The UK’s Payments Council Board has named 31st October 2018 as the date on which payment by cheque will end. Use of the 350-year-old system has been declining for years, falling by 40% since 2004. However, the needs of elderly and vulnerable people are of special concern and the Payments Councils says it will “seek [...]
Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking has announced the appointment of Donato González as chief country officer for both Spain and Portugal. González replaces the incumbent chief country officer, Gilbert Pla, who is retiring at the end of the year. He first joined the firm 15 years ago, and 13 years ago became the head [...]
Jefferies has announced the appointment of Peter Timpson as senior VP of Emerging Markets Trading. He joins the firm from Dresdner Kleinwort, where he spent a decade and worked latterly as head of Emerging Markets External Debt Trading. He is to be based in London and will focus upon Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle [...]
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has been named the Best Corporate Citizen 2009 at China’s Corporate Citizenship Forum 2009 & 6th China’s Best Corporate Citizenship Award Ceremony. It is the second consecutive year that the Chinese banking giant has won the award. A panel of judges selected 500 of China’s best enterprises, [...]
German bank BayernLB has announced that Dr. Michael Kemmer, chairman of the Board of Management, has had a request to the Board of Administration to leave the bank accepted. Dr. Kemmer first took up the role on 1 March 2008, and has said that he had thought for a long time about leaving the bank. [...]
Consumers’ emotions are running high over the order of payments adopted by most credit card providers. According to research from Nationwide, 56% of credit card customers questioned would be either angry, shocked or surprised if they found that their credit card provider paid off their cheapest debt first. However, the majority of providers do exactly [...]
Citigroup is preparing to exit the US Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp) in a move that involves a $17 billion issue of new shares. The bank, which reported a modest net profit of £101 million in the third quarter of 2009, has received $45 billion in US government support. However, it will pay back only [...]
Morgan Stanley has announced the appointment of Gregory J. Fleming as the new president of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, starting in February next year. Earlier in his career he worked for investment bank Merrill Lynch as chief operating officer and president, and is presently a senior research scholar and lecturer in law at Yale Law [...]
Lloyds Banking Group has reported “strong support” for its £13.5 billion right issue, which was completed last week. The group has received valid acceptances for just over 95% of the new stock, which will commence trading, fully paid, today on the London Stock Exchange. Commenting on the result, group chief executive, Eric Daniels, said: “Our [...]
Furness and Harpenden building societies have joined licuro.com, the online interest rate auction house. The number of societies participating in the facility, which was launched in July, has now risen to seven. Licuro.com allows savers to auction their savings directly to banks and building societies, choosing how much they want to deposit and for how [...]
In this article, Peter Jones, global head of Valuation Scenario Services at Standard & Poor’s Fixed Income Risk Management Services (FIRMS) division, considers the valuation challenges facing the structured finance markets and shares the results of an ongoing survey into participants’ valuation input assumptions and methodologies Structured finance markets have predominantly been characterised by infrequent [...]
Global investment bank Nomura has been approved by ICE Clear Europe to become a CDS clearing member with immediate effect. Since July ICE Europe has cleared some $1.14 trillion of notional value, and Nomura plans to clear 95% of eligible CDS via central clearing counterparties. Nomura becomes the 13th member of ICE Clear Europe, and [...]
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is primed to launch an official investigation into the UK operations of Kaupthing, Glitnir and Landsbanki. According to reports, loans made by the collapsed Icelandic banks to certain high-profile individuals have attracted the interest of the SFO and in recent months officers have been working alongside investigators appointed by the [...]
Moneyfacts is urging savers to stay alert because the best rates on the market are disappearing fast. According to the financial information website, since the beginning of November 62% of savings product changes have been withdrawals and where replacements have been launched, returns are lower. Fixed-rate offerings have been worst hit with last month’s top [...]
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has recently won a pair of prestigious awards. The financial institution was awarded the Golden Vessel prize at the China Securities Market Annual Conference 2009. In addition, it has been awarded the Platinum Award for All-Round Excellence by HK magazine The Asset. The Platinum Award, the highest [...]
As bankers’ bonuses continue to enrage governments and taxpayers, Goldman Sach has announced that its 30 highest-paid earners will in future receive their bonuses in shares that cannot be sold for five years. The investment bank’s participation in the US Troubled Asset Relief Programme left it with government debt of $10 billion which was repaid [...]
The Pensions Regulator has called for greater scrutiny of transfer incentive exercises, and is warning trustees of the risks these pose to members of company pension schemes. The credit crisis and recession has prompted many employers to review their pension provisions in efforts to reduce liabilities, particularly for Defined Benefit (DB) schemes. However, the watchdog’s [...]
Free market thinktank the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has attacked Chancellor Darling’s Pre-Budget Report (PBR) for ducking the tough decisions necessary to reduce the nation’s deficit. Director General of the IEA Mark Littlewood described the tax on bankers’ bonuses as populist rather than practical, and has stated that both spending and tax rates are [...]
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England has today announced it has elected to keep the British interest rate at the all-time low of 0.5%. The retention of rates at their record level was widely expected. The MPC is also continuing with the Bank’s quantitative easing asset purchase programme, worth £200bn, effectively [...]
