not its independence July 28, 2022 ONE OF the most surprising things to come out of the race to replace Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party has been the space the Bank of England has taken up in the discourse. One unsuccessful candidate argued the government should have more oversight of the Bank’s activities and current frontrunner Liz Truss [...]
One in three UK bosses on brink of burnout: ‘Years of 19-hour work days nearly put me in hospital’ July 27, 2022 More than a third of UK bosses are on the brink of burnout, while nearly one in five are currently experiencing it because of rising energy prices, rocketing inflation and supply chain delays. Rising costs are already one of the main causes of burnout, with 36 per cent of SMB owners citing that as a [...]
Powell invokes Volcker spirit with second successive 75 point hike July 27, 2022 The US Federal Reserve today doubled down on its efforts to chase down the biggest inflation shock in recent memory by hiking rates 75 basis points for the second time in a row. Chair Jerome Powell and the rest of the federal open market committee backed another big rise to cool America’s overheating jobs market [...]
Mining firms dish out dividends as UK shareholders pocket £37bn July 27, 2022 UK shareholders revelled in £37bn worth of dividends in the second quarter of the year as mining firms, banks and oil giants put bumper profits back in the pockets of investors.
Lloyds profits top City’s expectation on higher interest rates July 27, 2022 Higher interest rates have lifted Britain’s largest mortgage lender Lloyds’s profits above the City’s expectations. Net interest income, the difference between what a bank charges borrowers and pays depositors, surged 13 per cent over the first six months of the year to £6.1n, Lloyds said today. That boost hoisted the lender’s pre-tax profits to £3.66bn, [...]
London markets jump ahead of expected big US Federal Reserve rate rise July 27, 2022 London markets shrugged off bets on the US Federal Reserve hiking rate steeply later today to jump during opening exchanges. The capital’s premier FTSE 100 index added 0.43 per cent to reach 7,337.93 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, increased 0.07 per [...]
EXCLUSIVE: 1966 World Cup hero Sir Geoff Hurst: ‘My own memory could fade. You expect it to happen’ July 27, 2022 Sir Geoff Hurst tells Frank Dalleres that seeing most of his 1966 World Cup winning team-mates suffer with dementia convinced him to preserve his memories in the form of a digital artwork that will help to raise money for two Alzheimer’s charities. Every morning Sir Geoff Hurst goes for an hour-long walk through the park [...]