The Treasury is looking at introducing tougher requirements on bankers’ pay disclosure than those proposed last week by Sir David Walker.

Alistair Darling, the chancellor, announced a formal consultation exercise on Monday on whether legislation should go further than the Walker review, which proposed that banks should disclose the numbers of employees earning above £1 million.

Treasury officials said there was a case for greater disclosure, for example starting at £750,000 and having narrower bands.

The news came as the chairman of the Financial Reporting Council; Sir David Hogg signalled that his review of broader corporate governance at UK listed companies, published on Tuesday, would be more far-reaching than Sir David’s recommendations on bank boards.

U.K. house prices rose for a fourth month in November as the shortage of homes for sale sustained the property market, according to industry sources.

The average cost of a home in England and Wales climbed 0.2 percent from October to 156,700 pounds, meaning that prices are down 11 percent from the 2007 peak. While U.K. mortgage data due today may show loan approvals at the highest level in 19 months in October, rising unemployment may curb house price increases next year. According to Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, the economy’s recovery from the longest recession on record isn’t “particularly strong.”

Dubai World, the investment company whose $59 billion of liabilities caused stock markets across the World some anxiety will ask all creditors for a “standstill” agreement as it negotiates to extend maturities according to Dubai’s Department of Finance. Reports are that the plan will not be acceptable to most investors and would be considered a default. Dubai, the second-biggest of seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE)., and its state-owned companies borrowed $80 billion to fund an economic boom and diversify its economy. The global credit crisis and a decline in property prices hurt companies like Dubai World as they struggled to raise loans and forced the emirate to turn for help to Abu Dhabi, UAE capital who hold 8 percent of the world’s oil reserves.

Barclays Bank will book a gain close to £1 billion more than expected on the sale of its asset management arm to BlackRock thanks to a 62 per cent rise in the US fund manager’s shares since the deal was struck. The UK bank on Tuesday completed the £9.1 billion sale of Barclays Global Investors (BGI) to BlackRock, which becomes the world’s biggest asset manager with more than $3,000 billion .Barclays has taken a 19.9 per cent stake in BlackRock as part of the cash-and-shares deal. The sale price was £6.2 billion higher than the value of BGI in the accounts of Barclays, and £900 million more than estimated when the deal was agreed in June.

Thomas Cook will refinance their £1.65 billion loan facilities by next summer but has no plans to use a rights issue, according to a leading company representative. The tour operator’s current facilities are due to expire in May 2011. The company has predicted that 2010 would be a tough trading year, and the refinancing plans were announced as Thomas Cook revealed that net debt had more than doubled from £292 million in 2008 to £675 million. Explanations were that the additional debt had come from completing its share buy-back programme, acquisitions and the need for increased working capital arising from late holiday bookings.

British Airways Plc has announced that they are to conduct a series of feasibility studies and tests to see if their planes can run on bio-fuels. The airline will run the trials in conjunction with Rolls-Royce. On that piece of good news for the environment, shares in BA shares gained 0.6 pence percent, to 193.8, while Rolls-Royce rose 0.9 pence to 476.4.

Cadbury Plc Chief Executive Officer’s Todd Stitzer has signaled his support for a possible bid by U.S. candy maker Hershey Co. in preference to the hostile bid from Kraft. Meanwhile JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. are being lined up to provide Hershey a further $7 billion in finance. Cadbury’s shares later advanced 3 pence to 806.

Drinks manufacturer C&C saw its share price jump almost 9 per cent yesterday on the back of an announcement that it is to acquire the British cider assets of Constellation Brands owners of the Gaymer Cider Company, the UK’s second largest cider manufacturer, for £45 million.

The transaction is expected to be completed by mid-January 2010, and will broaden C&C’s existing cider offering beyond Bulmers and Magners to include brands such as Blackthorn, Olde English as well as Gaymers.

Under the terms of the deal C&C will also acquire a cider production facility in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, and a distribution warehouse in Bristol. As well as strengthening its position in the UK cider market, the acquisition is expected to shift C&C’s focus away from on-trade sales towards the faster-growing off-trade distribution channel.

On the Foreign Currency exchanges, the Pound rose against the dollar, yen and Swiss Franc whilst falling slightly against the Euro,

• Pound/US dollar 1.6605
• Pound/Euro 1.1002
• Pound/Japanese Yen 144.5284
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6589

Fears of a further fall in share value on the FTSE 100 were dispelled as shares continued to recover, closing in Wednesday on 5312.77, up 67 points from the weekend.

US shares headed higher on Tuesday after a flurry of economic data pointed to a rebound in the economy Better reports on construction and housing suggested there was something to look forward to.

The housing figures, from the National Association of Realtors, provided the best hopes for growth, showing sales agreements 3.7% up on the month and 32% higher than this time last year.

The Dow Jones index closed up 126.66 points, or 1.2%, on Tuesday to reach 10,471.50 points, while the NASDAQ also rose, closing the day on 2175.8.

Australia’s central bank lifted interest rates for a third consecutive month on Tuesday amid signs that inflationary pressures were building in an economy expected to return to “trend” growth of 3.25 per cent next year. The 25 basis point rise to 3.75 per cent matches increases in the last two months and is part of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s strategy of weaning the economy off historically low interest rates. The benchmark rate fell to a 49-year low of 3 per cent earlier this year.

The continuing weakness of the US dollar has pushed up demand for gold to another record level. Gold struck £722.69 an ounce on the London Bullion Market, after striking historic peaks over recent weeks. The dollar index fell 0.8% against a number of currencies as early fears regarding the Dubai debt crisis continued to wane across international markets. Demand for gold has been fueled by moves by central banks to diversify assets.

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Tags: Alastair Darling, Bank of America Corp, Bank of England, Banking, Barclays Bank, Barclays Global Investors, BlackRock, Blackthorn, British Airways Plc, British Economy, British Pound, Bullion Market, Bulmers, C&C, Cadbury Plc, Dow Jones, Dubai World, Economy, Financial News, Gaymer Cider, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Magners, Mervyn King, Money, NASDAQ, National Association of Realtors, Olde English, Recession, Reserve Bank of Australia, Rolls-Royce, Shepton Mallet, Sir David Hogg, Sir David Walker, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, Thomas Cook, Todd Stitzer, UAE, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, United Arab Emirates

The UK looks like being in the financial doldrums for years to come, largely due to placing too much faith n the financial service sector and not enough on building up the heavy to medium sized industries that once made Britain Great. Financial experts are now convinced that that the reasons why the UK is taking longer than their European rivals to move out of the recession is too much of an emphasis been placed on saving the banks and too little on pushing industry forward as the French and German governments succeeded in doing. The mood on the street is that Britain has got to get a grip on its public finances.

This mood is emphasized by recent statements made by head of the Confederation of British Industry General Richard Lambert who reminded all of us that didn’t know it that how to reduce the 175 billion pound deficit will become a major battleground ahead of the next election, due next year, which the Conservatives are expected to win. General Lambert did point out that in his opinion there is very little to choose between both main parties’ deficit-reduction plans.

Meanwhile public borrowing in 2009 is almost treble what it was the previous t year with some analysts even forecasting that could even surpass the government’s forecast of £175 billion pounds, equivalent to no less than 12 percent of GDP. Chancellor Alistair Darling, who for some reason thinks he will be around to make it happen, has pledged to halve the deficit within the next four years and to even balance the budget by 2018, although he has yet to explain how.

What does appear likely to happen in the near future is that the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) begins responsibility for financial stability as well as market regulation, consumer protection and investigating financial crime in the UK. Under a new bill that entered Parliament yesterday, to be known as the. Financial Services bill, a formal three-member Council for Financial Stability will be created. The council will consist of the finance minister, the governor of the Bank of England and the head of the FSA, who will be jointly responsible for overseeing UK financial stability. The Treasury will also start be held responsible for publishing annual reports on the stability of the UK financial system. The FSA will also gain long awaited veto power over bankers’ pay arrangements. This new authority will allow them to act if they believe that a bank employee’s contract would damage the bank’s risk management.

A recent survey has predicted that it may take until 2014 for UK property prices to return to the levels they peaked at in 2007 peak, the height of the country’s biggest housing boom.

After a surprise rebound this year, the survey predicts that U.K. house prices will probably fall next year, with predictions of an average drop of about 1.6 percent being bandied about.

The 7 percent gain in average prices in the UK that have been going on since April were driven by a shortage of properties for sale and are unlikely to be sustained, while Britain’s longest recession on record fuels unemployment and makes banks hesitant to lend.

National Grid, the company that operates electricity and gas networks in the UK as well as in the US, has reported a 16 per cent rise in underlying pre-tax profit for the six months to the end of September. The rise comes despite a steep fall in energy use, demonstrating what the company describes the success of their extremely low risk business model. Pre-tax profits, were £649 million in the first half of 2009, up from £91 million from the equivalent period of 2008. The company benefited from the favourable effect of 2008’s high UK retail price inflation, which governs the charges that National Grid is allowed to earn from energy suppliers for using its networks. The company was also helped by the steep fall in interest rates, as about a third of its debt is at floating rates.

The world’s largest maker of household cleaners Reckitt Benckiser is close to a “multibillion pound cross-border transaction,” most likely candidate being industry giant Colgate. The news added 1.1 percent to Reckitt’s shares which closed at 3,140 pence.

Brewers SABMiller Plc who produces the Pilsner Urquell and Miller Genuine Draft beers among others saw their shares rise 3.4 percent to 1,714 pence on trading before the weekend. The rise was a result of their announcement of first-half profits that beat analysts’ estimates, as well their plans to launch a four year cost reduction program to save around £200 million annually by 2014.

U.K. pub owner Fuller Smith & Turner Plc, producers of London Pride ale, has announced first-half profits up 47 percent, as the company benefited from acquisitions and by selling more of its own beer brands. A spokesman for the company said that they expect the second half to be “significantly tougher,” as factors including good weather and the benefits of the purchases are unlikely to be repeated The company has added 11 pubs over the past year, seven in central London acquired from Punch Taverns Plc.

There was a lot of movement on the FTSE 100 before the index closed for the weekend. In the travel sector both Thomas Cook and Tui Travel sank at least 4 percent. Wolseley Plc and Taylor Wimpey Plc led a retreat among home builders after reports that unemployment will continue to force down property prices. Cable & Wireless Plc added 1.8 percent after positive market reports on the company’s performance.

The pound fell against the dollar, the euro and the yen on concern that the U.K.’s worst budget deficit since records began will hamper the nation’s recovery. The pound slid to its lowest level in more than two weeks against the U.S. currency. Britain’s £11.4 billion-pound budget deficit in October was the worst for the month since records began in 1993, according to data released on Friday by the Office for National Statistics.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6504
• Pound/Euro 1.1099
• Pound/Japanese Yen 146.7564
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6803

U.K. stocks declined for a fourth day with the benchmark FTSE 100 Index slipped 0.3 percent to 5,251.41, bringing this week’s loss to 0.9 percent. The gauge has rebounded 50 percent from this year’s low on March 3 amid signs government stimulus policies and record-low interest rates are leading the UK economy out of recession, albeit at a slow pace. The FTSE 250 dropped another 70 points to close on 9,167.60

Stateside the Dow Jones average had a quiet day on Friday; closing on 10318.16 The NASDAQ dropped just ten points on the day’s trading to close on 2146.04.

Gold maintained a grip near its all-time high while oil prices dipped and base metals eased as commodity markets paused for breath after their recent strong run.

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Tags: Alistair Darling, Bank, Bank of England, Banking, British Economy, British Pound, Cable & Wireless Plc, Confederation of British Industry, Credit Crunch, Currency, Dow Jones, Economy, Employment, Financial News, Financial Stability, FSA, FTSE, Fuller Smith & Turner Plc, General Lambert, Gold, London Pride ale, Miller Genuine Draft, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, National Grid, Pilsner Urquell, Punch Taverns Plc, Recession, Reckitt Benckiser, Richard Lambert, SABMiller Plc, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, Taylor Wimpey Plc, Thomas Cook, Tui Travel, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK Financial Services Authority, UK government, UK Recession, Unemployment, Wolseley Plc

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) get their way , in the very near future company directors who turn a blind eye to price fixing at their companies are liable to be banned for up to 15 years. According to a statement published by the OFT, Britain’s antitrust regulator are preparing considerably tougher penalties not only for directors who were directly involved in price fixing but also those who were guilty by default. The current rules ban only directors who themselves breach competition law through offences such as price-fixing.

In common with other U.K. regulatory bodies the OFT, intend to raise the penalties for those individuals who are found guilty of price fixing, including jail sentences. To show that these are not empty threats, the OFT has recently charged four former and current executives of British Airways Plc with fixing the price of fuel surcharges on transatlantic flights with one of their competitors. If found guilty, the four could go to prison for as long as five years.

Anyone saying that the UK economy is dying obviously hasn’t been talking to their funeral undertakers recently. As is often the case, the funeral industry is experiencing record upturn in trade that has been going on for the last year at least. Not that more people are dying, just that many are concerned that when the time comes when they will be called to leave this Earth, their loved ones wall be unable to meet the bill. For this reason, more and more UK subjects are joining a plan organized by Britain’s largest provider of funeral plans to pay for their funeral in advance through easy payments.

The company, Co-operative Funeral care, who operate 1,100 funeral homes across the O.K., announced this week that they experienced a 28% increase in the number of funeral plan sales during the last six months alone.

A spokesman for Co-operative Funeral care pointed out that subscribing to a funeral plan represented a sound investment for people as they are guaranteed against future increases in costs.

Funeral plans, however do not cover all the costs with the "future clients" having to pay for their burial plot.

Northern Rock, the UK building society come bank, who recently reported first-half losses of £725 million, has announced that they will be deferring payments on some of its subordinated debt to help conserve capital. The UK bank, largely public owned, where permissible. Granite, the bank’s securitisation vehicle, will be unaffected.

Thomas Cook, the UK travel group announced that a large part of insolvent German retailer, Arcandor’s 53 per cent stake in the company could be sold to institutional investors as early as next month as their creditor banks attempt to reduce their loan burden.

Arcandor’s banks, led by Royal Bank of Scotland, Commerzbank and Bayern LB were reported to be still in the market for find a strategic buyer for the company so that they could sell off their combined 44 per cent stake. –.

Demands for rented accommodation will grow to eventually reach than a third of UK households within a decade, doubling the number since 2005.

With public sector construction spending expected to weaken over the next 18 months, consumers who are unable or unwilling to purchase their own property will create a strong demand for rented homes. These predictions come from Gravis Snook, chief executive of Rok, the construction and maintenance group. "He continued "The model where the individual borrows large sums to buy a house that they never quite pay off is somewhat suspect."

The group had been in talks with a number of social housing groups regarding the establishment of joint ventures with institutional investors to profit from this demand.

The FTSE 100 was in consolidation mode yesterday rising just 3.89 points to close on 4689.67. The FTSE 250 also recovered slightly, rising 15.77 points to close on 8,370.25

The pound improved against the dollar, whilst taking a tumble against the rest of the major currencies.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6509
• Pound/Euro 1.1624
• Pound/Japanese Yen 155.3987
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7614

Research in Motion (RIM) designers and producers of the BlackBerry smartphone have won the coveted honor as the company to watch, by the highly ranked Fortune Magazine.

RIM, based in Canada were ranked first in a list of the fastest growing firms around the world, due to their tremendous success with the BlackBerry Curve in the US, where they hold a 74 per cent share of the business smartphone market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to recover from its collapse earlier in the week, rising a further 61.22 points to close on 9279.16. The NASDAQ also showed improvement up 13.32 points to close on 1969.24

Another interesting phenomenon was unveiled this week mirroring the unhealthy condition of the World’s leading economies. It has been reported that as the US economy has contracted and employment opportunities have considerably contracted, the number of Mexicans crossing into the US by legal and illegal means appears to have fallen considerably. Statistics show that the number of people legally entering the US from Mexico, mostly looking for work, has fallen by nearly 40 per cent since 2006 to an annual average of about 350,000. Even more compelling news is that according to official statistics, the number of people apprehended trying to enter the US illegally fell to 724,000 in 2008, the lowest since 1973.

While the Department of Homeland Security claim that the decline is related to tougher border protection efforts, however many claim that the slump in US economy is the real reason.

Oil prices dipped ahead of the latest US inventories data while base metals retreated after a sharp fall in the Chinese stock market

Demand for gold sank in the second quarter after jewellery consumption dropped by more than a fifth and investment interest slowed as the threat of meltdown in the global financial system receded

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Tags: Arcandor, Banking, BlackBerry, British airways, British Economy, British Pound, Co-operative, Co-operative Funeral care, Credit Crunch, Currency, Department of Homeland Security, Dow Jones, Economics, Financial News, FTSE, Gold, Gravis Snook, Money, NASDAQ, Northern Rock, Office of Fair Trading, OFT, price fixing, prison, Recession, Research in Motion, RIM, Royal Bank of Scotland, smartphone, Stock Markets, Thomas Cook, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK Recession, US economy