Tag Archives: banking

LDVideo: Danny Alexander – ‘No-one wants bonus culture’

By Stephen Tall | Published 30th January 2012 - 8:00 pm

Here’s Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander interviewed on Sunday lunchtime, defending the Coalition’s decision not to demand RBS chief executive Stephen Hester return his controversial bonus — a few hours before Mr Hester voluntarily forfeited it to defuse the row:

(Available on the BBC website here.)

Posted in YouTube | Also tagged danny alexander, stephen hester | 12 Comments

The Independent View: The banking sector needs radical reform but too many cures will kill the patient

By Ben Norman | Published 19th December 2011 - 6:58 pm

For seven days before Christmas it has been an incredibly busy day for the financial services sector. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Draft Financial Services Bill has produced its wide-ranging report into regulatory reform; the FSA has published its Mortgage Market Review consultation; and, last but not least, the Treasury has published the Government’s response to the Independent Commission on Banking.

At least the latter was well leaked – what isn’t these days? – and gave me time to think about the ICB.

The ICB is actually something quite amazing, not to mention something entirely Lib Dem.

Sir John Vickers was given …

Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Also tagged independent commission on banking, john vickers | 2 Comments

Opinion: Do Banks Rule the World?

By Mark Hofman | Published 20th November 2011 - 2:05 pm

Last week many of us may have witnessed the sickening spectacle of watching a city trader declaring that Goldman Sachs rules the world… among other insights, such as how he lays awake at night fantasising about another economic depression.

If money rules the world, then surely whoever rules the world controls the money supply?

Many of us would, therefore, assume that the Bank of England creates money and regulates its supply to the economy, thereby controlling inflation and interest rates. However, whenever we look to finance a house, car, business project, etc, we invariably turn to the banks (in the …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bank of england, goldman sachs, green investment bank, nick clegg, regional growth fund, technology innovation centre, vickers commission, vince cable | 9 Comments

Dick Newby writes… Banking – a Lib Dem win

By Dick Newby | Published 12th September 2011 - 10:41 pm

As I write this, the top headline on the BBC online news reads Acclaim for Bank Shake-up Plan. The report states that there is broad support for the Vickers’ report’s proposals to separate domestic retail banking and global wholesale and investment banking operations. This support extends to the Chancellor and the Prime Minister.

What the BBC doesn’t point out is that this a complete victory for the Liberal Democrats – particularly Vince Cable. When the banking crisis broke , we quickly decided that we had to ensure that the state couldn’t be put in the position again where it …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged featured, independent commission on banking, john vickers, vince cable | 12 Comments

Monday: politicians and bankers learn their possible fates

By Mark Pack | Published 11th September 2011 - 9:50 am

A quirk of the political calendar means Monday sees both politicians and bankers learn of their possible future fate. For English MPs it is when they get embargoed copies of the Parliamentary Boundary Commission’s draft proposals, which get published on Tuesday. Monday is also the day when the Vickers Commission publishes its banking reform recommendations.

There is a widespread expectation in Whitehall that the Vickers Commission will recommend isolating retail banking from other banking activities, but without demanding that companies be split up. Internal firewalls and the like will be demanded instead.

It is also widely expected that the Vickers Commission will …

Posted in News | Also tagged independent commission on banking, john vickers, vince cable | 3 Comments

Clegg’s bailed-out banks’ shares give-away proposal triggers national debate

By Stephen Tall | Published 25th June 2011 - 3:25 pm

Nick Clegg’s very public call for the British public to be given shares in the bailed-out banks — creating 46 million shareholders and allowing collective ownership of banks — has garnered acres of coverage the past couple of days.

It’s three months since Lib Dem MP Stephen Williams first proposed the privatisation of its 83% stake in RBS and 41% in Lloyds by distributing shares to the public. Here’s what my co-editor Mark Pack said about the idea at the time:

Giving everyone shares in the banks: Stephen Williams’s proposals examined (7th March, 2011)
Stephen Williams’s plan is to give shares

…

Posted in News | Also tagged john redwood, mark pack, nick clegg, stephen williams, toby fenwick | 7 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Youth promote intergenerational fairness for Bank Shares

By Tom Wood | Published 23rd June 2011 - 3:52 pm

Nick Clegg’s innovative proposal to give the public shares in Lloyds and RBS is enthusiastically welcomed by Liberal Youth: but we believe that these reforms can go even further. Young people are bearing the brunt of the recession caused by the banks both in a lack of jobs and lost funding for education, and because it is the next generation that will be paying off the government’s debt for years to come. It is only right the government should give something back to them.

While Nick’s proposal represents exactly the kind of fairness that Liberal Democrats seek to bring to …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged liberal youth, nick clegg, stephen williams | 22 Comments

Where next for Lib Dem ‘muscular liberalism’?

By Nick Thornsby | Published 20th June 2011 - 10:25 am

Over on the BBC News site, BBC political correspondent Norman Smith has written a piece looking at how the Liberal Democrats will continue to exert their influence in a more public way within the coalition after the combined effect of the AV referendum, the local election results and the success of the party’s push to re-think the NHS reforms.

As Norman says:

From the top to the bottom of the party, there is a hankering for clear yellow lines running through government policy.

However, where those lines should be drawn to best reassert the Lib Dems’ independence, is much harder to agree.

There …

Posted in News | Also tagged chris white, david hall-matthews, lorely burt, mark pack, nhs reform | Leave a comment

Opinion: The best way to get banks to lend more is to reduce the deficit

By David Thorpe | Published 25th April 2011 - 1:58 pm

From among the blizzard of economic forecast, commentary and political point scoring which presently dominates the airwaves, there is very little consensus but the need to get the banks to lend more is something which brings all sides of the debate together.

The dividing line appears to be on how best to achieve this.

Those who subscribe broadly to the neo-classical or neo-liberal economic world view believe that banks will start wanting to lend as the economy recovers and businesses become more viable. This ‘leave it to the market’ approach is something which Lib Dems should (and do) reject, not just on …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged deficit, economy, lending | 4 Comments

Opinion: Vickers report on banking does not go far enough

By The Voice | Published 18th April 2011 - 2:25 pm

Naomi Smith and Prateek Buch of the Social Liberal Forum write about the Vickers Commission on Banking…

At Lib Dem Spring conference in Sheffield last month, delegates overwhelmingly supported the Social Liberal Forum (SLF) motion Tougher Action on Banks and Bonuses. The interim report published recently by the Vickers Commission on Banking went some way to addressing the problems within the industry , but as we predicted in our speeches to the SLF motion, falls far short of Liberal Democrat policy which calls for:

A break up of banks deemed ‘too big to fail’ into smaller, safer

…

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged independent commission on banking, john vickers | 5 Comments

The Independent Banking Commission publishes its interim report

By The Voice | Published 11th April 2011 - 6:23 pm

Via the BBC:

UK banks’ retail operations should be “ring-fenced” from their investment banking arms, the Independent Commission on Banking has recommended.

However, in its interim report the commission stopped short of recommending the two should operate as separate entities.

It said more competition was needed in retail banking, including the sell-off of more Lloyds branches.

The commission’s final recommendations will be published in September.

Robert Peston adds,

The big banks will claim that putting their retail banks into subsidiaries would impose significant extra costs on them – because it would force them to raise and retain more capital (which is expensive), and it

…

Posted in News | Also tagged independent commission on banking, john vickers, matthew oakeshott, robert peston | 4 Comments

Reuters: banks moving overseas would not cost the government much tax

By Mark Pack | Published 11th April 2011 - 7:54 am

A special report from Reuters, not normally exactly a hotbed of anti-capitalism propoganda, brings some provocative research findings about Britain’s financial sector:

Research by Reuters shows … the impact of any big bank departures on the economy, government finances and the City of London’s pre-eminence as a financial centre would be extremely limited…

In terms of taxes alone, Commercial Secretary to the Treasury and former banker James Sassoon told members of the House of Lords in February that large banking groups were expected to contribute around 20 billion pounds ($30 billion) in tax for the 2010-11 tax year.

Crucially, though, that figure includes

…

Posted in News | Also tagged reuters | 8 Comments

Clegg warns against banks that are too big to fail

By Mark Pack | Published 25th March 2011 - 1:54 pm

Chief Finance Officers World reports:

Nick Clegg has called for widespread reform of Britain’s banking sector in the hope that the country becomes less reliant on what he called “overwhelmingly important” companies.

An interim report on the subject from the Banking Commission is due out next month and Clegg has pre-empted its release with calls for the influence of the banks to be reduced in the interest of the wider economy…

The banking commission will deliver initial findings on April 11th, with a final report due by the end of September.

In an interview with Reuters this month, Lib Dem business minister Vince

…

Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg, vince cable | 12 Comments

The Independent View: How the Stephen Williams plans for the banks would work

By Toby Fenwick | Published 11th March 2011 - 3:54 pm

Portman Capital, an independent corporate advisory firm, has been asked to comment upon the technical issues raised by Mark Pack’s column on Stephen Williams’ proposal to privatise RBS and Lloyds by distributing the shares to the public. Portman Capital is not politically aligned and its comments are intended to explain the technical feasibility of the proposal rather than its political aspects.

The proposal to distribute the shares to the UK people is innovative, and as the British people will participate without having to provide cash up front, it has fairness at its core. Over time, the scheme is likely to …

Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Also tagged stephen williams | 3 Comments

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