Nevermind whether it would have been better for the government to sell Northern Rock next year, should it have sold in 2010? As the shares of quoted banks have halved this year, the answer – with the full benefit of hindsight – looks like yes.
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As soon as Antonio Horta-Osorio went sick from Lloyds Banking Group plc (LON:LLOY) this blog suggested he might never return to the chief executive’s chair. Now investors too are realising that, but the revelation of a £3.9bn loss shows how desperately the bank needs a boss.
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Halifax’s sin was to indicate that borrowers would not pay more than 2 per cent above base rate.
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Vince Cable certainly thinks outside the box. After the mansion tax and graduate tax, the business secretary is now mooting allowing banks to pay bonuses only if they lend. But what can look like creative thinking from an Opposition politician can be plain daft from a government minister.
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Taxing the banks is popular but every pound removed from their balance sheets weakens their capital ratios. That either means weaker banks – and surely we don’t want to go there again – or lower lending.
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Gordon Brown’s days as UK prime minister may be numbered but he will leave a legacy for the inheritor of 10 Downing Street. The bank shares he bought amid against much opposition will go some way to squaring the country’s finances in future years.
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Are these overgeared pyramids really the people to be buying Britain’s banks?
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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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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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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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