Payday lenders lobby banks to ease off on credit punishment November 19, 2013 PAYDAY lenders are pushing for banks to treat their borrowers more fairly when they apply for mortgages, City A.M. has learned, arguing some users of the short term loans are unfairly treated. Some lenders will not give mortgages to anyone who has recently used a payday loan as they fear the borrower is often short [...]
StanChart strips finance boss of risk role after Bank pressure December 15, 2013 STANDARD Chartered finance chief Richard Meddings has been stripped of his role overseeing the firm’s risk division following pressure from the Bank of England. The lender was forced to hand over responsibility for risk to chief executive Peter Sands after the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the central bank’s financial watchdog, expressed concerns over Meddings holding [...]
Here’s why cutting net migration to “tens of thousands” would make us much worse off December 23, 2013 Of the economically destructive policies currently championed by the coalition government, a target to reduce the level of net migration to the UK from "hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands" certainly ranks as one of the worst. The case for the free movement of people is not just a moral one, but economic. As [...]
Emerging markets need a structural overhaul before they can return to favour January 27, 2014 PEOPLE talk about emerging markets as if they were one homogenous group, but nothing could be further from the truth. The only thing that really links Argentina, Turkey and Indonesia is that they all look vulnerable to further volatility in their currency, bond and equity markets. The diversity of the emerging market universe is such [...]
RBS and Lloyds crack down on traders’ chats December 19, 2013 TRADERS have been banned from joining group chats with staff at other finance firms as Lloyds and RBS crack down on the practices which helped the Libor and other market-fiddling scandals develop, the banks said yesterday. RBS has been fined for attempted Libor fiddling, earlier this year paying a total of £390m to settle cases [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 23 January 2014 January 22, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Microsoft to shield users’ data Microsoft will allow foreign customers to have their personal data stored on servers outside the US, breaking ranks with other big technology groups that until now have shown a united front in response to the American surveillance scandal. Just Eat gears up for £900m IPO London’s start-up cluster [...]
Osborne: the UK is on the road to recovery December 5, 2013 CHANCELLOR George Osborne set out his plans for Britain’s economic future yesterday, offering cautious optimism about the state of the country’s finances. In his Autumn Statement speech, Osborne warned of the threat to recovery from those who would “squander the gains we’ve made”, adding: “Britain’s economic plan is working. But the job is not done.” [...]
Innovation Diary: Why it could take a network of angels to rescue startups’ faulty funding escalator January 19, 2014 FOR BUSINESSES seeking scale, the process of funding growth is often characterised as an escalator – with founders initially staking personal capital, then finding angel support, then venture capital, and ultimately accessing public markets. While arguably simplistic (the academic Paul Gompers, for example, has argued that different funding sources are more suited to some business [...]
Why bank data transparency could lead to a better functioning market December 18, 2013 FEW would find it hard to spot the difference between Stoke Newington and Salford. It’s certainly more than 200 miles that divides the North London district and the regenerating Manchester borough, now home to the BBC’s MediaCityUK. But earlier this week, banks published figures showing that both these places are hotspots for small and medium-sized [...]
Carl Icahn tells Tim Cook: Apple share price dramatically undervalued October 9, 2014 Infamous activist investor Carl Icahn has published in full a letter to Apple urging Chief Tim Cook and board executives to buyback shares. Icahn tweeted yesterday about the letter to Cook hinting "Believe it will be interesting." In the letter, Icahn said Apple was "dramatically undervalued in today's market" and that "the more shares repurchased [...]