Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered Labour’s first Budget in 14 years, announcing £40bn of tax rises, Central London Alliance comments
Saddest job ever? Tata Steel appoints new UK chief executive April 18, 2016 They say the UK's workforce is getting flightier, but this is just ridiculous. Tata Steel said today it has hired a new UK chief executive – to oversee the company during its final days in the UK. In a statement today, the company said it had appointed Bimlendra Jha, currently a member of the executive committee of [...]
London’s biggest banks will struggle to reach sustained profitability due to bad debts and regulatory fines, IMF and KPMG warn April 14, 2016 A toxic mix of bad debts and regulatory fines will see some of London’s biggest banks struggle to reach sustained profitability, according to two major new reports from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and KPMG. The hard-hitting reports have prompted city analysts to predict looming job cuts in the Square Mile and Canary Wharf, while [...]
At the close: FTSE pushed higher by banks and miners, as Tesco and Premier Foods fall April 13, 2016 Banks and miners moved the FTSE 100 higher today as data from China reassured investors over growth in the world’s second largest economy, adding more than 100 points to the index’s rise. The FTSE 100 ended the day at its highest for four months at 6,362.89 points, up 120.50 points, or 1.9 per cent. Tesco shed [...]
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones indices have hit a new high for 2016 as investors pile into banking stocks: JP Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup all climb April 13, 2016 US stocks have risen to highs for the year in New York, pushed on by investors piling into banking shares. Both the S&P 500 and the the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached fresh highs for 2016. The S&P 500 was up 0.7 per cent in early morning trading at 2,075.21 in early trading, while the Dow Jones Industrial [...]
One-third of Europe’s banks are struggling to make money as IMF calls for urgent reforms to their business models April 13, 2016 European banks are set to be hit by a profitability crisis, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as stock market volatility, negative interest rates and low growth have shattered the financial services industry’s ability to make money. One-third of all Europe’s lenders – calculated by their share of total assets – are facing “significant challenges to [...]
City Moves for 12 April 2016 | Who’s switching jobs April 12, 2016 Bfinance Bfinance, the independently owned investment consultancy, has appointed Peter Hobbsas managing director of private markets in the London office. He joins from MSCI where he was managing director for real estate research and key global accounts, responsible for benchmarking and portfolio analysis, risk services and method development. Prior to this, Peter held various senior [...]
Standard Chartered is selling off $4.4bn worth of Asian assets, after announcing a $1.5bn loss in February April 11, 2016 Standard Chartered is mulling over the sale of at least $4.4bn (£3.1bn) of assets in Asia, it was revealed earlier today. The bulk of the assets potentially being sold are understood to relate to $1.4bn in stressed loans made to Indian firms, but the bank is also believed to be looking to offload some other [...]
Bar Standards Board gains approval to license Alternative Business Structures March 30, 2016 Legal eagles, here's an acronym game to entertain you on your commute home: LSB BSB ABS OMG! For those who require a more detailed explanation, the Legal Services Board (LSB) has today approved the Bar Standards Board's (BSB) application to become a licensing authority for alternative business structures (ABS). An ABS, which were introduced under the Legal Services [...]
Bank of England stress tests: Berenberg warns Lloyds Banking Group could be hit hard by 2016 stress tests while Standard Chartered and HSBC could fare better than in recent years March 30, 2016 Lloyds Banking Group is "particularly vulnerable to larger stress test losses" in 2016 compared to Britain's other big banks, analysts at Berenberg have warned. The Bank published its plans yesterday for this year’s stress test of Britain’s biggest banks, saying it would test to see how lenders would fare in a scenario where global growth falls 1.9 [...]
Bank of England clamps down on buy-to-let market with strict new rules for mortgage underwriters March 29, 2016 The Bank of England has today revealed plans to clamp down on the buy-to-let market, setting out strict new rules for banks underwriting buy-to-let mortgage contracts. In a new paper out today, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said lenders will need to meet a minimum set of requirements before underwriting buy-to-let mortgage contracts, including assessing the [...]