By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: February 26th, 2012 Results released last Friday showed a sea of red ink engulfing the state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group. Trumpeted at the time of its September 2008 formation as the “bank for Britain”, the 41%-taxpayer owned business unveiled annual losses of £3.5 billion for 2011, nearly double those […]
February 23rd, 2012 Stephen Hester was in combative form in his interview with Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow earlier this evening. He sought to defend the bank’s decision to pay a total of £985m in staff bonuses during 2011, despite mounting losses and scepticism it can be returned to the private sector within the original […]
February 15th, 2012 Further to my recent story about Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank being essentially worthless following their reckless commercial property lending binge in 2005-07 and subsequent blog post, an analyst from UBS has sort of confirmed the story. UBS banking analyst Jonathan Mott is urging Cameron Clyne, chief executive of Melbourne-based NAB to sell […]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: February 15th, 2012 The Financial Services Authority‘s chairman Lord Turner made a fairly staunch defense of FSA chief executive Hector Sants at a hearing of the Treasury Select Committee on January 30. But some of the MPs on the committee seemed unconvinced that Sants, who earned £807,000 as FSA chief executive in 2010, is the […]
February 14th, 2012 The allegations of “a black hole”, “reckless commercial property lending in 2005-07”, “dodgy accounting” etc at National Australia Bank’s UK subsidiaries Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank (which I’ve now heard from at least four reliable and independent senior banking sources) just won’t seem to go away. I touched on this in an […]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: February 14th, 2012 At a hearing of the Treasury Select Committee last month Hector Sants (full video above), chief executive of UK regulator the Financial Services Authority, seemed determined to persuade the MPs that he had done something – anything – to prevent the failure of Royal Bank of Scotland. […]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: February 12th, 2012 From the perspective of its head office in Melbourne’s Bourke Street, National Australia Bank’s UK subsidiaries Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank are looking increasingly like dead weights at the moment. The Australian economy, where the Victoria-based bank has the bulk of its operations, is booming and […]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: February 8th, 2012 A commissioner at a leading US financial regulator has launched a stinging attack on his own organization, accusing it of having its priorities all wrong. Scott O’Malia accused the Washington-based Commodities Futures Trading Commission, an agency of the US Federal government, of becoming so bogged down in […]
February 6th, 2012 People approaching Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest cash machines are increasingly likely to be confronted by a range of ethical choices before they’re able to withdraw their cash. Given the Edinburgh-based bank’s failure to properly reform itself in the wake of its October 2008 taxpayer-funded bailout, and its pariah-like status over […]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: February 2nd, 2012 Financial commentators are, suddenly, in demand and it’s largely down to the continuing failure of banks to properly reform themselves in the wake of the global financial crisis and the current public rage about bankers who continue to award themselves massive pay packages even though their […]