A tricky balancing act on tax reform September 21, 2010 CONFERENCE season is upon us and the next few weeks will be the first time the parties have had since May to slow down and take stock of this brave new post-coalition political world. Given the breakneck speed at which the coalition has been implementing its policies so far, the conference pause is also a [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 18, 2010 Artemis Investment Management The fund management group has hired Giles Parkinson as a new investment analyst, tasked with supporting William Littlewood in managing the £567m Artemis Strategic Assets Fund, launched by the firm just over a year ago. Parkinson joins from Newton Investment Management, where he has been a research analyst for the past four [...]
Europe is risking a trade war with US March 11, 2010 ONCE again, the European Union has got it wrong. It doesn’t have a clue about regulating hedge funds, private equity or other financial products and players. Brussels is tilting at windmills, attacking problems that don’t exist, inserting dangerous protectionist barriers into its proposed new rules and all the while ignoring the very real weaknesses and [...]
Santander scoops 318 RBS branches after £4.5bn boost August 4, 2010 SPANISH giant Santander fired a warning shot across the bows of UK lenders yesterday, agreeing to buy 318 branches from Royal Bank of Scotland and preparing to reshuffle its global operations. Santander will become the fourth-largest bank on the high street after it takes over the outlets from RBS for £1.7bn. The deal, due to [...]
Three cheers for the stars of the Square Mile October 28, 2010 LAST night was truly an exciting and exceptional occasion: City A.M.’s inaugural awards celebrating the best and brightest of London’s business, financial and investment communities. Our inaugural awards ceremony saw more than 450 guests in their finery roll up at the Grange Hotel at St Pauls. Our winners, unique in that each was initially chosen [...]
Planting the seeds of another crisis September 2, 2010 FOR some bizarre reason, the creation of three new European Supervisory Authorities and the European Systemic Risk Board – a major power-grab for Brussels – was welcomed last night by Conservative MEPs. Vicky Ford, one of their numbers who took part in the negotiations, admitted that “this is very complex multi-layered legislation and it needs [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 9, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES TRICHET CALLS FOR TOUGHER EURO RULES Eurozone members that break the region’s rules on public finances should be excluded temporarily from Europe’s political decision-making, the president of the European Central Bank has proposed. The controversial suggestion by Jean-Claude Trichet would be part of a “quantum leap” in the governance of Europe’s 11-year old [...]
Standard Life overhaul sees investor relations boss leave July 12, 2010 STANDARD Life’s head of investor relations has left the company after a shake-up of the insurer’s operations led to his position being axed. Gordon Aitken, a former sell-side analyst with JPMorgan and Credit Suisse First Boston, departed a fortnight ago. Under the terms of a group-wide review ordered by chief executive David Nish, Aitken will [...]
Morgan Stanley continues down the road to recovery July 21, 2010 WALL Street lapped up a solid set of second-quarter results from Morgan Stanley yesterday, buoying market sentiment after a disappointing performance over the same period from some of the bank’s peers, notably Goldman Sachs. Morgan Stanley beat analyst expectations with post-tax profit of $1.4bn (£921m) for the three months to June, swinging back into the [...]
Fitch: Ratings risk posed by Solvency II June 2, 2010 EUROPEAN insurers may struggle to keep their credit ratings under stringent new capital requirements proposed by Brussels, assessment house Fitch warned yesterday. Insurance companies are expected to be ordered to increase the amount of capital they hold against their liabilities under Solvency II, the European Commission’s regulatory regime due to be introduced in 2012. In [...]