Politics should be a marathon, not a sprint April 11, 2010 NOW that Gordon Brown has fired the starting gun on what is likely to be one of the most keenly contested general elections in recent memory, politicians across the country are gearing up for a marathon campaign. As I train for my 16th London Marathon later this month, I am well aware of how difficult [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPER SAY THIS MORNING November 8, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday TelegraphBAE HIRES PINOCHET LAWYER FOR SFO FIGHTBAE Systems has instructed General Pinochet’s former QC to handle its defence if the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is successful in persuading the Attorney General to proceed with a fraud prosecution against the arms manufacturer. GOVERNMENT PLANS FAST-TRACK NUCLEAR EXPANSIONThe government is set to hand an [...]
RBS Coutts to ramp up hires after exodus October 13, 2009 RBS COUTTS may look to speed up its hiring plans in Asia after 70 staff staged a co-ordinated mass exodus from the private bank. The group of staff at the Singapore office of Royal Bank of Scotland’s private bank left simultaneously and many are now expected to join Swiss rival BSI. The departures come just [...]
TOP FIVE BANKS SIGN UP TO BONUS ACCORD September 30, 2009 THE UK’s “big five” banks have committed to rules on pay agreed at the recent G20 summit in Pittsburgh, the Treasury announced yesterday. State-backed Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, as well as HSBC, Barclays and Standard Chartered, issued a joint statement saying that they would “work with the FSA (Financial Services Authority) [...]
RBS closes the door on new credit cards October 5, 2009 ROYAL Bank of Scotland (RBS) has closed its credit card business to new customers in a bid to prevent a rise in bad debts. The lender, which is 70 per cent owned by the taxpayer, will limit new credit cards to existing banking customers, meaning that anyone who wants an RBS or NatWest credit card [...]
RBS closes the door on new credit cards October 5, 2009 ROYAL Bank of Scotland (RBS) has closed its credit card business to new customers in a bid to prevent a rise in bad debts. The lender, which is 70 per cent owned by the taxpayer, will limit new credit cards to existing banking customers, meaning that anyone who wants an RBS or NatWest credit card [...]
EXBARRISTER FINDS A RAFT OF USES FOR CITY’S USELESS BANKERS November 16, 2009 A RATHER quaint looking little book lands on The Capitalist’s desk and promptly causes a bit of a stir. Said tome has been penned – if you can call it that – by Alex Steuart Williams, a former barrister turned cartoonist and feature film animator (with movie credits such as The Lion King and Harry [...]
BUSINESS LUMINARIES TOAST THEIR SUCCESS November 10, 2009 IT’S one thing to see the chancellor of the exchequer give up an entire evening to sit through a business awards ceremony, but quite another when he manages to have the audience in stitches during his speech as well. That’s right, folks: it seems that 18 months of surviving on a few hours sleep a [...]
Journalist set to profit from company sale September 20, 2009 The FOUNDER of financial commentary site Breakingviews.com appears set to sell it to Thomson Reuters for around £10m. Hugo Dixon, who ran the Lex column of the Financial Times for five years before setting up Breakingviews in 1999, has been in talks with Reuters since July, but the two parties have struggled to agree a [...]
BLUE-BLOODED CAZENOVE AND THE MYSTERY OF A TRUE ANCIENT RELIC November 19, 2009 BLUE-blooded City stockbroker Cazenove might have officially agreed to surrender the rest of itself to US investment bank JP Morgan, but something tells The Capitalist the die-hards won’t be ready to forget the firm’s noble heritage in a hurry. Lunch yesterday was with a City chum who remembers Caz’s days at its old headquarters in [...]