At his keynote speech to the Liberal Democrat conference, Business Secretary Vince Cable is today expected to say that shareholders should have more of a say when it comes to bonuses paid to executives. He is also expected to outline plans which will force firms to disclose their excessive pay packages. Mr Cable is expected [...]
HSBC, which is Europe’s largest bank, was the recipient of shareholder anger yesterday at its annual general meeting. Shareholders were disgruntled about the level of pay to executives and 20% of investors rejected the bank’s remuneration plan, which included new arrangements for paying board members after last year’s AGM. However, while 80% of shareholders supported [...]
Research has revealed that the average FTSE 100 executive is earning 88 times that of the average full-time UK worker. The revelation comes despite the recession where companies have been forced to make major cutbacks. According to Incomes Data Services (IDS), in the year to June 2010, executives in FTSE 100 companies took home an [...]
A report by accountancy firm Deloitte has revealed a slight fall in executive bonuses – at a time when some major companies have been facing backlash from their investors over the size of their remuneration packages. According to Deloitte, the average bonus for FTSE 250 executive directors is now 60% of salary – 10% lower [...]
The union which represents BT workers has announced a strike ballot has been scrapped due to a legal issue. The vote for strike action came as senior executives were awarded huge bonuses which angered staff. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said it was balloting members in support of a 5% pay rise after what it [...]
According to reports, banking giant HSBC has bowed to shareholder pressure and abandoned plans to raise its chief executive’s salary. The Financial Times said the bank had consulted shareholders on proposals to raise Michael Geoghegan’s salary by 36% to £1.4 million ($2.2 million). The FT also reported that the bank had planned to up the [...]
Chairman Roger Carr, chief executive Todd Stitzer and chief financial officer Andrew Bonfield of Cadbury have announced today that they will step down from the British confectioner. The three bosses announced their resignations following a shareholder vote which will see US food giant, Kraft, takeover the 186-year-old iconic British company in a £11.5 billion ($18.9 [...]
The Obama administration is proposing to cut the salaries of top executives at firms which have received billions of dollars in Government aid. The institutions that are affected are Bank of America, American International Group (AIG), Citigroup, General Motors, GMAC, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial. According to reports, these seven companies will see their 25 highest [...]
Dutch banks have signed up to a new code of conduct limiting executive bonuses to 100% of salary. Once the code comes into force, bankers’ salaries will have to be below the median for similar jobs, bonuses will have to be returned if a bank enters financial difficulty, and redundancy payments will be limited to [...]
Japan’s largest stockbroking firm, Nomura, has reported its worst ever quarterly loss blaming the integration of Lehman Brother’s Asian and European operations, which it bought last September. Its quarterly loss (which related to the October to December 2008 period) amounted to 342.9 billion yen (£2.7 billion), compared with 400.37 billion yen for the same period [...]
One of Gordon Brown’s Ministers has revealed that the British banking system was just hours from collapse, just before the Government’s £500 billion bailout of the British bank system last October. In an interview with the Times, Lord Myners, who was appointed Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury in October to help rescue the banking [...]
Earlier this week, Lehman Brothers, announced it plans to raise $6 billion (£3 billion) via a rights issue in a bid to shore up its balance sheet. The smallest of the major Wall Street investment banks has seen its shares slump by over 50% on fears about its exposure to the sub-prime mortgage market. Yesterday, [...]
M&S Money launches 3% cash ISA
M&S Money has launched an Advantage Cash ISA paying 3 per cent, and which allows transfers in from other ISAs. It can be opened with a minimum deposit of £100 lump sum followed by minimum monthly deposits of £25. The 3% rate is variable, but there is no short-term bonus so the return won’t plummet [...]
Google suspends UK Compare Mortgages site
Google has closed its UK mortgage comparison site which it launched in July last year, after it proved to be less popular than expected. Mortgage comparison sites are designed to allow visitors to compare mortgages quickly and easily without having to visit each lender’s individual site. Google was competing with several well-established comparison sites, including [...]
AA launches ‘black-box’ policy for young drivers
The AA is launching an innovative car insurance policy called Drivesafe which could help younger drivers save up to £850 a year. Younger drivers already pay substantially higher premiums than other motorists and these costs are increasing. A new study by Confused.com suggests insurance costs for younger driver have gone up by 5.7 per cent [...]
ATOL scheme updated to protect online bookers
ATOL, a financial protection scheme managed by the Civil Aviation Authority, is being extended to protect up to six million more holidays a year. The scheme ensures that holiday makers do not lose out financially if a travel company collapses, and that they are not stranded abroad. An increase in the number of holidays booked [...]
Home repossessions lowest for four years
The number of UK homes repossessed fell to 36,200 in 2011, significantly below the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ forecast of 40,000, and lower than 2010 when 37,100 homes were repossessed. With interest rates remaining low and lenders adopting a sympathetic attitude to customers in financial difficulty, repossessions fell to their lowest level since 2007. However, [...]
Monthly pay lasting just 17 days
Workers are running out of money just 17 days after receiving their monthly pay, according to new research by the Halifax bank. This means that the average UK worker spends half the month worrying about money. The study, based on the responses of more than 2,000 adults, found that 10 per cent of workers start [...]
Women disadvantaged by auto-enrolment changes
Government proposals to increase the auto-enrolment threshold to £10,000 could put 1.8 million women at risk of missing out on a pension, the TUC has warned. Under the auto-enrolment scheme, which will be phased in from October, private sector employers will automatically enrol workers between the age of 22 years and the state pension age, [...]
Emergency household repairs company Homeserve is taking longer than expected to get back on track after its operations were suspended last October. The company expected customer numbers to fall by 5% this year but it has increased this estimate to 8% and announced the loss of 200 jobs. It estimates that renewal revenue in 2013 [...]
Sale rumoured for Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks
There is growing speculation that National Australia Bank (NAB) may sell Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank after the Australian parent company announced a strategic review of the two banks’ operations. The Australian economy is performing well and NAB reported strong profits for the final quarter of 2011 but with the UK economy at a virtual [...]
More women experiencing debt difficulties
Women in Debt, which offers female-focused debt advice, has warned that the number of UK women facing serious debt has grown significantly over recent years. The organisation believes that more women will need advice on solving debt problems in the future because they are building up an unsustainable level of indebtedness. Women in Debt’s director, [...]
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