Chequing in with the best November 4, 2010 In a wonderful example of stating the obvious, the Office of Fair Trading yesterday published evidence that retail banking in Britain isn’t very competitive. For most people, that will probably come as no surprise. Though customer service has been getting better in almost every other industry, in retail banking limited weekend opening hours, unhelpful call [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 26, 2010 Lloyds Banking Group Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets has hired three new senior members to its global financial institutions team. Adam Daniels, pictured, joins as head of specialist finance and intermediaries from Ernst & Young, where he was an M&A partner. Mandeep Ahluwalia moves over from Standard Bank to become managing director of relationships for the [...]
CITY VIEWS: SHOULD WE REPLACE TUITION FEES WITH A GRADUATE TAX? September 21, 2010 SOPHIE BOYD | HISCOX “If the aim is to make the system fairer, I think that removing upfront fees might well encourage students from lower income families to go to university. But ultimately they will still bear the costs, albeit at a later date.” MICHAEL GROVES | LLOYDS TSB “A graduate tax might improve social [...]
CITY VIEWS: SHOULD WE REPLACE TUITION FEES WITH A GRADUATE TAX? September 21, 2010 SOPHIE BOYD | HISCOX “If the aim is to make the system fairer, I think that removing upfront fees might well encourage students from lower income families to go to university. But ultimately they will still bear the costs, albeit at a later date.” MICHAEL GROVES | LLOYDS TSB “A graduate tax might improve social [...]
Growth concerns and inflation cause a three-way split October 6, 2010 FOR the second consecutive month, a three-way split has emerged among City A.M.’s Shadow Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members ahead of the Bank of England’s policy announcement scheduled for midday today. Two members voted for an increase in interest rates of 0.25 per cent while two others thought the time had come to extend quantitative [...]
Irish Life shares up as losses shrink August 31, 2010 Irish Life & Permanent shrank first-half losses, defying expectations for a bigger shortfall, and said it expected Irish mortgage arrears to peak this year, sending its shares up 12 per cent at one point. Irish Life’s stock was the only bright spot on the country’s financial index on as investors were prepared for yet more [...]
Irish Life shares up as losses shrink August 31, 2010 Irish Life & Permanent shrank first-half losses, defying expectations for a bigger shortfall, and said it expected Irish mortgage arrears to peak this year, sending its shares up 12 per cent at one point. Irish Life’s stock was the only bright spot on the country’s financial index on as investors were prepared for yet more [...]
It is about time for the dollar to reverse course October 26, 2010 THE US dollar has been the market’s whipping boy for some time now. For the last three months, the world’s reserve currency has persistently fallen against other currencies and most commodities, in a pattern described by one analyst as “everything up/dollar down”. With yields on dollar-denominated assets lower than ever before, lots of traders are [...]
Short supply will start to push the oil price up September 22, 2010 AFTER the furore following the BP oil well disaster, it now seems like crude oil is the only commodity that people aren’t talking about. Surges in the price of cotton, wheat and even orange juice mean soft commodities are hitting the headlines on a daily basis. In contrast, movements in the oil price have been [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 28, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES AMAZON SEEKS TO EXPAND GLOBALLY Amazon says it plans to revamp its international e-commerce platform to make it easier for the company to reach customers in new markets. The online retailer, the world’s largest by number of visitors, operates online businesses in six countries outside the US. It says it has set up [...]