Bank’s Paul Tucker stumbles upon a Barclays bonus truce October 31, 2012 IT has become the City’s most wearyingly familiar formula: bank floats pay proposals with investors; investors cry foul; bank showers its largesse on employees regardless; bank suffers revolt at annual meeting. Repeat, year after year. The 2013 bonus round should, at last, provide an antidote to the toxic relationship between Britain’s biggest lenders and the [...]
Bradford Bulls beg fans for £1m March 27, 2012 HARD-UP rugby league outfit Bradford Bulls have warned the club will go out of business unless they raise £1m – and have asked fans to chip in. The four-time Super League champions want supporters to pledge £100 each, and say they need £500,000 by the middle of next month to reduce their debts. Chairman Peter [...]
Osborne warns Scotland could lose the pound September 6, 2012 GEORGE Osborne last night warned that an English government might not support an independent Scotland in keeping the pound. In a provocative speech to business leaders in Glasgow last night, a defiant chancellor said the lesson of the Eurozone crisis was that it was not possible to have currency union without full political union. “In [...]
Surging labour costs are keeping UK unemployment high May 29, 2012 THERE is a straightforward reason why unemployment remains so high in Britain. Unit labour costs are rising – hiring someone to produce a set amount of output is becoming more expensive. And higher prices mean reduced demand – in the jobs market as in everything else. This may come as a bit of a surprise: [...]
Surging labour costs are keeping UK unemployment high May 29, 2012 THERE is a straightforward reason why unemployment remains so high in Britain. Unit labour costs are rising – hiring someone to produce a set amount of output is becoming more expensive. And higher prices mean reduced demand – in the jobs market as in everything else. This may come as a bit of a surprise: [...]
RBS shares rise as Abu Dhabi mulls buying stake March 27, 2012 Talks between Abu Dhabi and the British government over a stake in state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland are at the level of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, a source close to the ruling family said. It is too early to say whether a deal will come through, the source told Reuters. But RBS was the [...]
FSA fines Coutts £8.7m March 26, 2012 THE Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulator has fined Coutts – the exclusive private bank owned by Royal Bank of Scotland – £8.75m for failings in its anti-money laundering controls systems. In October 2010, the FSA visited Coutts – whose chief executive is Rory Tapner as part of its thematic review into banks’ management of high money-laundering [...]
Santander plans closure of 56 bank branches to reduce overlap March 25, 2012 SANTANDER is understood to be closing 56 of its branches to reduce the overlap that has been created following the mergers of Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley. The move comes as the Spanish bank continues to negotiate the takeover of 318 Royal Bank of Scotland branches which is due to be [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 3, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Banks look to farm out SME lending Several large European banks are weighing the idea of outsourcing a portion of their core small business lending to a new crop of loan funds, in a further sign of the growth of the “shadow banking” industry in Europe. A number of banks including UBS and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 3, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Banks look to farm out SME lending Several large European banks are weighing the idea of outsourcing a portion of their core small business lending to a new crop of loan funds, in a further sign of the growth of the “shadow banking” industry in Europe. A number of banks including UBS and [...]