With the Bank of England (BOE)’s decision to put its quantative easing programme on hold, the Debt Management Office, held with the task for issuing of bonds to pay off the public deficit, are expecting difficulties in finding buyers. A spokesman for the DMO has said that the agency will continue to use new methods of issuing debt bonds in what will be a record number, including syndications.

According to official data released on Friday, by the UK Insolvency Service, the number of companies going into liquidation fell in the final quarter of 2009 for the first time in more than a year on an annual basis. However the report showed that the number of individuals who succumbed to insolvency was on the increase.

The quarterly figures may be a sign the economy is slowly getting back on its feet, with companies finding it easier to get credit. A Bank of England survey which showed the flow of lending to businesses picked up in November for the first time since the beginning of 2009. However UK business analysts hastened to point out that the number of liquidations were liable to be high unless access to finance continued to improve.

Private demand in the UK will remain weak for the most part of 2010 and the British government will maintain its stimulus measures, UK Business Minister Lord Mandelson said after a meeting with German Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle here. "As private demand remains weak, as I suspect it will for a lot of this year, it is the job of the government to balance that weakness and to maintain our stimulus while it is needed," Mandelson said. "We also have to plan the exit from that stimulus and we will do that step by step and in coordination with each other." he continued.

Lord Mandelson also announced on Friday that European governments could consider some support for U.S. carmaker General Motors’ European operations if the carmaker presented them with a business plan.

General Motors’ European arm Opel plans to slash thousands of jobs as part of a restructuring plan and also wants around £2 billion in state aid either as loans or loan guarantees to help finance the 3.3 billion euro revamp.

UK Business Secretary Mandelson in Berlin for a meeting with German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said "The primary responsibility for bringing about the future investment, the use of new technologies and models, the reduction of emissions, rests with the private companies concerned, not with the governments,".

"If in the case of General Motors, they present a business plan that involves some financial role or underpinning by our governments, then of course we will consider that. But first we have to see the business plan," continued Mandelson

U.K. defense company BAE Systems announced on Friday that it had reached settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice and with the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office regarding investigations into the company’s activities in Saudi Arabia as well as the sale of radar systems in Tanzania. Under the U.S. deal BAE will plead guilty and will pay a fine of $400. Under the deal with the U.K. authorities, the company will plead guilty to one charge of breach of duty and pay a fine of £30 million pounds. BAE issued a statement both regretting and accepting full responsibility for both offences.

The Digital TV Group (DTG), made up from a consortium of broadcasters, technology providers and set top box manufacturers, has expressed widespread industry concern regarding a proposed new venture, aimed to market a £200 pound set-top box, which will provide internet services to the television, to be launched later this year. Project Canvas, a joint venture between the UK’s public sector broadcasters and two of the country’s broadband providers, has won initial approval from the BBC Trust. However in a submission to the BBC Trust’s consultation, the DTG, whose members include Virgin Media, BSkyB and Sony expressed their fears that Canvas’ members had not engaged fully with the industry. DTG will need to wait a few months to discover the BBC Trust’s final ruling on the matter.

The pound weakened 0.7 percent to $1.564, its lowest level since October 2009. The decline came after the Bank of England kept the door open to more asset purchases to safeguard the economic recovery.

Sterling closed up at 1.1447 against the Euro.

The benchmark FTSE 100 Index was taking a beating before the weekend put an end to the shares sell-off. It closed down 223 points at 5060.92

U.S. stocks on Friday pared earlier losses as the equities tracked the dollar and the commodities market. Stocks came off their lows as the price of crude oil pulled back above $70 a barrel. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 27.2 points at 9,974.98. The NASDAQ gained 9.73 points to close for the weekend on 2,135.16.

Following the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti last month, the world’s leading industrialised nations have pledged to write off the debts owed to them by the country. Canada’s finance minister made the announcement at a Group of Seven countries summit in Canada. A spokesman for the group announced that they would encourage international lenders to do the same.

Bi- and multilateral lenders including international bodies have already canceled some £800 million ($1.2 billion) of Haiti’s debt in 2009.

Toyota’s reputation was in danger of plunging into freefall tonight when it admitted investigating reports of brake faults in Prius hybrid cars in the US and Japan in a move that could trigger another recall.

The possibility that an estimated 270,000 of the latest model of the Japanese company’s flagship vehicles could be withdrawn because of safety fears follows 77 reported cases of braking problems among cars sold in Japan and 100 similar complaints in the US.

Prius owners have reported momentary loss of braking ability at low speeds on bumpy roads. Two of the incidents reportedly ended in crashes that resulted in injuries.

US safety regulators opened a formal investigation today.

The company is already reeling from a recall of more than eight million vehicles worldwide because of problems with accelerator pedals. A number of cases were reported where pedals jammed in causing vehicles to speed out of control.

financial

• The Cotai Strip "Asia's Las Vegas" Buddy Lam remembers when the Cotai Strip was nothing more...
• Bank Of America Buys Countrywide To Save On Taxes Bank of America (BAC) recently announced it would be buying...
• Venetian Macau to Soft Open on August 28, 2007 Las Vegas Sands Corp. plans Aug. 28 to open its...

Tags: BAE Systems, Bank of England, Banking, British Economy, BskyB, Currency, Debt Management Office, Digital TV Group, Dow Jones, Economics, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, General Motors, Haiti, Lord Mandelson, Money, NASDAQ, Opel, Prius, Project Canvas, Rainer Bruederle, Recession, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, Toyota, UK Banks, UK business, UK Economy, UK government, UK Insolvency Service, UK Recession

U.K. home sellers lowered asking prices in August by the most in eight months as banks continued their credit squeeze.

The average cost of a home fell 2.2 percent to around £225,000 after gaining 0.6 percent in July. Prices in London dropped 3.8 percent, while in the East Midlands the asking price by sellers fell by the highest level, averaging 9 percent.

The number of new homes on the market was reported to be almost half of what they were before the financial crisis began. ,

Further evidence that the traditional UK high street banks catering manly to the private individual is about to be come scarcer over the coming years was provided in a recently published report. The reports points out that the major British banking groups are considering closing down a third of their branches in a drive to reduce cost and restore profitability. During the recession, retail banks lost money in droves as the public drew in their belts and in future retail banks will not be able enjoy profits personal loans and overdraft that they did during the so called “ boom years”..

Despite all the hooing and hahing on the subject, bonuses for the top directors of major UK companies remained at an unacceptably high level in 2008, showing that the trend is far away from disappearing, despite the country still being in the depths of a recession, and companies that succeed in making profits still reducing their dividends. A recent report showed that some of Britain’s largest companies were still voting to pay their senior executives around half of the bonuses they were receiving before the financial downturn began, around two years ago. A fact that has not been well received by company investors.

Bradford & Bingley plc has released its interim financial report, covering the first six months of the year and the figures are less than inspiring.

The company made pre-tax losses of £160 million, and bucking the UK trend they were substantially worse than the same period in 2008, when the bank succeeded in only losing £26.7 million.

As the financial crisis hit its peak late last year, Bradford & Bingley was nationalised, and has since been sold of to Spanish banking giant Banco Santander.

British Sky Broadcasting has expressed their “serious concerns” regarding the recent actions of the Project Canvas trust. Project Canvas is behind the plan to establish an internet-connected successor to Freeview, the free-to-air digital TV service that will compete with Sky.

Since February, the Trust has been conducting an assessment to ascertain whether Canvas, comprising the partnership of BBC with ITV, BT and Five, is doing justice to UK licence fee payers. Canvas was intended to be the blue-print for assessing and progressing on-demand video from the PC to the television. The introduction of a smarter set-top box would strengthen the competition from free-to-air broadcasting for pay-TV operators such as Sky and Virgin Media.

Trading was slow in the city with the only rising star being GlaxoSmithKline who gained 0.8 per cent to close on 1167½ pence after analysts advised investors to buy shares in anticipation of the news that the company’s long awaited cervical cancer vaccine is likely to win US regulatory approval early next month.

Also in the news were the world’s largest water company Veolia Environment SA who were rumoured to be selling £500 million-pound stake in its U.K. water business to either the Blackstone Group LP or the Goldman Sachs. On the news, Veolia shares fell 2.5 percent to 22.74 pence.

The FTSE 100 continued to indicate that profit taking was rife, dropping 68.96, points to close on 4645.01. The FTSE 250 collapsed by 2.84 percent on the day, meaning a 241.74 point fall to close on 8,274.09.

Sterling had another mixed day on pre-weekend trading yesterday’s markets, falling against the major currencies, apart from the Japanese Yen.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6386
• Pound/Euro 1.1606
• Pound/Japanese Yen 155.4618
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7624

US stocks suffered their worst day since the beginning of July on Monday after the global share sell-off caused the market to fall. Concerns over the health of the US consumer were at the forefront of investors’ minds after last week’s weak retail sales and consumer confidence figures. .

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 186.06 points on an edgy market to close on 9135.34 with the NASDAQ faring little better down 54.68 points to close on 1930.84. .

Japan’s economy grew by 0.9% in the April-to-June quarter meaning that the country has joined the fast growing list of industrialised nations to come out of recession.

The rise has been attributed to the Japanese Government’s huge stimulus package. The test for the Japanese economy will come when their stimulus package will come to an end and the economy will require standing alone.

• Consumers Need to Exercise Caution as Credit Card Rates Climb Many consumers are finding that even though they have had...
• Save $100 On A DELL Computer Through Bank of America If you have online banking with Bank of America, they...
• Star Cruises Increases Macau Stake Star Cruises (0678), the world's third- largest cruise operator, saw...

Tags: Banking, Bradford & Bingley, British Economy, British Sky Broadcasting, Credit Crunch, Dow Jones, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, GlaxoSmithKline, Global Credit Crisis, Goldman Sachs, Money, Money Markets, Mortgages, NASDAQ, Project Canvas, Property Prices, Recession, Santander, UK Banks, UK Banks, UK Recession, Veolia Environment SA, Virgin Media