WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 15, 2012 THE TIMES £2BN PRISONS SELL-OFF OPENS DOOR TO MASS PRIVATISATION Seven private companies are bidding for £2bn of contracts to run nine English jails in what is being regarded as the first move towards the wide privatisation of the Prison Service. The American correctional services companies MTC and GEO are among the bidders. FINANCIAL TIMES [...]
Banks fork out £1.9bn for insurance mis-selling February 22, 2012 Lenders paid out a record £441m in compensation for insurance mis-selling in December, taking payouts for 2011 to £1.9bn and raising the prospect of an even bigger bill this year. The financial regulator said payouts in December jumped 16 per cent from the previous record of £379m in November. Aside from September, there has been [...]
Goodwin’s gong under threat from civil servants as pressure grows on Hester January 25, 2012 A KEY Whitehall committee will meet this week to discuss whether Sir Fred Goodwin should be stripped of his knighthood, David Cameron has said. The Honours Forfeiture Committee will consider “all of the evidence”, the Prime Minister said yesterday. The evidence will include the FSA’s damning report on the near-collapse of Royal Bank of Scotland. [...]
FTSE lifts as defensive gains offset miner and bank losses March 12, 2012 BRITAIN’S blue-chip index ended with a small gain yesterday, as profit-taking on mining companies and banks was offset by gains among defensive shares. The FTSE 100 index ended up 5.26 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 5,892.75, having traded 90 per cent of its 90-day volume average. The index only moved into positive territory late [...]
Peacocks and Past Times hit the wall January 16, 2012 PEACOCKS has confirmed it plans to call in administrators after talks with its lenders to restructure £240m of debt collapsed. The board, chaired by former Asda boss Allan Leighton, said it is still in talks with potential investors but had filed its notice of “intention to appoint an administrator” to try and protect the 611-store [...]
Hong Kong tycoon eyes Four Seasons February 20, 2012 HONG-KONG business tycoon Li Ka- Shing has been named as a potential investor in Four Seasons Healthcare, UK’s biggest care home operator, which is exploring refinancing options ahead of a debt repayment deadline later this year. The debt-laden company is said to have attracted the interest of CK Life Sciences, a healthcare business owned by [...]
RAPID RESPONSES July 4, 2012 Systemic failure [Re: Crisis threatens UK’s entire politico-financial establishment, yesterday] This crisis is not essentially about greed or malfeasance by commercial banks, but about the toxic environment created by decades of misconceived policies by governments, and enablors and abettors in central banks. The Barclays’ affair is potentially explosive, so let’s hope the media start asking [...]
Fewer bankers but extra red tape as City job cuts laid bare February 12, 2012 THE number of people working in financial services jobs approved by the City regulator has fallen to its lowest level for seven years, according to new analysis. The total number of people on the Financial Services Authority Register dropped to 157,587 in December last year, down 6.9 per cent from the recent high of December [...]
Clegg warns over bankers’ bonuses January 5, 2012 The government plans tough action to rein in what it regards as excessive bank bonuses, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on Thursday, firing a warning shot ahead of the annual round of payments. “It’s the Liberal Democrats who have led the debate on clamping down on bankers’ bonuses and we must be just as [...]
Bankers held in tax probe into film cash February 12, 2012 A SERIES of City bankers have been arrested in a probe into tax evasion related to film financing. Four current and one former member of staff at the investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Scotland, as well as three London workers from US bank Jefferies and one from commodities broker Marex Spectron are believed [...]