The Salz Review, looking at business practices at Barclays, is out. Click to read.
We shouldn’t scoff. Barclays’ newish man Antony Jenkins has rolled out fullish details of the much-previewed strategic review. Click here for more:
Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.
Learn moreThe big story on Friday concerns the terms and structure of Qatar’s life-saving support for Barclays at the peak of the financial crisis in 2008. As Daniel Schäfer, Caroline Binham and Simeon Kerr report, the key issue is whether Barclays lent Qatar the money to buy shares in the bank. Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreQuite a victory for open justice on Thursday — senior Barclays bankers involved in the first major test litigation over Libor will be publicly named in court after all, after a High Court judge threw out their application for anonymity.
Full FT story here. (The FT joined other media organisations in challenging the anonymity.) Read more
Amidst a general fiscal-fudge-relief-rally on Wednesday, one sector stood out…
It might not be made public until Monday but the FT reports a fine above $1bn could be landing on UBS’s doorstep to settle allegations of Libor manipulation. Driven largely, it appears, by CFTC and DoJ penalties.
That’s more than double the Barclays record set in June… Read more
Lisa joined FT Alphaville in September 2011 after a tour of duty through the guts of the financial industry, having worked as an analyst at a bank and for a financial data company. She's now the Head of New Projects for FT.com.
Learn more“A judgmental structure of supervision that emphasises the big issues has to be matched by proper transparency . . . or it won’t work.” Andrew Bailey, head of prudential regulation at the Financial Services Authority, told that to parliamentarians on Monday.
Too bad there’s seemingly no tradition of transparent supervision in the UK, especially when it comes to banks. Read more
David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.
Learn moreAwkward. One of the newish regulatory probes afflicting Barclays has brought us another batch of inter-trader communications they clearly never thought would see the light of day.
This particular investigation, which could see Barc landed with a record $470m fine over alleged US energy market manipulation, circles around four traders on the bank’s West Coast power desk who allegedly thought it wise to exchange messages explaining how they would “crap on” certain prices in one market to profit in another. Read more
Lisa joined FT Alphaville in September 2011 after a tour of duty through the guts of the financial industry, having worked as an analyst at a bank and for a financial data company. She's now the Head of New Projects for FT.com.
Learn moreRemember the frustrating old days when a cloud of uncertainty hanging over bank balance sheets was due to illiquid structured products and mortgage security holdings? When one was left to look out the window and wonder just how much of a payout would a bank ultimately get on its credit default swap protection on super-senior CDO tranches from ailing monolines? Sigh. Read more
Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.
She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.
She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.
Learn moreWhat do you get when you reveal two new regulatory investigations as part of your slightly disappointing quarterly results? Answer: a 4.4 per cent drop in share price, as Barclays is finding out on Wednesday morning.
From the FT (our emphasis):
Barclays has warned investors that it is facing another fine in the US, this time over its conduct in power trading.
It has also disclosed that it is under investigation by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission over whether its relationships with certain third parties breached corruption rules.
David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.
Learn moreThe Treasury Committee has let loose some letters between its chairman, MP Andrew Tyrie, and the former chief executive of the FSA Hector Sants. The subject matter of the correspondence concerns the original approval by the FSA of Bob Diamond appointment as CEO of Barclays back in 2010.
The freshly released content (see below) provides confirmation that the FSA caveated its approval of Diamond with a warning that it could change its mind if there was an adverse outcome from the Libor investigation. Read more
David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.
Learn moreJohn Mann, the battler from Bassetlaw, is back with the results of his very own banking inquiry.
The Labour MP set up the alternate inquiry after expressing his displeasure at the omission of fellow committee member Andrea Leadsom and his good self from the specialist Libor inquiry because they were “too outspoken”. The words “whitewash” and “farce” also made an appearance: Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreClick to enlarge:
It’s the product of all those Select Committee hearings, including appearances by Messrs. Diamond and Tucker. It is only a preliminary report. But it does not have kind words for the authorities who failed to stop the attempted manipulation of Libor before and during the financial crisis. (Barclays management is of course completely coruscated.) As jaded as we’ve all become by the Libor scandal, it’s pretty damning. Read more
David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.
Learn moreThe bank beat expectations with an adjusted profit before tax of £4.2bn, cut its eurozone exposures, set aside £450m to compensate small and medium-sized businesses that were mis-sold interest rate hedging products and said sorry again… which was nice.
From the statement: Read more
This is just too easy. Like killing-dodos-with-a-automatic-machine-gun easy. (Not that we ever could, or would, do that!)
The banking industry’s PR arm(y) is the opposite of Britain’s forces, for it only continues to grow and grow, not unlike bacteria. Lob in auxiliary PR, ie industry “awards”, and frankly we’d be surprised if a disgraced chief executive didn’t have at least one “Banker of the Year” accolade to his name by the time of his (or dare we say “her”?) fall. Read more
David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.
Learn moreSome emails between Paul Tucker and Bob Diamond courtesy of John Mann MP. Not as explosive as billed but there is a Libor-headed email to Bob that makes reference to HSBC, RBS “Stuart”, “Johnny” and Mark Dearlove from May 2008.
Click through the pics for the full docs (although there ain’t that much more): Read more
Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.
Learn moreHSBC came in for a kicking in the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations into anti-money laundering and exposure of the US financial system to drug and terrorism financing.
Some of this is old news; as the FT notes, HSBC has not been formally accused of wrongdoing in connection with the most recent investigation, but it has twice been ordered by US regulators to take action on deficient anti-money laundering practices. However investigation by the US Department of Justice, the US Treasury and the Manhattan district attorney, is under way into many of the allegations raised in the Senate report, and some analysts expect fines of up to $1bn to result. Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn more“I passed the instruction, as I had received it…”
Click the pic for the feed from the Wilson Room in Porticullis House: Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreClick pic for the full list of documents. Some are official reports on Libor, while others - such as the excerpt below – are the NY Fed talking to Barclays traders…
FR: Hmm. Read more
So says John Mann, the fiery MP for Bassetlaw who’s been hurling the invective at Barclays and Bob Diamond of late.
He’s now fuming that he and fellow member of the awkward squad Andrea Leadsom have reportedly been left off the grand British parliamentary Banking Enquiry being led by treasury select committee head Andrew Tyrie. Read more
David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.
Learn moreIt’s been a little while since we had a nice Libor risk estimate so we were delighted when Morgan Stanley’s attempt dropped into our inbox. MS take the Libor risk in three chunks:
1) Regulatory fines (an estimated median 7 to 12 per cent hit to 2012 EPS). From MS (all with our emphasis): Read more
David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.
Learn moreFirst, an inventory from Barclays’ Marcus Agius to Committee head Andrew Tyrie in advance of his appearance on Tuesday morning (click through the pics to get the full documents):
This is one hurt banker.
Bob Diamond is letting all his stock and options lapse as he departs from Barclays. Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreClick the pic for the live* feed from Wilson Room, Portcullis House…
As last week was dominated by holidays and the Supreme Court’s healthcare ruling in the US, it’s taken a little longer than usual for some of the econoblogopunditsphere there to get really fired up about the Libor scandal. But it’s well and truly happening now.
First up Nouriel Roubini, who says things have become worse since then financial crisis: the TBTF banks are bigger, along with their conflicts of interest. Our (rough) transcript of one part follows: Read more
Revealing little, but here it is — the Bank of England’s response to a Freedom of Information Act request from John Mann MP, seeking “copies of emails and transcripts of telephone conversations between Deputy Governor, Paul Tucker and Bob Diamond, Chief Executive of Barclays between 1 October 2008 and the 30 November 2008.”
Covering letter… (click the images) Read more
We think it’s worth noting that the The Economist is now using the Bankster word in its coverage of the Libor scandal, due to be published in print on Friday, but available in pixelated form here.
That’s the “newspaper’s” leader on the matter. An extract: Read more
Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.
Learn moreKey sentence is “senior resignations at the bank and the consequent uncertainty surrounding the firm’s direction are negative for bondholders”, although they add that recent events could be positive over the long term. Below is the full statement:
Moody’s changes outlook on Barclays’ standalone rating to negative Read more
We are seizing control of the regular Wednesday US Markets Live slot to bring you live commentary on Bob Diamond’s testimony to the Treasury Select Committee.
| Market | Last price | Today's change |
52 week high |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTSE 100 Index: FSI As of Jun 19 2013 16:35 |
6,349 | -25.39 | -0.4% | 6,876 |
| FTSEurofirst 300 Index: FSI As of Jun 19 2013 17:15 |
1,180 | -3.23 | -0.3% | 1,258 |
| S&P 500 INDEX: WCB As of Jun 19 2013 05:00 |
1,629 | -22.88 | -1.4% | 1,687 |
| Euro/US Dollar FX Spot Rate As of Jun 20 2013 00:59 |
1.33 | 0.00 | -0.1% | 1.37 |
| ICE Brent Crude Oil Front Month: IEU As of Jun 20 2013 01:25 |
105.24 | -0.88 | -0.8% | 119.17 |
| COMEX GOLD 1 FUTURES CHAIN Front Mon: CMX As of Jun 20 2013 02:03 |
1,344 | -30.00 | -2.2% | 1,795 |
© The Financial Times Ltd 2013 FT and 'Financial Times' are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.
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