By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald March 26th, 2006 PENALTY CHARGES: WARNING TO WATCHDOG BANKS are threatening to end free personal banking if a consumer watchdog too severely curtails what they make from penalising customers who exceed their borrowing limits. Midland Bank, now part of HSBC, first introduced free banking in 1974 with other banks following [...]
By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald March 26th, 2006 CHANCELLOR’S SPEECH: WHAT IT MEANS FOR INDUSTRY: There were no surprises in a steady-as-she-goes Budget but that doesn’t really help business, discovers Ian Fraser THE biggest laugh Chancellor Gordon Brown elicited from a packed House of Commons last Wednesday came after he said he had decided against [...]
By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald March 19th, 2006 AS Scotland’s most prolific female non-executive director, Lesley Knox knows the tensions that can arise in a boardroom once a company loses faith in the chief executive. Sitting in the Edinburgh offices of British Linen Advisers, the boutique corporate finance house she co-founded in 1999, Knox describes [...]
By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald March 19th, 2006 PERSONAL insolvencies are set to surge by up to 50 per cent in Scotland as even more consumers struggle to repay their debts due to a slowing housing market, rising energy bills and a hike in council tax payments. Broker Charles Stanley – which on Friday handled [...]
By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald March 19th, 2006 BUDGET: CHANCELLOR’S TIGHT-ROPE : Wednesday’s Budget should see the Prime Minister-in-waiting appease the Labour left and clamp down on “taper relief” GORDON Brown is expected to infuriate big business and private equity firms with his tenth budget as chancellor this Wednesday. He is widely expected to clamp [...]
By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald March 12th, 2006 CULTURE: BOOKSHOP EDINBURGH’s position as Unesco City of Literature has been undermined because leading independent bookseller Ottakar’s is being forced to close down its flagship store in the capital as developers seek to transform the site into a magnet for high-fashion retailers. An Ottakar’s spokesman confirmed the [...]
By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald March 5th, 2006 BOSS OF THE WEEK: HAMISH BUCHAN HAMISH Buchan might be seen as having taken on a bit of a poisoned chalice when he replaced Alex Hammond-Chambers as chairman of the Association of Investment Trust Companies (AITC) in December. After all, the split-capital investment trust debacle – which [...]