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Simon Denham, Capital Spreads

Articles & Features

Fit for Purpose

In the second in his new series looking at the credit crunch fallout and calls for tighter oversight of the financial services industry, Drew Hillier continues to investigate the issues, speaking to key players and taking soundings around the pressing question of the day: ‘is the 21st Century framework of bank regulation ‘fit for purpose’? 

Regulation Rules Ok

At this years SIBOS, which found itself understandably preoccupied with the meltdown in the financial system, nigh-on 1,000 delegates packed themselves into the plenary room on the very afternoon of Meltdown Monday....

Long or Short the MXN

The global markets have been in somewhat of a tailspin the last several months due to a windfall of events. Problems stemming from the credit crisis and rising inflation have put severe strain on some of the largest economies in the G10. DP has contracted on an annual basis in the US, and the trend of slowing growth has spread to neighboring countries. Foreign Exchange captures the full scope of a country's economic health through the concept of relative value

Crunch time for George

Drew Hillier talks to George Soros about the Credit Crisis of 2008 and beyond. The billionaire investment guru and hedge fund manager, George Soros, has a remarkable reputation, and - in many minds - a controversial one, for positioning himself on the right side in a crisis. No greater was this sentiment exemplified, and certainly no more firmly welded inexorably into the public consciousness..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ECB!

If, as the popular saying goes, a week is a long time in politics, then in the case of economics a decade must be an eternity! Markets go up, markets go down, but in June, endless talk of credit crunches, global storm clouds and recessionary pressures was suspended, at least for a day or two, whilst the European Central Bank broke out the bubbly and bunting...

Making the Headlines

Bankers back off of HBOS

Sir Peter Burt and Sir George Mathewson, the two big hitters who made a lot of noise in their effort to stop Lloyds TSB taking over HBOS, appear to have abandoned their plan....

Barclays throw a bone

In a move designed to placate its UK institutional investors, Barclays has thrown a £500m bone by way of access to reserve capital instruments. In a move designed to placate shareholders over the plan to eschew UK government bailout money, preferring instead to go cap in hand to Qatar Holding and HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan for £5.8bn of relatively expensive capital, the bank’s board also offered itself for re-election at its AGM next spring...

Citigroup to shed 1-in-5 of its workforce

Having posted a loss in excess of $20bn in the past year, US banking giant Citigroup, has announced plans for up to 52,000 new job cuts on top of 23,000 cuts already made this year...

Summit pledge to restore growth and tighten up oversight

World leaders meeting at the recent G20 financial summit in Washington – which brought together leading industrial powers alongside emerging market countries such as China, India, Argentina, Brazil and others, (representing 85% of the world economy) -  pledged to work together to restore global growth...

Monopoly Rules!

At last it can be revealed just where the underlying economic principals of the banking bailout originated. Not Keynes, nor Marx or Galbraith, and certainly not Reganomics or Thatcheritte free-market theory. In fact, it seems we need look no further than the Parker Brothers board game, Monopoly...

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