Sport Comment: Commonwealth Games is a feast of variety and purity July 20, 2014 WHY DO you watch sport, play sport, talk sport, love sport? For 12 days, starting Wednesday, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow offers another chance to question our commitment to something that is inherently, in a world of surface-to-air missiles and global conflict, just a glorious triviality. On Thursday you’ll surprise yourself, telling children and dogs [...]
Thomas Cook sells forex business November 18, 2013 THOMAS Cook has sold its corporate foreign exchange business for £4.5m, as part of its continued drive to pay down debts and turn itself around. The travel firm announced yesterday it has offloaded Thomas Cook Corporate Foreign Exchange to Moneycorp, a rival operator owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Special Opportunities Fund. However, it [...]
Golf Comment: Ryder Cup hope Gallacher must copy Donaldson August 25, 2014 IF STEPHEN Gallacher needs any further inspiration in his last-ditch attempt to qualify for a first Ryder Cup then he need look no further than fellow Briton Jamie Donaldson. Last week I mentioned that Donaldson was at risk of being pipped to a place on the European team due to his absence from the FedEx [...]
Banks say over 2,000 applied for Help to Buy November 11, 2013 HALIFAX and RBS reported strong interest in the first phase of the government’s Help To Buy scheme this morning, saying they had received more than 2,000 applications in the first month of the programme. Halifax recorded 1,309 applications under the scheme in its first month, while state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland also said today it [...]
Chinese bank issues the UK’s first-ever renminbi bonds in London November 12, 2013 CHINA’S first offshore debt sale in the UK went ahead yesterday, with the government-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) issuing bonds to the value of 2bn renminbi (£206.3m). The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Standard Chartered and JP Morgan managed the sale of the bank’s debt securities. An RBS spokesperson told City A.M. [...]
Sunny outlook for lending as UK businesses borrow £2.5bn more October 23, 2013 BUSINESSES borrowed £2.5bn more from high street banks in September compared to the prior month, figures from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) revealed yesterday. The increase in lending is the biggest monthly rise since 2009 and builds on a growing picture of consumer confidence in the economy, BBA statistics director, David Dooks said. He added [...]
EU nears bank fines over rate rigging claims November 5, 2013 A HOST of global banks are nearing a multi-billion euro settlement with EU competition regulators over allegations of European interest rate rigging. The European Commission is probing claims a cartel of traders acted together to fix the Euribor interest rate, which feeds into a host of prices used to sell financial products. The commission has [...]
Any Other Business – 15/05 May 15, 2014 DO YOU remember a few years ago when the Queensland Tourist Board was offering “the best job in the world” to one lucky applicant? The job role was island caretaker, and all you had to do was sit on an island, write the odd blog and remember to fill your esky with tinnies. Well, it’s [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 19 June 2014 June 18, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES US share dividends hit record US share buybacks and dividend payments climbed to a record level in the first quarter of 2014, as companies chose to boost shareholder returns in the absence of robust revenue growth. Members of the S&P 500 index – led by Apple, IBM, ExxonMobil and FedEx – spent $241bn [...]
Nine banks hit with fresh Libor rigging lawsuit October 31, 2013 FANNIE Mae sued nine of the world’s largest banks yesterday, accusing them of colluding to manipulate interest rates and seeking more than $800m (£499m) in damages. In a complaint filed in the US District Court in Manhattan, the government-controlled mortgage company accused the banks of conspiring for years to suppress Libor, or the London Interbank [...]