The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), which represents the UK’s workplace pension providers, is encouraging employers to help staff understand the benefits of their pension schemes. In a recent survey, the NAPF found that 29% of all employees with access to a workplace pension (members and non-members of schemes) were unaware of pension tax [...]
The United Bank for Africa (UBA) has formally acquired Liberty Bank after being granted approval from the NDIC (Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation). UBA won the bidding for Liberty under the Purchase and Assumption (P&A) scheme, making it the sixth failed bank that has been taken over by the UBA recently. The P&A exists in order [...]
Pitney Bowes MapInfo, which provides location intelligence data solutions to the retail sector, has published a paper aimed at High Street banks and entitled The Problem with Historical Performance. The company is promoting the importance of setting location-related branch goals and having researched 750 branch offices across five regional banks in the US, MapInfo is [...]
In a combined effort to promote trade in Asia, the World Bank Group and Kazakhstan have announced that they are to finance a $2.5bn road project. The project will aim to bolster the transport infrastructure between Asia, Russia and Europe and thereby improve trading links. Furthermore, it is forecast to enhance Kazkhstan’s economic competitiveness, in [...]
Deutsche Bank has announced a number of senior appointments designed to bolster its mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance coverage in America’s Midwest region. On 26 August of this year, Randy Kurtz will join the Global Banking division, appointed as managing director and head of corporate finance coverage for the Midwest. He joins the firm [...]
Nationwide has acknowledged the contribution made in reorganising its customer files by its supplier, EDM Group. The document manager solution provider has received two accolades in the buildings society’s annual Business Services Supplier awards in connection with the archive and retrieval system that it completed for Nationwide earlier this year. EDM won first place for [...]
The Annual General Meeting of Spanish bank Banco Santander, chaired by Emilio Botín, saw the firm’s 2007 results given approval by the assembled shareholders. Botín stated that the group was aiming for total profit of €10bn during the next year. The chairman was confident about the future of the firm, referring to the fact that [...]
Institutional investors at Bradford & Bingley (B&B) are urging the lender to enter negotiations with closed life consolidator, Resolution Life Group. During its recent troubled rights issue, B&B saw its share price fall below the issue price and turned to private equity firm, Texas Pacific Group (TGP), for an injection of cash. This allowed the [...]
Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have embarked on further rounds of job cuts. Both banks are reducing headcounts globally and jobs in the City are under threat with staff cuts of up to 10% expected in some areas of the business. In the case of Goldman Sachs, the latest job losses will be in addition to [...]
Crédit Agricole Asset Management (CAAM) has announced a brace of senior appointments, with Franck du Plessix made leader of structured product sales and Alexandre Schneebeli appointed as deputy head of structured product sales. CAAM Group is the leading player in the structured products market of Italy, Japan and France, with €30bn in assets. Du Plessix [...]
Deutsche Bank has announced that Malcolm D. Knight is to serve as the firm’s new vice chairman. Knight, who assumes his new position on 6 October, will report directly to Josef Ackermann, who chairs both the group executive committee and the management board. His non-executive role will see him responsible for the supervision of the [...]
Lloyds TSB is reported to be preparing a bid for German bank, Dresdner, which forms part of the Allianz group and operates its investment banking business via Dresdner Kleinwort. The credit crisis has left Lloyds TSB relatively unscathed and the bank could now benefit from the current decline in banking valuations in Europe and the [...]
Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second largest bank, is reducing staff numbers in its UK investment banking division by 75. The bank, which has its UK operations headquartered in London’s Canary Wharf, is blaming market conditions for its latest round of job cuts, having already reduced the headcount in its investment banking unit by around 1,000 this [...]
Swiss investment bank, UBS, is receiving renewed interest from Olivant, its activist investor headed by former chief executive of the bank, Luqman Arnold. This week Olivant raised its stake in the group to 2.5% (up from 1.1% earlier this year) and has continued its calls for a review of the bank’s strategy. UBS has suffered [...]
The board of executive directors of the World Bank yesterday gave their approval to $80m of credit for Senegal. The money is earmarked to support the nation’s energy sector in a bid to enable ongoing and sustainable development of electrical infrastructure and petroleum supply. Senegal’s national electric company, SENELEC, will be supported by the grant, [...]
Yesterday the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Botswana chose to increase the Bank Rate by 50 basis points. The rate now stands at 15.5%. Inflationary pressures has caused the bank’s 3-6% inflation target to be missed, with a rising trend evident since late last year. The Bank of Botswana forecasts inflation will continue [...]
