By Ian Fraser Published: Financial Times Date: January 31st, 2011 The investment trust sector, eclipsed by the unit trust sector in the UK’s retail market, is due to receive a shot in the arm in two years when the UK government’s retail distribution review takes effect. However Carol Ferguson (pictured above), outgoing chairman of the [...]
January 29th, 2011 The many inquiries into the financial crisis have turned over plenty of stones but have failed to find any smoking guns. But the House of Lords economic affairs committee’s inquiry “Auditors: market concentration and their role” is making strides in identifying and maybe rooting out the accounting shenanigans that lay at the [...]
January 24th, 2011 As I’ve said before, William K Black, professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri, and the senior regulator during the US Savings and Loan crisis is, one of the sharpest commentators on the causes of the global financial crisis. In this interview with The Real News Network, Black says [...]
January 18th, 2011 The interrogation of Barclays’ newly-installed chief executive Bob Diamond by the Treasury committee of the House of Commons last Tuesday was an unsatisfactory affair. But it was followed by a much more productive parliamentary session in the UK — a meeting of the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee on the afternoon [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Financial Times Date: January 17th, 2011 Standard Life Investments runs one of the biggest and best performing diversified growth funds on the market. The Edinburgh-based group’s £8.6bn ($13.5bn) Global Absolute Return Strategies fund has been pulling in billions from pension funds and charities in the UK, Scandinavia and the US. It [...]
January 16th, 2011 I have always seen BGC Partners’ David Buik, as the “Sir Bufton Tufton” of the City: old-fashioned, bigoted and 100% out-of-touch with modern realities. These impressions were reinforced when I read Buik’s contribution to the bonuses debate, published by the Independent on Monday. Buik opened by shedding a few crocodile tears for [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: January 16th, 2011 Paul Moore, former head group regulatory risk at HBOS-turned-whistleblower, has cast doubt on the rigour of the Financial Services Authority’s ongoing investigation into the collapse of the Edinburgh-based bank, on the grounds that informed witnesses such as himself have not been approached for evidence. He [...]
January 15th, 2011 I was researching an article about HBOS yesterday afternoon. The article, due to be published in the new-look Sunday Herald tomorrow, focuses on an interview with whistleblower Paul Moore about the inadequacy of the FSA’s “investigation(s)” into the Edinburgh-based bank. Against my better nature, I decided to call the FSA and see [...]
January 14th, 2011 We already know that financial regulation is due for a radical shake-up in the UK, but Andrew Bailey, executive director and chief cashier at the Bank of England, has given the clearest signal yet that the structure of the banking sector will also be overhauled. In a speech on the outlook for [...]
January 12th, 2011 This is remarkable. Okay the parkour-cycling phenomenon Danny MacAskill used a mobile home to carry him and his bike part of the way from Edinburgh to his home village of Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye, but who cares? This is what Danny had to say about it: “I still can’t believe [...]