WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 26, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES WELLS FARGO EYES EUROPEAN BANK ASSETS TO POWER EXPANSION PLANS Wells Fargo plans to increase the size of its wealth management and insurance divisions through acquisitions as well as buying more assets from shrinking European banks, its chief executive says. John Stumpf, whose bank’s market capitalisation is bigger than that of any other [...]
Terrier(ble) returns hound many funds February 22, 2012 Bestinvest throws a spaniel in the works – revealing once again the managers chasing their own tail INVESTING in stock markets has been challenging for investors, with so many ways to access various investments. Fund groups and brokers are also continuously promoting new fund launches, providing a wide array of choice, but this often means [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 20, 2012 Rowanmoor Pensions Rowanmoor Pensions, the independent small self-administered scheme provider and self-invested personal pensions operator, has appointed Martin Stead as a regulated consultant in its consultancy team. Stead joins from AXA Wealth, where he was a financial planning manager in the company’s Bancassurance division. Prior to AXA Wealth, Stead was a corporate relationship manager at [...]
AXA income up 50pc due to disposals February 16, 2012 AXA, Europe’s second-biggest insurer, yesterday announced that full-year 2011 net income rose by 49 per cent, mainly due to asset sales. Earnings rose to €4.32bn (£3.58bn) last year, assisted by €2.3bn of income from the sale of its stake in Chinese insurer Taikang Life and other disposals in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Total revenue [...]
Cameron calls on insurers to cut premiums February 13, 2012 DAVID Cameron will today announce plans to reduce insurance premiums by cutting red tape, reducing legal bills and tackling the high number of spurious claims. Proposals include a plan to reduce the number of whiplash claims by enforcing a higher evidence threshold for injuries and cutting the £1,200 fee that lawyers can earn for small [...]
France and Belgium end shorting ban February 13, 2012 REGULATORS in France and Belgium have finally lifted the bans on the short-selling of certain financial stocks, six months after they were introduced as markets plunged on Eurozone debt fears. The separate decisions, by French watchdog AMF and Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), come after a boost to market sentiment and are expected [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 7, 2012 Qatar Financial Centre Authority Bob Wigley, chairman of Yell Group and former chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, Middle East and Africa, has been appointed as a non-executive director of the Qatar Financial Centre Authority. In the new role, Wigley, who was appointed as an ambassador for UK business by David Cameron in 2011, will promote [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 5, 2012 Mastercard UK The global payment processing network has appointed Marion King as president of its UK and Ireland business. King was previously CEO of VocaLink, a payments service provider to banks, corporations and governments. Prior to this she worked at Reuters for 14 years, holding a series of senior roles, most recently as managing director [...]
It’s time to fill your diary to bursting with events for 2012 January 29, 2012 FOLLOWING in the successful footsteps of StartUp America we have StartUp Britain: “A national campaign by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, harnessing the expertise and passion of Britain’s leading businesspeople to celebrate, inspire and accelerate enterprise in the UK.” It has just unveiled StartUp 2012: The Enterprise Calendar (www.startupbritain.org/calendar), which aims to be “a new resource to [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 26, 2012 AXA Deborah Shire has been appointed as global head of business development at Axa Real Estate Investment Managers. Shire will join the AXA Real Estate management board and will report directly to CEO Pierre Vaquier. Shire is promoted from deputy head of structured finance at AXA Investment Managers, which she joined in 1998 as a [...]