RAPID RESPONSES July 10, 2012 Top level failure [Re: Osborne and Tucker have both been damaged by Libor row, yesterday] I’m staggered that both Paul Tucker and Bob Diamond didn’t take notes of their telephone conversations, or indeed have them recorded. Under Financial Services Authority regulations, many of us have to. We’d get fined or disbarred if we didn’t. Quentin [...]
OSBORNE URGED TO ACT AS DIP DEEPENS July 25, 2012 BUSINESS leaders, economists and politicians demanded a new economic strategy from the government yesterday, claiming its approach had been shown up as a failure after GDP nose-dived in the second quarter. In yet another blow to beleaguered chancellor George Osborne, the Office for National Statistics released preliminary data that showed GDP down 0.7 per cent, [...]
Banks wait for details of Libor inquiry terms July 30, 2012 BANKS will today find out just how rigorous the investigation into the Libor scandal will be, as the Treasury is this morning set to announce the terms of Martin Wheatley’s review into the key interbank interest rate. Traders at banks including Barclays were found to have falsely entered low or high interest rates to the [...]
Row grows as chancellor accuses Balls of Libor role July 4, 2012 Senior Labour politicians fiercely denied any involvement in the Libor fixing scandal yesterday, after George Osborne said those around Gordon Brown “were clearly involved” in rate rigging, and former Barclays boss Bob Diamond said the bank was in regular contact with ministers. Meanwhile Labour MPs said Bob Diamond’s failure to answer all the Treasury select [...]
Liberate the law from regulation that shackles it February 21, 2012 AS THE British economy faces tough economic challenges, promoting areas of potential economic growth is not only important – it is essential. With an annual turnover of £25bn (roughly the equivalent to two per cent of our country’s GDP) the legal services industry in England and Wales is an example of one such area. The [...]
Our decisive central bank has been neutered by regulatory confusion July 30, 2012 THE TREASURY Select Committee has rightly questioned the arbitrary powers of regulators, particularly the Bank of England, over the boards and senior executives of private firms in the financial sector. Despite the mistakes of our cartelised banks, it’s unwise to assume that regulators can run businesses better than boards. Moreover, trends over the last 12 [...]
Boisdale celebrates a decade May 16, 2012 IT was a case of glasses of Boisdale claret all round the other evening as the clubbable Scottish restaurant celebrated 10 years at Bishopsgate by throwing a party for its members and regulars. Guest of honour was former chancellor Lord Lamont, who shared his recollections of life at 11 Downing Street. Lamont was introduced to [...]
MPs set to grill Bob ahead of their full investigation July 3, 2012 LORDS rejected Labour calls for a judge-led inquiry into the Libor fixing scandal last night, increasing the chance that the government will get its favoured parliamentary investigation into the manipulation of the key inter-bank interest rate. However David Cameron and George Osborne may not get the exact panel of MPs and peers they hope for, [...]
Massive revolt by Tory MPs is beginning of end for coalition July 10, 2012 YOU may not care about the government’s bizarre obsession with trying to replace the unelected House of Lords with an almost equally strange upper chamber. If so, you are not alone – the public has completely switched off from the arcane, introspective world of the Westminster village. Ordinary people want to talk about growth and [...]
The City’s success needs a cocktail of local stability and global enterprise June 10, 2012 DURING my travels as Lord Mayor, I have sampled many cocktails at home and abroad. During my recent business mission to the Far East, I had a particularly fine one – a bright concoction known as the Singapore Sling, offered to me in the place where it was first mixed. It represents globalisation in a [...]