HOW MUCH TENSION IS THERE AMONGST BANK OF ENGLAND MPC MEMBERS? July 4, 2010 MICHAEL SAUNDERS | CITIGROUP “Recent MPC comments hint at a vigorous debate, and some members appear to believe that a broader range of factors is behind the pick-up in inflation. If inflation expectations continue to rise then the MPC could feel obliged to hike rates to show they take the inflation target seriously.” PHILIP SHAW [...]
HSBC in talks with Pinnacle consortium July 25, 2010 THE GROUP hoping to build the Pinnacle skyscraper on Bishopsgate is close to securing financing from HSBC, it emerged at the weekend. Arab Investments (AI) plans to raise £600m from the financing deal, to add to £130m secured from a 60-strong consortium of backers. AI boss Khalid Affara has been courting banks for months in [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 29, 2010 RBC Wealth Management The wealth manager has promoted Philip Harris to the position of head of private client wealth management for the British Isles. Harris has been at the firm since early last year, when he joined to create a domestic wealth management business. He previously founded financial advisory business Scott Goodman Harris, which was [...]
finance boss in the wars after hitler gag August 16, 2010 AS A hack, it gets frustrating to be confronted with a deafening silence when asking any financier to stand up and publicly defend the industry against politically-motivated attacks – especially when the same hotshots are perfectly happy to shoot their mouth off when cornered in private. But, refreshing as it is to find an exception [...]
There was no other choice – now George Osborne must hold his nerve October 20, 2010 IT was a timely reminder that action is desperately required to tackle Britain’s out of control budget deficit. At 9:30 yesterday morning, a full three hours before George Osborne got up to deliver his spending review to the House of Commons, the latest monthly budget deficit figures popped up on traders’ screens across the City. [...]
Further falls predicted for jobless count July 11, 2010 OFFICIAL data out on Wednesday is expected to show that fewer Britons claimed jobless benefits in June, the fifth successive monthly drop in the claimant count measure. Economists, on average, expect the number of Britons claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA) will have fallen by 24,5000 last month. For the wider International Labor Organisation (ILO) measure, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 22, 2010 THE SUNDAYS The Sunday Telegraph TESCO TO OPEN DRIVE-THRU STORE It has moved into banking, pet insurance and telecoms, but Tesco will expand its reach further this week with the launch of the UK’s first ever “drive-thru” supermarket. The service will allow customers to pick up their weekly shop without leaving their car. LIDL SET [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS May 25, 2010 INVESTEC Citigroup reiterates its “buy” rating for Investec and said that the bank’s client franchise businesses should benefit from an expected cyclical recovery in 2011. Moreover, Citi believes it is in a stronger competitive position than it was before the global financial crisis given the misfortunes of many of its peers. SANTANDER Evolution Securities maintains [...]
Interest rates kept at record 0.5pc low June 10, 2010 THE Bank of England stuck to its policy of ultra-loose interest rates yesterday when it held the cost of borrowing at 0.5 per cent and kept the stock of asset purchases at £200bn. The 0.5 per cent rate has now been in place for 14 months – the longest streak of unchanged rates since the [...]
UK recession was deeper than thought July 12, 2010 BRITAIN suffered a far deeper contraction than had previously been thought and the health of the economy was far more reliant on public spending in the first three months of 2010, official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed yesterday. The data, which had been delayed by nearly two weeks, due to “potential [...]