Goldman Sachs has reported a third-quarter net loss of $393 million. Net revenues at its investment banking business plummeted to $781 million, down 33% compared with a year earlier and 46% lower than in the second quarter of 2011. Investing and lending activities recorded negative net revenues of $2.48 billion in the third quarter, the [...]
The pool of new City jobs created in the third quarter of 2011 has shrunk by 17% compared with a year earlier. According to financial services recruitment firm, Astbury Marsden, only 12,750 new jobs appeared in the three months to the end of September, although the past few weeks have seen something of an improvement. [...]
UBS has accepted the resignations of Francois Gouws and Yassine Bouhara, co-heads of its investment bank’s global equities division. The departures follow the banks recent rogue trader incident, the two having been responsible for the effective management of the bank’s equities business. Messrs Gouws and Bouhara follow the example set by ex-UBS chief executive officer, [...]
Italy has today taken centre stage in the European debt crisis, Moody’s having downgraded its government’s bond ratings to A2 with a negative outlook, from Aa2. The action follows Standard & Poor’s downgrade of Italy’s sovereign debt rating to A from A+ last month, leaving Italian banks exposed to more costly funding. Moody’s says its [...]
Contrary to expectations, business volumes in securities trading recovered well in the three months to September, according to the latest CBI/PwC UK financial services survey. With activity most likely buoyed by volatility, traders saw some increase in income in the last quarter but profitability declined, as total operating costs rose. A further fall in profitability [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has launched RBS Maze, a multi-asset capital protected five-year note linked to equities, bonds, precious metals and commodities. The note has been designed to solve the asset allocation problem resulting from today’s troubled markets, on the basis that diversifying into multiple asset classes will provide return in bull, bear and [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is launching a spot foreign exchange trading algorithm, which it says should help its clients automatically manage the gamma sensitivity associated with foreign exchange options portfolios. RBS Agile understands gamma and can be used in a variety of ways. At its simplest, it monitors the gamma of an option’s position [...]
Bank of America (BoA) has launched Instinct, its enhanced algorithmic trading suite. Described as “best-of-breed”, the new tool promises superior trading outcomes while being easy to use. It features five urgency levels to achieve a broad set of trading objectives and makes use of a quantitative impact model that fine-tunes parameters on an order-specific basis. [...]
UBS chief executive officer, Oswald J Grübel, has resigned. The news comes days after losses at Switzerland’s biggest bank by alleged rogue trader, Kweku Adoboli, were estimated at $2.3 billion. Sergio P Ermotti has been named interim group chief executive officer, with immediate effect. UBS’s chairman, Kaspar Villiger, has explained that Mr Grübel feels it [...]
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged a former Goldman Sachs employee and his father with insider trading on confidential information about the bank’s trading strategies involving exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The SEC alleges that Spencer D Mindlin obtained details about Goldman’s plans to purchase and sell large amounts of securities, tipping his father, [...]
Private investment bank, Rothschild, has appointed Sir John Rose as deputy chairman. Sir John will join the board of Rothschilds Continuation Holdings AG, the major international operating company within the group, at the beginning of October. Working closely with executive chairman, David de Rothschild, he will be involved in shaping strategic direction, developing the bank’s [...]
Credit Suisse has agreed a €150 million settlement with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Düsseldorf, Germany, the parties having reached an agreement over client tax evasion issues. The entire proceedings, which involve allegations that the bank’s staff helped customers hide their wealth, will be resolved by the one-off payment, to be booked this quarter, and [...]
UBS has increased its estimated loss in connection with the activities of alleged rogue trader, Kweku Adoboli, to $2.3 billion (up from $2 billion). Last week, Switzerland’s biggest bank announced that it had discovered unauthorised trading at its global synthetic equity business in London. Mr Adoboli has been charged with fraud by abuse of position, [...]
Close Brothers is selling its 49.9% interest in Mako Global Derivatives, a market maker in exchange traded derivatives. The disposal is being made to Mako management and the bank says the sale is consistent with its focus on developing its core businesses, where it has full control within banking, securities and asset management. The $40 [...]
The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has published new guidance on the regulation and supervision of commodity derivatives markets. The move follows the G20’s November 2010 request for further work on regulation and supervision of physical commodity derivatives markets, with the new principles adding to the existing guidance in the 1997 Tokyo Communiqué. Aimed [...]
City of London Police has issued a statement in connection with allegations of fraud from UBS which earlier today said it had discovered losses due to unauthorised trading by an employee at its investment bank. Detectives from the force have arrested a 31-year-old man at a Central London business premises on suspicion of fraud by [...]
UBS says it has discovered losses due to unauthorised trading by an employee at its investment bank. The Swiss group is still investigating the matter but currently estimates losses on the trades at $2 billion. The bank could therefore report a loss for the third quarter of 2011 but has reassured that client positions are [...]
In its final report, the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) recommends the separation of retail banking and wholesale/investment banking on the basis that structural separation should make it easier and less costly to resolve banks that get into trouble. The report argues that one of the key benefits of separation is that creditors would be [...]
