Barclays admits rigging interest rates
Barclays has been told to pay up after it was discovered they had been influencing the Libor and the Euribor as far back as 2005, which may have led to customers being charged too much for credit card and mortgage loans. The bank’s chief executive Bob Diamond has faced calls to resign over the transgressions […]
Triple blow to eurozone hopes
Three new developments have put huge pressure on EU governments to come to a unanimous decision at the two-day debt summit on Thursday and Friday. Cyprus became the fifth eurozone country to ask for a bailout to help its banks yesterday, after announcing it has only four days to find €1.8bn to protect its second-largest […]
US economy all wound up
The plan was announced after the Fed decided it would not use further quantitative easing to counteract slow market growth, but instead make it easier for households and businesses to cut their long-term costs of borrowing. Operation Twist involves the selling of short-term bonds for long-term ones, and is bought in to try and depress […]
Division in the ranks at the G20
Italian prime minister Mario Monti suggested using the European Financial Stability Facility’s (EFSF) €440bn rescue subsidy to buy open market peripheral bonds in an attempt to counteract the rising cost of government bond yields in Spain. “The idea is to stabilise borrowing costs, especially for countries who are complying with their reform agendas, and this […]
G20 aims to fix eurozone
The group will continue discussions to focus on breaking the link between banks and sovereigns, and tackle other problems like employment growth in the region. The lack of progress being made is said to have frustrated some: “We are waiting for Europe to tell us what it’s going to do,” said World Bank chief Robert […]
Banks given cheap credit
“Uncertain,” “Paralysing,” and “Pessimistic.” Those were the words Sir Mervyn King used to describe the effects the eurozone crisis has had on the UK economy at his annual Mansion House speech on Thursday evening. The Bank of England Governor was joined by UK Chancellor George Osborne as he addressed an assembly of the city’s most […]
Spanish misery compounds eurozone
The country’s credit rating now teeters barely above junk status, amid growing fears it will sink still further after being shut out of international markets. The borrowing interest rates currently stand at the highest they’ve been since the euro’s inception, with the yield on Spain’s 10-year bonds shooting up to 6.86 percent. Last weekend, eurozone […]
Hedge assets to gain $1trn each year for next five
The predictions come as the trade evolves beyond its entrepreneurial, private roots to meet investor and regulator demands for greater transparency and more robust operations. A recent Citigroup survey predicted that hedge funds could lure $2trn in new money to investment vehicles long associated with mutual-fund companies and other institutional managers including “long-only” funds that […]
Former Goldman director will not testify in ongoing insider trading trial
In an unexpected reversal of course, Rajat Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs director accused of insider trading, will not testify in his trial according to a letter to the presiding judge. The letter is in direct contradiction to a statement made on Friday afternoon by Gary Naftalis, Gupta’s lawyer, in which he said it would […]
Uncertainty surrounds India’s GAAR implementation
The Indian government decided to defer implementing GAAR for another year after a visit from the US Treasury Secretary in April. General Anti-Avoidance Rules were established to fight tax avoidance by enforcing the country’s tax regulations. The GAAR regulations were part of the proposed Direct Tax Code 2010 to deter sophisticated means of ducking income […]
