BBC Trust go for Rona Fairhead – its first female chair August 31, 2014 Former Financial Times Group boss Rona Fairhead will become the new chairman of the BBC Trust, the government announced yesterday. Yesterday culture secretary Sajid Javid announced Fairhead was the preferred candidate to replace Lord Patten, who stepped down in May due to ill health after three turbulent years overseeing the broadcaster. Fairhead, 53 [...]
Weak world economy slows UK businesses’ dividend payout growth October 20, 2014 Dividend payouts barely increased in the past year despite Britain’s economic recovery, figures from Capita Asset Services show today. Instead the payouts are being slowed by weak economic growth overseas, as many listed British firms have substantial global operations. Total dividends in the third quarter came in at £25.5bn, just 0.2 per cent more than [...]
Best of the Brokers for 9 October 2014 October 8, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com EUROMONEY INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR Westhouse securities has reiterated its “neutral” rating. It reduced its target price from 1,090p to 1,063p. It added that Euromoney’s pre-close update contained no real surprises, but confirmed that challenging trading conditions in banking and foreign exchange continued to constrain [...]
Goldman Sachs to issue $500m Islamic bond September 4, 2014 Goldman Sachs is planning to issue its first Islamic bond, or sukuk, and intends to meet potential investors in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week. According to the FT, the issuance is expected to consist of five-year bonds with a combined value of $500m. The US bank will be the second financial institution [...]
Big banks hurt by competition investigation November 6, 2014 INVESTORS fled the big banks’ shares yesterday as a major new investigation threatened to break them up or impose significant new costs. But small lenders cheered the probe as a chance to end the dominance of the giant high street banks. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating the personal current account and the [...]
City Moves for 25 November 2014 | Who’s switching jobs November 24, 2014 Lambert Smith Hampton Caroline Waldron has been appointed senior surveyor in the commercial property consultancy’s London office agency team. She joins from JLL, where her clients included Fidelity Investments, Threadneedle Investments and Mercer Real Estate. BNP Paribas Securities Services The custodian has announced three senior appointments to its assets and funds services team in London. [...]
IonStar founders Liz and Tim Hughes talk connecting City talent, lifeboats, piano lessons and how to make a real difference March 15, 2015 Like most couples, Tim and Liz Hughes got to the stage in life where they wanted to start a family. The challenge they faced was that, as successful professional people, they wanted to make the most of their skills and abilities – but also their family life. “Throughout my career, I’ve watched women above me [...]
UK banks in the clear after European stress tests? October 22, 2014 The European Banking Authority (EBA) is due to publish the results of its stress test on European banks on Sunday, but ahead of the official announcement a Spanish news agency has reported that 11 of the 123 banks tested have failed. Although the report, by Spanish wire EFE, did not name any of the banks [...]
Co-op fails Bank of England stress test, RBS and Lloyds at risk December 16, 2014 The Co-operative Bank has failed the Bank of England’s (BoE) stringent new stress test, while Lloyds and RBS would be at risk in a new economic crisis. The prudential regulation authority (PRA) tested seven banks and building society Nationwide to see how they would handle a financial meltdown of epic proportions. While Lloyds, Standard Chartered, [...]
FaceTime with your bank? Barclays is venturing into video banking for busy customers in major online move November 30, 2014 Barclays is making another major move into digital with the launch of a video banking service that will let customers speak face to face with advisers instead of visiting a bricks and mortar branch. The bank will offer a round the clock service to better fit in with people’s lives in what it says is [...]