Lloyds axes a further 420 jobs November 9, 2010 Bailed out lender Lloyds Banking Group said it would shed a further 420 jobs, taking the total number cut since it bought rival HBOS two years ago to 22,500. The latest round of redundancies come as Lloyds, 41 per cent government-owned after accepting taxpayer-funded support during the financial crisis, closes personal loans unit Black Horse [...]
Commerzbankmisses target as losses leap November 8, 2010 Germany’s second-biggest lender Commerzbank missed forecasts for third-quarter profit yesterday as losses on commercial mortgages and the costs of integrating Dresdner Bank offset strong corporate lending. Third-quarter net profit of €113m (£97.5m) was below the €164m average estimate in a analyst’s poll, though Germany’s economic rebound turned it round from a loss of more than [...]
Don’t ignore the ticking time bombs November 7, 2010 THERE are always two sides to every story. In the main, as I have long been arguing, the global economy has bounced back. Friday’s strong job figures in the US – payrolls are up 400,000 in the past three months – severely embarrassed the bears and supporters of QE2, as did most of last week’s [...]
Market cools as property prices tumble November 4, 2010 AVERAGE property prices have fallen 1.2 per cent in the last three months, according to the latest Halifax house price index. The closely watched index from the Lloyds Banking Group-owned lender showed house prices rose 1.8 per cent in October which helped to partially reverse the 3.7 per cent decline from the previous month. But [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 2, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES ITV BLAMES REGIME FOR NEED TO CHASE RATINGS ITV could invest more in arts, factual programming and drama were it not for regulations, its managers told a Lords committee. Archie Norman, chairman of the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, and Adam Crozier, chief executive, told the communications committee that ITV had been driven into [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 2, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES ITV BLAMES REGIME FOR NEED TO CHASE RATINGS ITV could invest more in arts, factual programming and drama were it not for regulations, its managers told a Lords committee. Archie Norman, chairman of the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, and Adam Crozier, chief executive, told the communications committee that ITV had been driven into [...]
Lloyds gives upbeat trading update November 2, 2010 Lloyds Banking Group has said it remains on target to deliver a “good financial performance” for 2010. The bank promised to speed up the pace at which it paysback the taxpayer after it was bailed out from the public purse. Lloyds, which returned to profit during the first half of the year, added that its [...]
The housebuilder who is ready to take the long road back to recovery October 31, 2010 DESPITE the generally depressed state of the housebuilding and residential property market, Taylor Wimpey’s chief executive Peter Redfern says he is pretty pleased with business. But sitting in the boardroom of his London office, his mood appears more reflective than upbeat. “Prices are very stable at the moment,” says Redfern. “Stable is good for us. [...]
House prices fall for third consecutive month October 28, 2010 House prices fell for the third month in four in October, figures from Nationwide have shown. The average price of a property fell 0.7 per cent this month after a flat reading in September. That was almost twice the drop economists had expected and meant the three-month on three-month rate of decline accelerated to 1.5 [...]
UK Mortgage approvals at ten-year low October 25, 2010 MORTGAGE lending fell to its lowest level in a decade in September, the latest figures from the British Banker’s Association (BBA) showed yesterday confirming earlier figures produced by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) last week. Gross mortgage lending stood at £8bn last month, 10.8 per cent lower than a year earlier. The number of [...]