News

Your daily news update straight from the City PM newsroom in London

Central bankers trim stimulus

September 24, 2009

FOUR of the world’s top central banks said yesterday they would scale back injections of US dollars into their banking systems, as markets being to stabilise. The US Federal Reserve said it would begin to scale back short-term cash auctions in early 2010, while the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank, and the Bank [...]
PwC’s $150bn Lehman claim

September 24, 2009

LEHMAN Brothers’ European administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are seeking around $150bn (£93bn) from the parent company. A spokeswoman for PwC told City PM the company had already filed a claim for $50bn on behalf of European affiliates of the company and would seek another $100bn before a 22 October deadline. Lehman’s bankruptcy last year, which triggered [...]
Lloyd’s profits up 39pc amid bond rebound

September 24, 2009

LLOYD’S of London, the City’s 321-year old insurance market, yesterday unveiled bumper first-half profits after a recovery in corporate bond markets helped boost returns on its investment portfolio. Chief executive Richard Ward said the market had booked profits of £1.32bn during the first six months of the year – a 39 per cent rise on [...]
Sandler joins Pearl as chair

September 24, 2009

PEARL, the insurer founded by pubs-to-pizza entrepreneur Hugh Osmond, has confirmed Northern Rock head Ron Sandler is joining as chairman. The group has taken on Sandler ahead of its planned secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange in the fourth quarter. Sandler was put in charge of failed mortgage lender Northern Rock after it became [...]
Ex-Deutsche Bank executive claims boss knew of spying

September 24, 2009

DEUTSCHE BANK’S former head of investors, Wolfram Schmitt, claimed yesterday that workers around him were aware “from the beginning” of a spying scandal over which he was fired. The mid-level executive’s lawyer claims the legal department of the bank and a high level communications executive were aware of a plan concocted to discover more about [...]
QUEEN STREET SNAPPED UP

September 24, 2009

GREAT Portland Estates, headed by chief executive Toby Courtauld, bought 90 Queen Street for £45.8m yesterday, in a sign that the once-ailing City office market is on the up. The buy shows that the market may be turning after two years of decline. The building covers 68,400 sq ft and was built in 1996.
ECB: Banks should hold extra capital

September 24, 2009

BANKS should be required to hold higher levels of capital to avoid the need for government bailouts and banks that are seen as too big to fail should be more heavily supervised, some of Europe’s central bankers said yesterday. Ewald Nowotny, a member of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) governing council, said that if banks [...]
American unemployment easing but August home sales worse than hoped

September 24, 2009

FEWER Americans filed new claims for jobless benefits last week compared to the previous week, but sales of previously owned homes in the US unexpectedly fell in August, disappointing both analysts and the markets yesterday and indicating that the recovery will be slow. Figures from the US Labor department showed yesterday that new claims for [...]
Wharf raises 1bn to save it from brink

September 24, 2009

SONGBIRD Estates, the majority owner of Canary Wharf, yesterday announced a £1.03bn rescue fundraising – the biggest ever in UK real estate history. The group will use the majority of the cash raised to pay down its £800m senior loan with Citi, which was due to expire next year. Without the fundraising, Songbird would have [...]
Rolet plans to take LSE on the offensive

September 24, 2009

THE LONDON Stock Exchange’s new chief executive Xavier Rolet yesterday said that he would consider acquisitions as part of an aggressive push to regain market share. Rolet, who was facing analysts for the first time since taking over the role in May, said that the LSE intended to be “offensive, not defensive” in the fight [...]