Why the debate has gone all wrong February 5, 2012 PART of the problem in Britain today is that public debate is taking place in a fact-less vacuum. People have no interest in what is really happening to investment bankers’ pay and prefer to ignore the regulatory revolution across all of finance, including banking, fund management, private equity, trading, accountancy and insurance. Take pay: as [...]
Santander takes €1.7bn property hit January 31, 2012 A MASSIVE write-down on its Spanish property portfolio wiped out Santander’s profits in the fourth quarter of last year, the bank revealed in full-year results yesterday. The lender was forced to make a net provision of €1.67bn due to the plunging value of its assets, mostly in Spanish real estate. That took its bottom line [...]
UK mortgage approvals jump December 8, 2011 Loans for home purchases hit their highest since December 2009 in November, according to data out today from e.surv chartered surveyors, thanks largely to loose mortgage conditions. Purchase approvals rose from 52,743 in October to 54,658 in November on a seasonally adjusted basis – an increase of four per cent, and 15 per cent higher [...]
UK mortgage approvals jump December 8, 2011 Loans for home purchases hit their highest since December 2009 in November, according to data out today from e.surv chartered surveyors, thanks largely to loose mortgage conditions. Purchase approvals rose from 52,743 in October to 54,658 in November on a seasonally adjusted basis – an increase of four per cent, and 15 per cent higher [...]
JC Flowers eyes up £1.5bn of deals for UK mortgage books December 4, 2011 PRIVATE equity house JC Flowers has built a £1.5bn cash pile to spend on British banks’ mortgage books after failing in its attempt to buy part of Northern Rock. The US buyout giant, which focuses on financial services, is believed to have changed its strategy after losing out to Virgin Money in the bidding war [...]
Brownonomics makes a shock return November 22, 2011 AT one point yesterday, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t having a nightmare. Is Gordon Brown still Prime Minister, I asked myself? The reason for my madness, dear readers, was the coalition’s dreadful neo-Brownite plan to part-guarantee 95 per cent mortgages. It was the kind of policy reminiscent of tax credits [...]
Brownonomics makes a shock return November 21, 2011 AT one point yesterday, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t having a nightmare. Is Gordon Brown still Prime Minister, I asked myself? The reason for my madness, dear readers, was the coalition’s dreadful neo-Brownite plan to part-guarantee 95 per cent mortgages. It was the kind of policy reminiscent of tax credits [...]
Brownonomics makes a shock return November 21, 2011 AT one point yesterday, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t having a nightmare. Is Gordon Brown still Prime Minister, I asked myself? The reason for my madness, dear readers, was the coalition’s dreadful neo-Brownite plan to part-guarantee 95 per cent mortgages. It was the kind of policy reminiscent of tax credits [...]
JPMorgan profit beats forecasts July 14, 2011 JPMorgan Chase & Co posted a higher-than-expected jump in second-quarter profit as it wrote off fewer bad mortgages and credit card loans. The bank managed to make more loans during the quarter than in the first quarter and added staff, signs that bright spots are emerging in a sector long plagued by credit losses and [...]
Think-tanks: UK’s reply to Tobin is weak November 3, 2011 A EUROPE-WIDE financial transactions tax (FTT) could cost the UK’s economy tens of billions of pounds, the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) warned yesterday – and yet the government is failing to act to stop such a tax being introduced, said the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS). The ASI calculated that the UK will be hit [...]