Moody’s staff say bullied to give top rating June 2, 2010 FORMER Moody’s analysts say they felt pressure from bosses obsessed with market share to assign rosy ratings to risky debt products, while the company’s current chief executive defended the rating agency’s business model, according to testimony released yesterday. Three former officials at Moody’s described an atmosphere of intimidation and fear, according to prepared comments to [...]
The grocer who says this year will test retailers as well as shoppers May 31, 2010 Much like the rest of the country, the chief executive of the country’s third largest supermarket group is trying to make up his mind about the coalition government. At the start of the election campaign Sainsbury’s boss Justin King was one of many who backed Tory plans to scrap national insurance hikes for employers, a [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS May 27, 2010 MORTGAGES FOR FIRST-TIME BUYERS The Yorkshire Building Society this week launched a new range of mortgages for first time buyers. The products have no up-front product fees and £500 cashback. You can also borrow up to 85 per cent of the value of the property. Borrowers will also get a free standard valuation and free [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 26, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES APPLE, HP AND DELL INVESTIGATE FOXCONN AFTER SPATE OF SUICIDES Apple, Dell and HP, three of the world’s largest IT companies, said yesterday they were investigating working conditions at Foxconn after a series of suicides at the huge factory in southern China where Foxconn makes electronic goods. Nine workers at Foxconn’s Shenzhen plant, [...]
Nationwidesuffers as profits halve May 26, 2010 NATIONWIDE, Britain’s largest building society, said it expected broad stability in the housing market over the next 6-12 months, when posting a near halving of full-year profit yesterday. House prices have recovered ground in recent months, though they fell in February and April, according to rival lender Halifax, raising questions over the strength of the [...]
Nationwide profit plunges by 46pc May 26, 2010 NATIONWIDE Building Society has reported a 46 per cent drop in annual profits as low interest rates continue to take their toll. Underlying pre-tax profits dropped to £212m for the year to 4 April compared with £393m a year earlier. The group said it expected the difficult conditions to continue throughout the year. Meanwhile it [...]
FORTY YEARS ON AND WE SEEM TO HAVE LEARNED VERY FEW LESSONS May 24, 2010 WHEN you are older than God, as I am, I think you tend to become rather blasé as yet another political or financial crisis unfolds. I was 23 and working as an impecunious bank clerk at Hill Samuel (now part of Lloyds Banking Group, for the youth among you) when I was exposed to my [...]
US banks face fresh home loans inquiry May 24, 2010 A COMMISSION set up by the US government to investigate the roots of the global financial crisis is probing the banks’ sales of billions of dollars worth of bad home loans. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) is understood to be planning to help an investigation by the New York Attorney-General into whether banks caused [...]
American house sales jump to a five month high on the back of tax credit May 24, 2010 AMERICANS rushed to benefit from a tax credit for first-time homeowners during April, pushing house sales up 7.6 per cent. The five-month high is due in part to an $8,000 (£5,540) offer of government-funded credit for new homeowners, which expired on 30 April. The increase in sales was the highest jump in a decade and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 23, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES PRINCE ANDREW’S TRADE ROLE DEFENDED Buckingham Palace defended Prince Andrew’s globetrotting role promoting British business on Sunday after a newspaper sting appeared to show his former wife selling access to him for £500,000, offered by a reporter posing as a tycoon. Both the royal household and the government said the Duke of York’s [...]