The Government has today announced extensive measures to shore-up the UK’s banking industry and help restore lending. The Treasury is backing new guarantees for loans and mortgages and extending the £250 billion credit guarantee scheme that formed part of the original £500 billion package launched in October of last year. This will now run until [...]
Lloyds Banking Group, the entity formed out of the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS, is reported to be hostile to government proposals to convert its holding of preference shares in the new group into ordinary shares. The Government currently holds a 43% stake in Lloyds Banking Group, which from today becomes the UK’s biggest [...]
Bank of America Corporation has today reported that it made a profit of $4.01bn during the course of 2008, down from the 2007 figure of $14.98bn. For Q4 of 2008 the firm endured a loss of $1.79bn, significantly worse than the net income of $268m recorded during the corresponding period in 2007. Credit costs and [...]
The Irish government is in the process of nationalising Anglo Irish Bank, the Republic’s third-largest bank. Plans to inject €1.5 billion (£1.4 billion) into the lender, in return for a 75% stake, were rejected by ministers yesterday when it was decided that the sum would not be sufficient to recapitalise the bank. Anglo Irish is [...]
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has announced that its subsidiary, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ expects to recognise substantial losses due to writedowns on marketable domestic equity securities. The losses are to be incurred for Q4 of 2008, and are forecast to amount to 257bn yen. In addition that another subsidiary, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking [...]
JPMorgan Chase has released its full results for 2008 and for Q4 of that year. For the final quarter of last year the bank made $702m net income, down substantially from the $3bn made during the corresponding period in 2007. Earnings per share in Q4 fell from $0.86 to $0.07. Across the whole year the [...]
The European Central Bank’s (ECB) Governing Council has today reduced interest rates within the eurozone from 2.5% to 2%, a cut of 50 basis points. The decision will come into effect from 21 January, with the marginal lending facility charged at 3% and the deposit facility rate set at 1%. The Governing Council has therefore [...]
The chairman of Standard Chartered bank has been appointed Trade Minister. In his new role, Mervyn Davies will be working alongside Peter Mandelson who holds overall responsibility for the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform. The 56-year-old is replacing Digby Jones, who stepped down in December and according to a Government spokesman, will bring [...]
Business Secretary, Peter Mandelson, has unveiled the details of a scheme that will support banks that lend to small and medium-sized businesses, with £20 billion in guarantees. In return for a fee, the Government will effectively insure lenders against defaults on short-term loans to companies with turnovers of up to £500 million. However, the guarantee [...]
Deutsche Bank has released a preliminary (and unaudited) set of important figures relating to its Q4 performance. The bank has stated it believes it will see a substantial post-tax loss in the region of €4.8bn for the final quarter of last year. The firm has said that the grounds for this loss are a combination [...]
The Scottish banking sector has met another potential problem with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) facing potentially £2.3bn of losses. The shortfall comes from loans made to Lyondell Chemical, a US chemical firm that has recently filed for bankruptcy. The loans were not originally lent by RBS, but were inherited from Dutch bank ABN [...]
Following the completion of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch merger at the start of the year up to 1,900 jobs in the City are to be shed, according to the Times. The firm is looking to reduce its London-based workforce by 30%, and some staff members have already been asked to reapply for their jobs. [...]
Shareholders in Northern Rock have instigated a case in the High Court seeking compensation from the Government because of the way in which it nationalised the collapsed bank in February of last year. The action is being brought by hedge funds SRM Global and RAB Capital, two former large shareholders, and around 150,000 private investors. [...]
Ministers are reportedly working on plans to provide guarantees of up to £20 billion in loans to small businesses struggling to survive the recession. According to the BBC, details of a scheme that would provide banks with insurance against companies defaulting on debt could be announced on Wednesday. In November, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair [...]
H&T Group, the UK’s leading pawnbroker by pledge book size, has reported strong growth during the second half of 2008, adding that it expects profit for the period to exceed market expectations. The group currently has around £30 million on loan and says it has benefited from an economic climate in which people are looking [...]
