Britain leaving EU would affect credit rating, says Moody’s

Agency says Brexit would close UK off from common market, trade opportunities and protections, and put pressure on the pound. A vote to leave the EU could cut the UK’s credit rating, according to the ratings agency Moody’s, which has waded into the debate with a warning about rushing the referendum. The agency, which rates…

HSBC to reveal plans over UK headquarters in face of bank levy

CEO Stuart Gulliver expected to address strategy just a day before George Osborne’s annual Mansion House speech to audience of top bankers. HSBC, the biggest payer of the UK banking levy, will set out on Tuesday exactly how it plans to decide whether to keep its headquarters in Britain in remarks that will be closely…

German and French ministers call for radical integration of eurozone

Social democrat Sigmar Gabriel and French economics minister Emmanuel Macron call for embryo euro area budget and fiscal powers German and French politicians are calling for a quantum leap in how the EU’s single currency is run, proposing an embryo eurozone treasury equipped with a eurozone finance chief, single budget, tax-raising powers, pooled debt liabilities,…

UK financial system needs urgent overhaul, says thinktank

New Economics Foundation calls for banking reforms and warns that strength of Britain’s financial system lags behind its G7 peers. The UK’s financial system remains at risk of upheaval despite the regulatory changes undertaken since the 2008 banking crisis, according to a thinktank. A report published by the New Economics Foundation on Tuesday places the…

Brussels warns UK over budget failings as Germans handed a reprieve

Britain cautioned over breaching EU deficit limits, while eurozone’s biggest creditor will avoid punishment for running persistent surpluses. Britain will remain under the oversight of European Union budgetary authorities after failing to take enough “effective action” to reduce the hole in its public finances. At 5.2pc of national output in 2014, the UK’s budget deficit…

Banks’ profits recover, but they are paying less in corporation tax

Research shows corporation tax receipts from banks are lower than before crisis despite global tax payments staying constant. Britain’s banks are paying far less in corporation tax to the Exchequer than before the crisis, despite their profits improving and global tax payments staying constant. Research from Cambridge Judge Business School has shown that for every…

Nasdaq record reflects markets stuck in time warp

  This week has been like living in a time warp. On Thursday, the Nasdaq Composite hit a new high for the first time in 15 years. That event came a good decade earlier than I and many others had expected. Then, on Friday, Amazon announced a loss and the market pushed up its share…

Euromoney’s Private Banking Survey 2015: JPMorgan voted best global private bank

UBS pushed into second place; majority of private banks globally expect improved revenues in 2015. US banks and their Swiss counterparts dominate the top rankings in Euromoney’s 12th annual Private Banking Survey, highlighting the woes of European peers, which have been forced to retreat from the global stage and reassess their cost bases. For the…

The World’s Next Mortgage Crisis?

How the rise of the Swiss franc could destabilize Europe My breakfast companion looked gloomy. He’d flown into Washington from Vienna the day before. When he deplaned, he found a shocking email waiting for him: a demand from his banker for immediate payment of €12,000. Although a resident of Austria, he had taken a home…

Julius Baer Tells Clients to Switch Out of Franc Holdings

Julius Baer Group Ltd. is advising clients to switch out of Swiss franc cash accounts, saying it will refrain for now from emulating competitors by imposing new fees on such deposits. “We’re turning to clients and discussing with them what are the opportunities to move away from cash Swiss franc balances,” Boris Collardi, chief executive…