SocGen writes off Kerviel as a footnote in history

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:08:00 GMT

The rogue trader who cost Société Générale almost €5 billion was dismissed as an historical footnote today by executives seeking to draw a line under France’s biggest financial scandal.

Cowdery goes it alone to cut banks’ fees

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

Clive Cowdery’s Resolution is close to securing a ground-breaking deal to slash investment bank underwriting fees on a rights issue to fund a £2.75 billion acquisition of Axa’s UK life business.

The key to saving money is to do it yourself

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

Investment banks’ fees have long been a sore point with big institutional investors. Months before the Office of Fair Trading started to investigate a suspected lack of competition in the underwriting market, institutions were trying to find their own way around fees of 3 per cent or more.

Row over bank card and credit card charges

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

Banks are making hundreds of millions of pounds a year and pushing up prices on the high street by levying “unjustifiably high” fees on credit and debit card sales, retailers will say today.

FSA calls Sir Fred Goodwin to account over RBS unravelling

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

Sir Fred Goodwin has been summoned by the Financial Services Authority to answer questions about Royal Bank of Scotland’s management in the run up to its near-collapse in October 2008.

What Spain didn’t need — a liquidity crisis

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

Spanish banks are being shut out of the inter-bank lending market, the Spanish Treasury Secretary Carlos Ocana claimed yesterday, as it emerged that a liquidity freeze is adding to the troubles of Iberian lenders piled high with toxic property debt.

‘A disloyal, dishonest, criminal cheat’ – bank boss denounces rogue trader

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:40:00 GMT

Jérôme Kerviel, the rogue trader accused of losing almost €5 billion, was denounced by a former boss as criminal, dishonest, disloyal and a cheat at his trial in Paris yesterday.

Vantis shares suspended amid survival fears

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:46:00 GMT

The crisis surrounding Vantis, the AIM-listed accountancy firm, deepened today as the group asked for trading in its shares to be suspended amid doubts over its ability to survive.

Resolution in talks with AXA for life unit

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 07:54:00 GMT

Resolution, the insurance buyout vehicle, detailed its plans today to acquire the majority of AXA's £2.75 billion life assurance division.

Businesss big shot: Sameer al-Ansari

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

Age 47

Bonuses ‘should be delayed for a decade’

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

Investment bankers should be forced to wait ten years to cash in their bonuses in full, under radical proposals tabled by a cross-party commission set up in the wake of the banking crisis.

Vince Cable backs break-up of big banks

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:42:00 GMT

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, has given official backing to recommendations that call for investment banks to be broken up.

We must force the inflation genie back into its bottle

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

ON TUESDAY, inflation figures for May will be released. The last data, for April, showed consumer price inflation at 3.7% — significantly above the 2% target that guides the decisions of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

If this is the face of banks in Europe, we are doomed

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

Jean-Pierre Mustier strode into the Paris criminal court last Wednesday to face the man who ruined his career. Before the credit crunch, the former head of Société Générale’s investment banking division was in line for greatness, destined to take control of the French financial giant.

American Account: Bernanke builds up a cushion as we dance on pins

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

We are all of us balloons dancing in a world of pins, noted Sir Anthony Montague Browne, one of Winston Churchill’s private secretaries. That seems to describe our economic condition. Share prices drop like stones in response to action by Greek civil servants, or an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, or an Israeli attempt to enforce its blockade against Hamas, or rumours that the Chinese regime is attempting to slow its economy. And then soar when Spain manages to borrow a few billion from unwary investors. Uncertainty is the order of the day.

Life insurer Zurich joins tax exodus

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

ONE of the world’s biggest insurers is planning to move its £35 billion British life assurance business to Dublin to cut its tax bill. Zurich is in negotiations with the Financial Services Authority over the move, which is expected to be confirmed within weeks.

FSA pays £22m in bonuses

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

THE Financial Services Authority (FSA) paid its staff record bonuses of £22m last year, despite railing against similar awards paid at the banks that it regulates.

Listing plan for ‘son of Lloyds’

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

THE Lloyds Banking Group is working on plans for a stock-market flotation of the chain of 600 branches it is being forced to sell by the European Commission.

Pressure grows on Pru chief to quit

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

TWO of the top shareholders in Prudential, Britain’s biggest insurer, are leading calls for the resignation of Tidjane Thiam, the group’s chief executive.

Bank in charge as George Osborne snubs FSA

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:01:00 GMT

The Bank of England will be given prime responsibility for preventing or responding to future financial crises, George Osborne will say this week, dealing a blow to the standing of the Financial Services Authority (FSA).