Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered Labour’s first Budget in 14 years, announcing £40bn of tax rises, Central London Alliance comments
Virgin Money is the fourth lender to join Help to Buy October 7, 2013 VIRGIN Money yesterday became the fourth bank to sign up for the Help to Buy Scheme, which from today will offer state guarantees to homebuyers. It joins RBS, Lloyds’ Halifax brand and challenger bank Aldermore in offering mortgages with deposits worth as little as five per cent of the home’s value. However, new figures on [...]
HSBC warns visa regulations are hitting UK firms October 7, 2013 BRITISH businesses are being put at a disadvantage relative to European and US rivals because it takes too long to get a visiting visa, HSBC warns in a report on exporting today. It can take weeks for a visitor to get a short-term visa, delaying business trips and hurting small firms’ efforts to export more, [...]
Bottom Line: There’s growth to be had away from big audits October 6, 2013 GRANT Thornton, like its mid-market rival BDO, has not pinned all its hopes on winning blue-chip audit work any time soon, despite the huge amount of noise generated by the Competition Commission’s plans to open up the market. And with a double-digit rise in revenues, the company doesn’t need to worry at the moment. Advisory [...]
City Moves for 7 October 2013 | Who’s switching jobs October 6, 2013 Bracewell & GiulianiThe law firm has announced the appointment of Olivia Caddy as a partner in its London office. Caddy specialises in oil and gas upstream debt financing, and joins from Herbert Smith Freehills. Grant ThorntonUsman Malik has been appointed as director of mergers and acquisitions at the advisory firm. He joined Grant Thornton in [...]
Wall Street bosses warn on shutdown October 2, 2013 THE HEADS of the biggest banks in Wall Street and Europe yesterday met President Obama to warn him of the dire consequences if the US defaulted on its debt obligations as the US government shutdown continued for a second day. Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein said he and his fellow banking bosses had warned [...]
Holcim CEO flies austerity style October 2, 2013 Bernard Fontana, chief executive of the worlds largest cement maker Holcim, is leading by example in terms of cost-cutting by flying economy class on short-hall flights. In an interview at Holcim headquarters in Zurich Fontana said: I respect the policy which we set, which is (a flight of) more than five hours is business, less [...]
Higher capital demands for banks under new stress test says BoE October 1, 2013 The Bank of England has released the record of a Financial Policy Committee Meeting which discloses plans for British banks to hold more capital than foreign competitors. Annual stress tests are set to start next year, with Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Co-op, Standard Chartered and RBS all being tested. The Bank stresses its "key overarching priority would [...]
Slow growth for China as factory sector edges up in September September 30, 2013 CHINA’S manufacturing industry saw a narrow expansion in September, roughly equal to August’s growth, according to purchasing managers’ index (PMI) figures released by HSBC yesterday. The figure has been revised down from 51.2, which was HSBC’s first estimate, but still sits marginally above 50, which indicates some meagre growth in the sector. The measure indicates [...]
Borrowers set for small cut in interest rates September 29, 2013 MORTGAGE borrowers who use the government’s new guarantee scheme could see interest rates fall by up to one percentage point, City A.M. understands. Banks lending under the scheme will have to pay the government a fee for each mortgage given out, a cost that will be passed on to borrowers. But the fee will only [...]
Lloyds to be best capitalised bank in the UK says JP Morgan September 27, 2013 Lloyds is to be the best capitalized bank in the UK by 2015 according to JP Morgan. Capital progress will be helped by deferred tax assets (DTAs), considering that Lloyds is number one in the UK for negative capital deductions from DTAs. The bank restates its preference for Lloyds over RBS and following its down [...]