Search Results for: London

TWO property fraudsters who rooked Allied Irish Banks (AIB) and Bank of Scotland (BoS) for hundreds of millions of pounds in loans were jailed for a total of 12 years in London on January 17, in a case exposing lax lending oversight during the 2003-2008 boom years.…

FOR critics who claim financial reporting is boring – accounting professionals should point to Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page. He has created a unit with a limited staff and budget, taking on a government with a taste for secrecy, and still released reports revealing cost assessments that have made headlines.…

CHINESE investors in London’s property market are becoming increasingly important players, and the signs are that the flow of Yuan into the UK capital could keep growing. Michelle Zhang, who heads up the China desk at DTZ London, said: “CIC [China Investment Corporation] would be viewed as the most active Chinese investor and now have a number of prime London property holdings;” she highlighted the Chinese sovereign fund’s recent GBP245 million purchase of Deutsche Bank headquarters Winchester House, from KanAm, undertaken alongside Invesco.…

SHOULD Middle Eastern oil producers, Saudi Arabia in particular, be price makers rather than takers, confined to influencing prices through OPEC quotas? With OPEC’s contribution to overall oil production dwindling compared to non-OPEC producers’ output, and rising domestic demand in the Arab world, there are strong arguments for price signalling, but the turmoil in the region means any change in strategy will be difficult to implement.…

THE BRITISH government is creating a unique regime of energy price incentives to spur commercialisation of carbon capture and storage systems, yet significant barriers remain to unlocking the billions of Pounds Sterling needed to build a CCS industry of sufficient mass in the UK able to create economies of scale for investors.…

DECLINING demand from the USA and European Union (EU) for Bangladesh knitwear has not dampened the world’s second largest clothing exporter from aiming high. Rather, Bangladesh is planning to more than double its current knitwear exports, to USD20 billion by 2020, seeking out new markets.…

DESPITE China’s slowing economy in 2012, Chinese consumers still spent handsomely on beauty products. In December alone, for example, spending on cosmetics and personal care products (such as personal soaps, shampoo and toothpastes) increased 16% and 16.6% respectively from the same time a year ago, compared with 8.7% for clothing and 3.6% for jewelry, according to the China Nation Commercial Information Center, a Beijing-based government organisation tracking national retail statistics.…

Pakistan’s shipbreaking industry has started talks with the Pakistani government over how it can comply with the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, whose rules come into force in 2015. The chairman of the Pakistan Ship Breakers Association has told Steel First that he has met with officials to discuss measures for implementing the treaty: “We are ready to take steps to protect and promote the ship breaking industry,” declared Deewan Rizwan Farooqui.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

HOW ‘fair’ and effective are laws and procedures for freezing the assets of people and organisations accused or suspected of being involved in terrorism or facilitating it?

The most serious problem, according to people thus ‘designated’, is that even if they are exonerated and their accounts are released, they can be regarded as ‘unbankable’ by banks and other financial institutions.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Commission is drafting legislative European Union (EU) proposals looking at using road pricing to encourage more efficient driving, optimising the use of Europe’s transport infrastructure. Keir Fitch, advisor to EU transport Commissioner Siim Kallas told a conference in Brussels last week that the Commission wanted more harmony between national policies on this subject: "We will produce legislation which seeks more commonality on how to do it".…