Archive for the ‘Banks’ category
Profits warnings are common during recessions but the oddest seen so far comes from Goldshield Group. The new owner has looked at the books and said that for several years the pills company’s profits may have been understated. Yes, understated.
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Posted on 4th March 2010 in Banks, Brands, Business, capitalism | No Comments »
The stock market’s reaction to Prudential’s (LON:PRU) planned record rights issue is ungrateful. After all the mega-refinancings to fill black holes in balance sheets, this is a share issue based on expansion rather than rescue.
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Posted on 3rd March 2010 in Lloyds Banking Group, RBS | No Comments »
Why bother being boss of a big bank if you are not allowed to take the rewards? Lloyds Banking Group’s chief executive has followed Barclays’ and RBSs in bowing to public pressure in rejecting bonuses. Yet while they make the sacrifice, bankers at lower levels keep their windfalls.
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Posted on 23rd February 2010 in Banks, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS, bonuses | No Comments »
Supermarkets are probably the most competitive business in the UK. Why then are they being lumbered with an ombudsman, a new supplier code and all the compliance bureaucracy that goes with them?
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Posted on 4th February 2010 in Banks, Business, Inflation, capitalism | No Comments »
If we don’t want banks running private-equity operations, why do we want private equity operations running banks? In the eagerness to come up with a new banking model for the post-crash era, we mustn’t simply welcome any alternative.
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Posted on 28th January 2010 in Banks, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS | 1 Comment »
President Obama’s call to make banks shed risky trading – effectively a new Glass-Steagall Act – is not off the UK agenda, despite being dismissed by government ministers. The architect of the plan, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, is coming to the House of Commons to outline his plan.
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Posted on 25th January 2010 in Bailout, Bank Merger, Banks, Barclays, HSBC | No Comments »
Banks have done few favours for small companies since the credit crunch. Now the government – which has no love of banks either, having ruined the national accounts to rescue them – is looking for ways to cut out the traditional lenders.
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Posted on 14th January 2010 in Banks, Bonds, Business | 1 Comment »
If a 50 per cent tax on bonuses is not enough to stop bankers boosting their own pay, what does it take?
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Posted on 12th January 2010 in Bailout, Banks, Tax | No Comments »
Commercial property values are rising again and no-one should be more pleased than the owners of Britain’s banks – ie, us. Balance sheet write-offs could soon be replaced by write-backs.
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Posted on 21st December 2009 in Bailout, Banks, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group | No Comments »
Let the banks pay their inflated bonuses – but force them to back each £1bn awarded with another £1bn of new capital. It could be a better brake on bonuses than a windfall tax on the banks or higher income tax for the bankers.
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Posted on 7th December 2009 in Bailout, Banks, bonuses | No Comments »