By Ian Fraser The Fund Business September 2008 PRODUCT FOCUS: ACTIVE CURRENCY MANAGEMENT Strathclyde and Lothian pension funds are just some of the investors that are warming to the idea of allocating money to active currency products. But managers still have much to prove before they can reduce investors scepticism, says Ian Fraser SPECIALIST currency [...]
September 29th, 2008 Henry “Hank” Paulson pitched it as a panacea for America’s financial woes. But, despite all the sabre-rattling and doom-mongering from US president George Bush, the people of America have not allowed themselves to be hoodwinked. Why should they take ownership of the very worst loans and other assets assembled by the former [...]
September 29th, 2008 Lloyds TSB’s chairman Sir Victor Blank has persuaded himself he’s getting the bargain of the century with his HBOS acquisition. However, the catalogue of errors that brought HBOS to its knees means the Edinburgh-based lender is more likely to be a disastrous deal for Blank. Ian Fraser reports. SIR VICTOR Blank and [...]
September 29th, 2008 THERE’S a good article in the current issue of The Economist on the “venerable” investment bank Goldman Sachs. The article includes a paragraph on how Goldman, which last week received a lifeline from the “Sage of Omaha”, Warren Buffett, emerged from the sub-prime crisis in marginally better shape than other investment banks. [...]
29th September 2008 In case you missed it when it was first aired last year, this sketch by John Bird and John Fortune is well worth a look.
By Ian Fraser CA Magazine September 29th, 2008 The falling pound should be tempting UK companies to test the export markets. The softening of sterling in the past 12 months has been a relief to exporters whose costs are in the UK currency. Its slump gives them a competitive edge against overseas players whose costs [...]
By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald September 28th, 2008 IT WAS presented as a fait accompli. On Thursday September 18, at 7am, both Sir Victor Blank and his American sidekick, Eric Daniels, looked like the cats that had got the cream. The chairman and chief executive of Lloyds TSB, who were later seen alongside a more [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: September 28th, 2008 Scottish bank benefits if plan gets green light THE ROYAL Bank of Scotland is to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the planned $700 billion bail-out that comes courtesy of the American tax-payer if the US Congress gives the financial rescue package the go-ahead [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: September 28th, 2008 NONE OF the 15 board directors of Halifax Bank of Scotland should be permitted to join the board of the merged Lloyds Halifax banking and financial services group. The stark claim comes from Professor Stewart Hamilton, one of Scotland’s leading business academics. The professor of [...]
by Ian Fraser Sunday Herald September 28th, 2008 INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK Dell founder Michael Dell THEY MAY wear big hats in Texas. But Michael Dell, founder, chairman and chief executive of the eponymous computer manufacturer believes they will also increasingly have “big ears”. An affable 43-year-old Texan, Dell is 18 months into a second [...]