Visa boosted by increase in card spending July 25, 2012 CREDIT and debit card network Visa last night announced strong income growth as increasing numbers of people across the globe pay for goods using plastic. Adjusted net income rose 10 per cent to $1.1bn (£700m) for the third quarter, ahead of Wall Street expectations. Shares in the firm were up 1.5 per cent in after-hours trading. But [...]
Princess Highway just favoured in Oaks battle with Great Heavens July 19, 2012 WHEN John Gosden supplemented impressive Lancashire Oaks winner, Great Heavens, for Sunday’s Irish version (3.20pm) earlier this week, I was certain I’d be backing her with the testing conditions sure to play to her strengths. However, it’s all about the price in this game; I was expecting her to be around the 3/1 second favourite [...]
Investors slam Resolution in damning report July 18, 2012 RESOLUTION chief executive Clive Cowdery has lost friends in the City and current shareholders may be reluctant to back him in new ventures, according to views canvassed by Deutsche Bank, one of the banks most respected in the insurance sector. The feedback is part of a presentation to senior members of the insurance group earlier [...]
Barclays’ Del Missier to face MPs alongside regulators July 11, 2012 FORMER Barclays operations chief Jerry del Missier will appear in front of the Treasury select committee on Monday afternoon, it was announced yesterday. He quit the firm last Monday after just 11 days in the job, having taken responsibility for his role in the Libor-fixing scandal that saw his long-term colleague Bob Diamond also resign [...]
Analysts argue lawsuits from Libor are unlikely to succeed July 4, 2012 LAWSUITS against Barclays linked to Libor-fixing are unlikely to succeed based on yesterday’s evidence to the Treasury select committee, analysts have said. Barclays’ finance boss has told analysts that the bank has “not suffered any deposit flight as a result of recent events” during a conference call. And number crunchers at Espirito Santo Investment Bank [...]
Brave England suffer cruel exit June 24, 2012 ENGLAND (0) vs ITALY (0) Italy win 4-2 on penalties Young and Cole miss in shootout as curse strikes again MANAGER Roy Hodgson leapt to the defence of Ashley Young and Ashley Cole last night after the pair’s missed spot-kicks condemned England to yet another heartbreaking penalty shoot-out exit from a major tournament. Their blunders [...]
Facebook settlement on ad case June 21, 2012 FACEBOOK has agreed to allow users more control over how their personal information is used in its “Sponsored Stories” ad feature, part of a deal to resolve litigation against the social networking company. The value to Facebook members resulting from the changes is about $103m, in the opinion of one economist hired by the plaintiffs. [...]
RAPID RESPONSES June 21, 2012 Modest proposals [Re: We need a flat tax with no loopholes to reduce avoidance, yesterday] There’s a strong argument for saying that, considering the incompetence of successive British governments in spending tax revenues, legally minimising tax contributions is actually the most ethical option for British taxpayers. Edward Fox The easiest and most effective way to [...]
One Abe struggles to overcome silliness as another battles against grinding cynicism June 21, 2012 FILM DARK HORSE Cert 15 *** Dark Horse takes the indie template dragged into the mainstream by films like Juno and Superbad, removes the Hollywood niceties and replaces them with a bleakly funny desperation. Abe is an overweight man-child who collects ThunderCats dolls and still lives with his parents. He’s the kind of guy nobody [...]
Facebook agrees to pay a $10m settlement after users file suit June 17, 2012 FACEBOOK has agreed to pay $10m (£6.4m) to charity to settle a lawsuit that accused the site of violating users’ rights to control the use of their own names, photographs and likenesses, according to court documents made public over the weekend. The lawsuit, brought by five Facebook members, alleged the social networking site violated California [...]