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 [...]
PwC: Leisure sector hit hard August 7, 2012 THE HOSPITALITY and leisure industry continues to suffer from economic slump and the squeeze on UK consumers, said PwC. Across the country, 332 hospitality and leisure companies became insolvent in the second quarter of 2012, worse than many other sectors. “London alone has seen 432 restaurant insolvencies since quarter three 2010,” said a report issued [...]
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRM OF THE YEAR August 6, 2012 TODAY’s shortlists for the third annual City A.M. awards kick off with our nominations for professional services firm of the year. The UK and EU may be planning significant shake-ups to the industry, but the firms on our shortlist aren’t letting that worry them, continuing to win bluechip clients, pursue global expansion and pioneer employment [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 5, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Greek bank head sent savings abroad A political row has erupted in Athens after the former head of a big Greek state bank admitted to transferring €8m (£6.4m) of personal savings abroad to buy a London property months before his Agricultural Bank headed towards insolvency. Theodoros Pantalakis, former chief executive of Greece’s Agricultural [...]