Taylor Wimpey enjoys boost from government lending schemes but doesn’t see planning system improving July 31, 2013 Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has reported a 42.1 per cent increase in first half pre-tax profit to £109m citing improved consumer sentiment and government mortgage schemes. Chief executive Pete Redfern said there was a “meaningful improvement in the housing market” in the first half of the year and that Taylor Wimpey is “ideally positioned to perform [...]
Legal bills drag down Deutsche Bank’s earnings July 30, 2013 GERMAN lender Deutsche Bank saw profits plunge on soaring litigation fees in the second quarter, the institution announced yesterday, while it had to announce further cuts to operations to hit new regulatory capital targets. Net income fell 50 per cent to €335m (£291.5m), despite net revenues rising two per cent to €8.2bn. Corporate banking and securities [...]
Hamstringing banks with higher capital requirements will not stop the next crisis July 30, 2013 GREAT fallacies periodically grip the British establishment and cause enormous harm to the economy. The last big one was the obsession with joining the European Exchange Rate Mechanism at the end of the 1980s. Now we have the regulative fallacy. The great and the good are in its grip. They identified banks and excessive debt [...]
Surprise weakness in June lending despite growth July 29, 2013 LENDING figures for June dipped below expectations yesterday, with a smaller rise in consumer credit than expected, despite the fledgling recovery indicated by recent growth. The Bank of England recorded a £489m increase in consumer credit, compared to £781m of additional lending in May. The average monthly rise in 2013 has been around £700m, suggesting [...]
We need to break our unsecured banking system out of its Victorian past July 29, 2013 THE UNSECURED nature of the UK banking system has long troubled both me and my company, and we have discussed the situation with the Bank of England on several occassions. Concerns over bank capital positions have also recently been reignited. Barclays, which releases its half-year results today, is one of the banks identified by the [...]
UK lending misses expectations July 29, 2013 The Bank of England released three key pieces of data this morning, and it's not looking good. First, consumer credit was £489m in June, the smallest rise since January, and down from an upwardly revised £781m in May. Economists had expected to see net growth of £700m. Meanwhile, mortgage approvals fell unexpectedly to 57,667, after [...]
Before the open – 29/07 – Asian stocks down, FTSE seen opening higher July 29, 2013 Asian stocks traded lower last night as weak Chinese manufacturing data heightened fears of a hard landing and investors showed caution ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy statement later this week. The Nikkei fell below the 14,000 mark for the first time in nearly a month as the yen strengthened against [...]
Global bond bubble will cripple all investors when it bursts July 28, 2013 THIS column has long highlighted the massive bubble in the global bond markets and the horrific, systemic risk it poses to the global recovery and financial system. A combination of ultra-low central bank short-term interest rates, massive amounts of quantitative easing (QE), regulatory-driven purchases of government bonds by financial institutions and Asian forex accumulation have [...]
London Report: UK’s corporate calendar packed in results season July 28, 2013 THE CORPORATE calendar is packed this week, as businesses including ITV, BP, Lloyds, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland update the market amid a swathe of other results. The week begins with figures from Fidessa Group, Hammerson, InterContinental Hotels Group, Intertek Group, JKX Oil & Gas, Keller Group, Senior, Vernalis, Reckitt Benckiser Group, National Grid, [...]
How an ageing Britain can grow old and avoid a looming longevity crisis July 23, 2013 BRITAIN’s future is getting greyer. In its most recent fiscal sustainability report, the Office of Budget Responsibility recognised that we are living longer and need more care. But we haven’t saved enough. The state won’t be able to keep us, and the dependency ratio will only worsen as fewer workers struggle to fund more pensioners. [...]