By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: September 11th, 2011 NBNK REFUTES CLAIM AS SPECULATION OVER BANKING DEAL GROWS BY IAN FRASER The possible sale of Clydesdale Bank to an untested London-based shell company, NBNK Investments, risks triggering a rash of home repossessions and corporate bankruptcies across Scotland, according to a leading European banking expert. [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: September 8th, 2011 Few countries have been as well-cushioned from the global economic crisis as Norway. The country’s economy is on track to grow by 3% this year and 3.75% next year, according to central bank forecasts. Alongside Switzerland, Norway has the lowest level of unemployment in Europe, at [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: September 3rd, 2011 As leader of the opposition, David Cameron gave the impression he intended to be tough on the banks. In an interview with Sky News in January 2009, he called for criminal actions against bankers and earlier said we needed “a day of reckoning” for those [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: August 12th, 2011 The temporary short selling bans imposed by Belgium, France, Italy and Spain in the hope of rooting out perceived market abuse and trying to restore a semblance of calm to volatile financial markets have gone down like a lead balloon in the markets. Investors, industry bodies and academics [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: August 11th, 2011 When Standard & Poor’s took the momentous decision to strip the US of its ‘AAA’ credit rating on August 5, it didn’t have quite the apocalyptic consequences some had feared. But it has still shown that, despite being widely discredited over their handling of CDOs in [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: July 26th, 2011 The package of measures thrashed out by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, German chancellor Angela Merkel and other European policymakers at their emergency summit on July 21 was immediately hailed for its boldness. After months of prevarication the continent’s leaders seemed to have pulled out all the [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: July 17th, 2011 There aren’t many signs of national bankruptcy in Siena. There is the odd boarded-up shop and the occasional “everything under 99c” store but the cafes are full and la dolce vita goes on. So it came as a shock to find that Italy is being lined [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: July 11th, 2011 Accountancy has changed beyond recognition since the 1970s. At that time the accountancy professor Roy Sidebotham wrote: “There seems to be no limit to the optimism of businessmen… which the growing complexity of the market opens up. The first line of defence of investors and creditors is the [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: June 17th, 2011 The announcement from Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne (pictured above), that British banks are going to be forced to “ring fence” their retail and commercial banking (“utility”) activities from their investment banking (“casino”) activities has received wildy different receptions on either side of the Atlantic. [...]
By Kenny Kemp Published: Sunday Herald Date: May 29th, 2011 A Church of Scotland leader has branded the new Heart of Midlothian strip sponsor, Wonga.com, as “immoral”. The London-based finance firm, founded by South African-born entrepreneur Errol Damelin in 2006, has already been labelled as “ethically bankrupt” and usurious by the Harvard Business Review. The firm [...]