Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered Labour’s first Budget in 14 years, announcing £40bn of tax rises, Central London Alliance comments
Standard Chartered forecasts 10pc profits rise December 8, 2011 Standard Chartered Bank has said that it expects pretax profit to rise by at least 10 per cent this year to another record, helped by a strong performance in emerging markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Net interest margins were also expected to rise from 2010 levels, it said in a filing to the [...]
Standard Chartered forecasts 10pc profits rise December 8, 2011 Standard Chartered Bank has said that it expects pretax profit to rise by at least 10 per cent this year to another record, helped by a strong performance in emerging markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Net interest margins were also expected to rise from 2010 levels, it said in a filing to the [...]
BRICS expansion isn’t always easy December 7, 2011 Talk about counterintuitive. India, we’re always told, is the place to be for Western companies who want to move beyond mature markets at home. Now Barclays is scaling back its operations there, selling its $580m loan book and $35m credit card portfolio. In recent years, it has been the done thing to try to build [...]
Piraeus Bank posts loss November 30, 2011 Piraeus Bank posted a nine-month loss after a jump in bad debt provisions and Greece’s fourth-largest lender said it still planned to sell its Egyptian operations even though Standard Chartered has pulled out of talks on a deal. The bank will begin discussions with other potential buyers for its Piraeus Bank Egypt following Standard Chartered’s [...]
Piraeus Bank posts loss November 30, 2011 Piraeus Bank posted a nine-month loss after a jump in bad debt provisions and Greece’s fourth-largest lender said it still planned to sell its Egyptian operations even though Standard Chartered has pulled out of talks on a deal. The bank will begin discussions with other potential buyers for its Piraeus Bank Egypt following Standard Chartered’s [...]
Osborne unveils £20bn loan plan November 27, 2011 The government will guarantee £20bn of UK bank debt over the next two years, chancellor George Osborne revealed yesterday, in a desperate bid to unfreeze credit markets. The Treasury’s credit easing programme will see the government underwrite chunks of lenders’ debt to bring their borrowing costs down, in return for which they will cut the [...]
StanChart head of FICC leaves November 24, 2011 STANDARD Chartered has lost its global head of fixed-income, currency and commodities as departures continue to rise in investment banking amid a worsening financial market. Singapore-based Remy Klammers, a high-profile hire from Lehman Brothers back in 2008, is expected to begin his own startup, two sources with knowledge of the move said. A bank spokesman [...]
KEY BANK REFORM SET TO BE DITCHED November 22, 2011 THE TREASURY is preparing to water down a key recommendation in the Vickers report that would protect savers in the event of a bank going bust. Investors and banks have argued that Vickers’ suggestion that retail depositors should be paid back before all other creditors if a bank collapses could risk destroying the market for [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS November 22, 2011 MITIE UBS rates the outsourcing group “buy” with a target price of 290p, up from 280p following better than expected results. The broker is impressed by the firm’s confident outlook, noting its significant order wins that have driven its order book, and thinks Mitie will benefit from cost saving drives in both the public and [...]
FTSE bounces but travel firms suffer November 22, 2011 Stability in Eurozone bond yields and short-term bargain-hunting gave London stocks some momentum today but investors remained wary after six previous sessions of losses. US markets closed down last night after the bipartisan committee nominated to find $1.2 trillion (£764m) of government spending cuts admitted it could not agree on a plan. Asian markets also [...]