FTSE steady as investors eye Eurozone crisis summit October 21, 2011 Banks and miners helped to give the FTSE 100 a lift in early trading as investors looked to a key weekend in the Eurozone for signs that the bloc’s debt crisis could be brought under control. Leaders are still sharply divided over how to strengthen a Eurozone rescue fund and meet on Sunday to once [...]
BNP Paribas to cut jobs but denies seeking Qatari cash September 22, 2011 BNP Paribas is planning a “significant” round of job cuts across its corporate and investment bank, chief executive Baudouin Prot said yesterday. But he denied reports that the bank is seeking a capital injection from Qatar’s sovereign fund after rumours that it needs more equity swept through markets. Prot said the layoffs would come alongside [...]
AN AWKWARD MOMENT AS BANK CHIEFS RETURN TO PARLIAMENT October 11, 2011 BRITAIN’S bank chiefs were lucky enough to be called before another parliamentary committee today, following several outings already this year. Seated in the stuffy House of Lords hearing room, banking maestros were put through their paces on topics ranging from capital buffers to some “curious nexuses” that HSBC chair Douglas Flint wanted to discuss. Is [...]
Bearish Aussie avoided by pandering to China October 25, 2011 THE Australian dollar has been trading around its six-week high this week, receiving a boost from encouraging data coming out of China – a country upon which its economy relies on heavily. At the same time, it has benefited from a strong commodity market. The Aussie dollar was trending around the $1.0400 area yesterday, but [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 24, 2011 Genzyme David Meeker has been appointed as chief executive of Genzyme, part of the wider Sanofi healthcare group, effective from 1 November. He will also join the group management committee. Meeker joined Genzyme in 1994 as medical director to work on the cystic fibrosis gene therapy programme. Rising to the position of president of the [...]
HSBC: London losing to Asia February 1, 2011 Banking there is “quite a noticeable” migration of business from London to Asia, according to HSBC chairman Douglas Flint. Speaking before the House of Commons Treasury committee, he pointed to “three 200,000 square foot buildings being taken by international banks in Singapore at the moment that might have gone somewhere else”. Two of the buildings [...]
Banking on surprising the markets July 31, 2011 THIS week sees the release of interim figures from a number of UK banks, and few are holding out hope for particularly strong results. A generally weak UK economy that grew an anaemic 0.2 per cent in the second quarter, coupled with concerns about the risk of UK bank exposure to possible European default, have [...]
Senior HSBC bankers in London get half the pay of those abroad March 1, 2011 SENIOR HSBC bankers based in London are getting less than half the pay of their non-UK counterparts, figures released by the bank have shown. UK-based senior staff pocketed an average of £1.22m in total pay last year, of which £927,000 was bonus payments, whereas equivalent staff based outside the UK took home more than double [...]
FTSE suffers 5pc losses on Fed woe September 22, 2011 A TOXIC cocktail comprising a grim economic outlook from the US Federal Reserve and downbeat data in China left Britain’s top shares nursing a near five per cent drop yesterday, as investors pinned some hopes on this week’s G20 meeting. Commodity stocks, sensitive to data showing a stuttering recovery, were the biggest fallers by some [...]
Arcadis to buy EC Harris October 17, 2011 Dutch engineering firm Arcadis said it would acquire London-based buildings and infrastructure consultant EC Harris to strengthen its position in project management and expand its presence in the Middle East and Asia. The company, which also cut its outlook for 2011 earnings, has been looking for opportunities away from the struggling Benelux market, looking to [...]