News

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

Myners hails success in the fight against European hedgie rules

September 7, 2009

CITY minister Lord Myners yesterday said he had made progress in the fight against European plans to bring in strict rules that could devastate London’s hedge fund industry, after he visited Brussels to lobby EU lawmakers. Myners said he found the EU receptive to calls to rethink the proposals, which experts claim show a complete [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING

September 7, 2009

FINANCIAL TIMES ZURICH CHIEF BACKS EU SOLVENCY RULESThe head of Zurich Financial Services, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies, has broken ranks to criticise industry rivals for lobbying against European plans to increase insurers’ financial strength. James Schiro, Zurich chief executive, said the fierce industry “pushback” against proposed new solvency rules for insurers was [...]
LSEdefends high-freq traders

September 7, 2009

The boss of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has spoken out for high-frequency traders, the market speculators who have come under fire in the US for exacerbating market volatility in the credit crunch. Xavier Rolet has said he values the traders as they provide much-needed liquidity to the market. “They are a source of liquidity [...]
BGbosses get 38m in shares

September 7, 2009

Top executives at BG group, the oil and gas giant that used to be part of British Gas, have been handed £38m in free shares. The payouts come amid a giant row over City bonuses. Chief executive Frank Chapman has been awarded a share package worth as much as £12m.
Burberry set to join FTSE100

September 7, 2009

High-end fashion retailer Burberry is set to ascend to the benchmark FTSE 100 index of blue chip companies. The group, which listed on markets four years ago, is to join the top stock list after Thomson Reuters decided to remove its listing on the London stock market.
T-Mobile and Orange set to merge in UK

September 7, 2009

DEUTSCHE Telekom and France Telecom were last night finalising a deal which will see the firms merge their UK operations, toppling O2 from its position as market leader. After months of intense speculation about the future of its UK subsidiary, T-Mobile UK, Deutsche Telekom is likely to announce the merger with France Telecom’s Orange before [...]
GOLDMAN BANKER IN DIVORCE SKIRMISH

September 7, 2009

DIVORCES are always grim affairs, but when they involve senior bankers, at least there’s a bit of colour involved. A Goldman Sachs managing director, Frenchman Yann Samuelides, has been in court battling with Denis Morley, a 67-year-old pensioner, over his wife’s divorce petition. Morley told Clerkenwell and Shoreditch county court that Samuelides promised a £500,000 [...]
Regulators agree tough new rules on banks’ capital levels

September 7, 2009

A GLOBAL committee of top regulators has agreed on a raft of strict rules that will dictate how much banks have to hoard in capital reserves and how much they can borrow. The Basel Committee has agreed tough new regulations to prevent banks from building up giant levels of debt in a bid to prevent [...]
City attacks Osborne over bonuses veto

September 7, 2009

HIGH-PROFILE City figures including British Bankers’ Association chief executive Angela Knight yesterday hit out at shadow chancellor George Osborne’s suggestion that regulators should strip bankers of their bonuses this year. The man who most commentators expect to be the next chancellor of the exchequer said yesterday that regulators should axe bonuses in the banking sector [...]
TfL secures 1bn loan from EIB to help fund Crossrail

September 7, 2009

TRANSPORT for London (TfL) has secured a £1bn loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to finance 40 per cent of its contribution to the Crossrail project, it will say today. “For the EIB to agree to the loan facility provides international recognition of Crossrail’s importance and is a further milestone in the delivery of [...]