Growth hopes boosted by raft of upbeat data September 26, 2012 THE PROSPECTS for growth over the third quarter were boosted yesterday, as insolvencies declined, while retail sales edged up. High street sales volumes grew in September, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said in its distributive trades survey yesterday. Thirty-three per cent of respondents said their sales volumes had grown, compared to 27 per cent [...]
JJB Sports calls time as it hires administrators September 25, 2012 AILING retailer JJB Sports yesterday confirmed it will appoint administrators after failing to receive an offer for the entire company, putting up to 4,000 jobs at risk. Shares in the group – which were worth a total of as much as £1bn a decade ago – were suspended yesterday and remaining investors, including US tycoon [...]
Who’s switching jobs September 20, 2012 Cording Group John Partridge has been appointed executive chairman of the real estate investment firm. He is the founder and former executive chairman of Cordea Savills. Partridge also previously served as chief executive of the property fund management businesses at Morgan Grenfell and Henderson. Altium The investment bank has appointed Aksana Pekun as managing director [...]
Should the Bank of England be able to adjust bank capital ratios to match economic health? September 19, 2012 YES David B Smith There are two main reasons why granting the Bank of England the power to impose capital ratios may prove helpful – macroeconomic and prudential. The essential macroeconomic aim of monetary policy should be to maintain a smooth and steady growth of broad money. It’s difficult to do this with the traditional [...]
PwC picks up the pace with record revenue September 16, 2012 PROFESSIONAL services giant PwC said today its annual revenues have risen 6.5 per cent to a record £2.6bn, in a return to strength following several years of sluggish growth. Overall profits for its UK, Channel Islands and Middle East operations jumped 10.8 per cent to £727m in the year to 30 June. The results came [...]
Lloyds plans early intervention for struggling SME borrowers September 13, 2012 SMALL firms which are struggling to grow will be offered guidance on how to improve by Lloyds, the bank announced yesterday. Lloyds was forced to step up debt restructurings in the recession as firms failed to pay their bills. But now the bank hopes earlier intervention can help firms grow and avoid restructurings down the [...]
Why Britain’s banking rules aren’t restricting our economic recovery September 13, 2012 The Financial Policy Committee (FPC) was set up in 2011 to protect and enhance the resilience of the UK financial system. Some commentators have argued that this is part of a regulatory onslaught by the UK authorities, responsible for stifling lending growth. So it may have come as a surprise to these critics when, earlier [...]
Financial union backed by ECB and Deutsche September 4, 2012 EUROPEAN Central Bank policymaker Joerg Asmussen yesterday called for Europe to create a financial market union and beef up external regulation to address risks to market stability. In a sign of support for single European bank regulator, Asmussen’s call was echoed by Deutsche Bank co-chief executive Juergen Fitschen, who yesterday said Germany should support the [...]
R3: Half of jobs survive after shops collapse August 20, 2012 MORE than half of all jobs at risk when high street retailers fall into administration are saved, new figures from the insolvency trade body R3 show. Its analysis of major retail insolvencies in the last financial year reveals that 53 per cent of jobs are saved during the insolvency process while 48 per cent of [...]
Firms prosper as insolvency rate declines August 19, 2012 BUSINESS insolvencies fell sharply in July compared with the same month of 2011, according to research out today from Experian, with almost every region and sector registering an improvement. A total of 1,776 firms failed in the month, down on the 1,962 that failed in July 2011 – a drop of almost 200 despite the [...]