Bank shares fall following UK chancellor’s Autumn Statement
The UK government’s decision to reduce the amount of profit that lenders can offset by losses caused mild market jitters yesterday, with British bank shares suffering as a result.
Deals & Markets
Silver Lake sells its trading technology firm to Centerbridge for $1.2 billion
The New York-based private investment firm Centerbridge Partners has paid $1.2 billion for IPC, a software company that aims to speed up the trading cycle for financial market professionals.
Payday lender uses Indian Reservation as front for “criminal usury”
A clampdown on payday loan companies in the US has seen some companies adopt an elaborate ruse to escape interest-rate regulations, according to Bloomberg, with $4 billion worth of loans supplied by Native American tribes last year.
Twitter debt rated as “junk”
Shares in the social media giant Twitter have dropped by 6% after ratings agency Standard & Poor gave the company’s $1.8 billion September debt issue a speculative BB- rating.
Vietnam tackles bad debt to boost lending
The state-owned Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) is piloting a new method to revive the country’s financial system.
Challenger banks call for breakup of RBS and Lloyds
Virgin Money and the Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) are calling for the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) to divide up the “Big Five” in order to create more, smaller challenger banks to boost competition.
BoE delays rate hike following weak growth
On Wednesday, the Bank of England (BoE) will release its quarterly inflation report – and is expected to lower its UK growth and inflation forecasts, pushing back an interest rate hike until after the election.
Bitcoin will bite the dust, says leading academic
“The bitcoin industry is not stable and therefore must collapse,” says Kevin Dowd, professor of finance and economics at Durham University and partner at Cobden Partners.
Russian currency fears grow as central bank drops support for rouble
Currency controls may be on the cards for Russia after the Russian Central Bank announced that it would stop using unlimited foreign interventions to prevent against rapid devaluation.
Profits soar at Visa and MasterCard
Profits at the world’s foremost card companies, Visa and MasterCard, exceeded expectations this quarter, with MasterCard seeing shares rise to August 2011 levels and Visa reporting the biggest single day jump since June 2011.
