The real causes of the crisis of 2008 July 1, 2010 FOR all the latest furore surrounding bankers’ bonuses and the rest, we have yet again lost sight of how the crisis actually began, and politicians and regulators’ central role in promoting it. There were many factors, of course, with private institutions often behaving foolishly – but sub-prime lending, the crisis’ central catalyst, was promoted by [...]
BoE: Mortgage crunch ahead July 1, 2010 HOMEBUYERS were warned yesterday by the Bank of England that it would be more difficult for them to obtain a mortgage over the coming quarter as lenders anticipated a tightening in wholesale funding market conditions. Availability of secured credit had risen slightly in the three months to early June 2010, the Bank said. However, individuals’ [...]
Aldermore to deliver profit June 28, 2010 ALDERMORE, Britain’s first private equity-backed bank, expects to turn a profit this year, less than 18 months after it began lending to small businesses and entrepreneurs. The institution, which is owned by buyout house AnaCap and investment bank Morgan Stanley, is eyeing a small gain after its commercial mortgages, asset finance and invoice finance arms [...]
Taylor Wimpey sees house sales rebound June 28, 2010 HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey said sales have recovered after a lull around the time of the general election but political uncertainty is leading to caution in the sector. The UK’s third-largest volume housebuilder said private sales rate for the year to date are broadly flat year-on-year at 0.58 sales per site per week, while its order [...]
Q&A: US FINANCIAL REFORM UNTANGLED June 27, 2010 Q. WHAT ARE THE ROOTS OF THE DODD-FRANK OVERHAUL? A. At the height of the financial crisis in 2008, US investment banks converted into holding companies so they could take emergency loans from the Federal Reserve, as well as taxpayer aid. Most of the capital distributed then has been repaid, but the public and politicians [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 21, 2010 Northern Trust The investment manager has appointed John Krieg to its London subsidiary, Northern Trust Global Investments, as managing director for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Krieg joins from the group’s HQ in Chicago, where he was head of global investment product management. Prior to joining Northern Trust in 2002, he was director [...]
Feds charge former US mortgage boss with multi-billion fraud case June 16, 2010 THE former head of the now bankrupt mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp (TBW) has been charged in a fraud scheme that led to multi-billion-dollar losses and targeted the 2008 federal bank bailout programme, US prosecutors said yesterday. Lee Farkas, 57, served as chairman of TBW, one of the largest privately held US [...]
Northern Rock reveals plans to slash 650 jobs ahead of planned privatisation June 8, 2010 NATIONALISED lender Northern Rock plans to cut up to 650 jobs, or 14 per cent of its staff, by the end of the year, as it presses ahead with an overhaul of the bank to prepare for a return to private ownership. Northern Rock, Britain’s first major casualty of the credit crunch, yesterday said it [...]
BoA’s Countrywide pays $108m in FTC settlement June 7, 2010 BANK of America Corp has agreed to pay $108m (£75m) to settle government charges that its Countrywide unit, the mortgage lender that became synonymous with risky lending practices, bilked borrowers with misleading and excessive fees. The Federal Trade Commission said two Countrywide mortgage servicing units deceived cash-strapped homeowners by overcharging them by hundreds or thousands [...]
House prices fall in May June 4, 2010 HOUSE prices fell by 0.4 per cent in May following April’s 0.1 per cent, drop, according to mortgage lender Halifax The fall still left prices 6.9 per cent higher in the three months to May compared with a year ago and took the average price of a UK home to £167,570. Analysts had forecast a [...]