The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has announced that Bonas Group pension scheme has been afforded full membership of the fund, bringing the total number of schemes in the PPF to 67. The addition of Bonas Group means that a further 402 individuals will receive compensation, either now or in the future. The PPF was set [...]
Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) has launched a new website aimed at mortgage intermediaries and Independent Financial Advisers. The move provides a dedicated resource for intermediaries to re-sell IBB’s Sharia’a compliant Home Purchase Plans, which are available to Muslim and non-Muslim customers as an alternative to a conventional mortgage. Registered users can submit leads and [...]
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Botswana has reduced the country’s Bank Rate by 50 basis points to 15%. The move comes despite inflation remaining above the 3-6% target band, with the MPC forecasting greater stability in prices during the forthcoming year which will see inflation ease back towards the target zone. [...]
The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates has given Deutsche Bank the green light to conduct wholesale banking operations via an on-shore branch. The branch will permit the German bank to take on institutional deposits and provide corporate entities, government and semi-government institutions with loans and advances. Presently Deutsche Bank operates in the UAE [...]
US bank, Goldman Sachs, has posted a loss of $2.12 billion for the three months to the end of November, the first loss since its flotation in 1999. The result compares with a profit of $3.22 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007. The former investment bank, which converted to a holding company in September [...]
The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has warned that additional measures may be needed to support lending to households and companies. In his latest letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer explaining why in November inflation remained above the Government’s 2% target, Mr King described the unwillingness of banks to lend to individuals [...]
Victor Caruso has been hired by Piper Jaffray to serve in the firm’s New York office as an MD in the financial restructuring team. He brings with him over a quarter of a century of experience in the sector, during which time he has offered financial restructuring advice to parties in Asia, North America and [...]
Standard Chartered Bank has increased its stake in Standard Chartered-STCI Capital Markets Limited by 25.9%, bringing its holding to 74.9%. The firm presently offers its services as Standard Chartered Wealth Managers. Initially, in January of this year, Standard Chartered acquired 49% of Securities Trading Corporation of India Limited (STCI) after gaining the green light from [...]
The Treasury has announced changes to the Credit Guarantee Scheme, which aims to free up access to the wholesale money markets for the UK’s leading banks. The scheme provides guarantees that allow banks to trade the bonds and securities they use to raise funding for mortgages and other lending. The cost of the guarantees is [...]
The Bank of England has revealed that CPI inflation for the year up to November has fallen from 4.5% to 4.1%. The fall was expected to be marginally larger, with many forecasters predicting it would slip to 3.9%. However, the official inflation rate remains more than twice the government’s target of 2%, and the Governor [...]
The head of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Richard Alderman, has confirmed that investigations into what could be major financial frauds connected to the credit crisis are already underway in the UK. Interviewed on Channel 4 news last night, Mr Alderman appealed for information from employees and shareholders of financial institutions who suspect that fraud [...]
A survey carried out by NMG Research for the Bank of England has revealed the extent to which UK households have had to tighten their belts in the face of higher food prices, soaring utility bills and a lack of credit. The study, which collected data in late September and early October, involved around 2,500 [...]
UK banks are among the world’s financial institutions calculating potentially huge losses because of an alleged $50 billion fraud. Hailed as possibly the world’s biggest financial fraudster, businessman and former Nasdaq chairman, Bernard Madoff, has been accused of running a “pyramid” operation through his Wall Street hedge fund. According to reports, the business has been [...]
The merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS, which received its final approval last week, will see the departure of HBOS’s head of corporate banking, Peter Cummings. Mr Cummings is not the only HBOS director to lose his job; in October Lloyds TSB announced details of the new board with only one HBOS executive included in [...]
Spain’s Grupo Santander has announced 1,900 job losses across its UK subsidiaries: Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley. The cull, which will take place during 2009, represents 8% of the group’s UK workforce and could involve compulsory redundancies. It aims to achieve cost savings of £180 million by the end of 2011, largely [...]
HBOS shareholders have voted in favour of a merger with Lloyds TSB. The all-share deal, which was brokered by the Government in September, has already been agreed by Lloyds TSB shareholders, 95.98% of whom voted in favour of the takeover. In the case of HBOS, investors are also enthusiastic, with a significant majority casting their [...]
Following on from the recent agreement between the central banks of Japan, China and Korea to hold annual tripartite meetings, the People’s Bank of China and the Bank of Korea have announced they are establishing a bilateral currency swap arrangement. The arrangement has been agreed upon to enhance bilateral trade between the two nations, and [...]
Legg Mason has reduced its exposure to SIVs (Structured Investment Vehicles) by $1.7bn (43%) with the sale of its holdings in Axon Financial. Of the $1.7bn, $1.36bn was held in the Company’s funds, and following the transaction there was a net cash outflow to the Company of $1bn. Neither the funds nor the shareholders were [...]
