Sinking ships April 18, 2011 S&P’s downgrade of US debt outlook rocks global markets US told it must slash budget deficit or lose AAA-rating Eurozone yields soar as sovereign debt crisis intensifies SOVEREIGN debt fears gripped markets on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday, after the US’s triple-A debt rating was put on a negative outlook by ratings agency Standard [...]
Citi sells Egg credit cards to Barclays March 1, 2011 BARCLAYS is buying the UK credit card portfolio of Egg from the online bank’s US owner Citi, transferring more than 1m customer accounts to the Barclaycard brand. The value of the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, has not been disclosed, but Barclay’s said it was buying the assets at a “significant discount” to [...]
Firms pull out staff and close Tokyo offices March 15, 2011 FIRMS began pulling employees out of Tokyo amid fears of spreading nuclear contamination yesterday. Banks, legal firms and manufacturers closed Tokyo offices, offered to evacuate staff to unaffected parts of Japan and sent expatriates to Hong Kong and Singapore after explosions and fires at a Fukushima Daiichi reactor yesterday sent a cloud of radioactive material [...]
Lloyds stays at the top of bank complaints list February 28, 2011 LLOYDS BANKING GROUP was the most complained-about financial firm during the last six months of last year, after more than 22,000 customers registered a grievance with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). Lloyds, the UK’s biggest bank by customers, was the subject of almost a quarter of the 97,237 new cases lodged with the ombudsman. The [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 28, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES ICBC HEAD PLAYS DOWN POST-CRISIS LOAN RISK China’s largest bank lent Rmb640bn ($61bn) to local governments in the post-crisis credit boom, but insists these loans do not pose a danger to the country’s banking system. In an interview with the Financial Times, Jiang Jianqing, chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the [...]
Aegon plans €1bn rights issue and US insurance sale to repay Dutch state aid February 24, 2011 DUTCH life insurer Aegon is to raise about €1bn (£850m) from a share issue to help repay €2.25bn of state aid by the middle of the year. The repayment would free Aegon from EC restrictions imposed on companies that received government cash during the credit crisis. “After repayment the limitations that were imposed on us [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 1, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES LEASE FEARS FOR OFFSHORE WIND FARMS Wind farm operators building offshore risk having their leases terminated without compensation if oil and gas companies decide they need the seabed plot for exploration, drilling or pipelines. Industry executives are warning that the lease terms, issued by the Queen’s Crown Estate, could threaten the funding of [...]
Kwik-Fit unit to make £192m March 3, 2011 EUROPEAN private equity firm PAI Partners is expected to make £192m from its sale of Kwik-Fit to Japanese conglomerate ITOCHU, a deal first revealed by City A.M. on Wednesday (see right). PAI, which was being advised by Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, signed off on a £637m sale of Britain’s biggest tyre retailer to ITOCHU [...]
Government set to unveil £140 flat-rate pension March 7, 2011 IN a radical shake-up of the basic state pension system, pensioners are set to receive a flat-rate of £140 a week, the government is set to reveal today. The pension reforms, to be unveiled by work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, are aimed at simplying the current complex system made up of a basic [...]
Government set to unveil £140 flat-rate pension March 7, 2011 IN a radical shake-up of the basic state pension system, pensioners are set to receive a flat-rate of £140 a week, the government is set to reveal today. The pension reforms, to be unveiled by work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, are aimed at simplying the current complex system made up of a basic [...]