Category: Credit crisis
There will be a price to pay for credit crunch bail out
It is hard to judge whether the massive rises on the financial markets on Friday (not so far continued this morning) were driven by anything other than a naive sense of relief. The huge, unprecedented lifeline thrown to the rapidly...
Posted by David Worsfold on September 22, 2008 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
AIG: Dead Man in Chains?
Up until late last night it looked as if AIG was a dead man walking. Then the US government stepped in and effectively nationalised it, the second time in a fortnight that the right wing Bush administration has played the...
Posted by David Worsfold on September 17, 2008 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Looking to the next banking crisis before solving the last one
The first tentative steps in the government's long trek to recover its credibility were announced this morning when the Chancellor, the beleaguered Alistair Darling, announced plans about plans for tackling the next banking crisis. The trouble is they haven't solved...
Posted by David Worsfold on January 4, 2008 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Bankers should take blame for credit crunch
I have often wondered at the informal hierarchy of the City and its financial institutions which always seems to put bankers at the top of the tree. Do they deserve to be there? The case for such pre-eminence looks very...
Posted by David Worsfold on July 15, 2008 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Parliament missing its credit crunch chance
Parliament is in severe danger of missing the chance to reassert its authority as the advocate of the people it purports to represent as the credit crunch drags on. In the last week it has blown two golden opportunities to...
Posted by David Worsfold on November 11, 2008 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Noose tightens on ratings agencies
The threat of tough rules to bring the ratings agencies into a new pan-European regulatory framework took a step closer to reality last night as the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee voted through a hard-hitting package of proposals.The...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 24, 2009 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Goodwin's pension is obscuring the issue
There is no coherent argument that can be offered for defending Sir Fred Goodwin's pension and it was disappointing to see yesterday's hearings of the Treasury Select Committee largely wasted in pursuing the City minister Lord (Paul) Myners over the...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 18, 2009 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Brown has lost the regulatory reform battle already - he just can't bring himself to admit it
As hard as he might try, it looks as if Gordon Brown has already lost control of the debate on the future regulation of the world's financial services industries. His pleas to President Obama and the US Congress for...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 6, 2009 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Does the FSA really have the answers?
Macho posturing. Empty macho posturing. That could be the overwhelming feeling one is left with in the wake of the Financial Services Authority's appearance before the Treasury Select Committee. Certainly if you relied on the BBC's Robert Peston you would...
Posted by David Worsfold on February 26, 2009 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Europe draws up the battle lines on financial regulation
It should come as no surprise that the European Commission will launch a bid to create a pan-European financial regulator. The abject failure of national regulators to prevent, predict or plan for the successive crises that have swamped the financial...
Posted by David Worsfold on February 25, 2009 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Credit crunch confidence crisis
There is no shock value in the current crisis-ridden climate when a consumer group says the financial services sector has a mountain to climb to restore consumer confidence. Which? - once the Consumers Association - set out this case with...
Posted by David Worsfold on February 17, 2009 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Banks: it is all about control
When the government first stepped in to re-capitalise the banks as the financial system teetered on the brink of disaster in the autumn, I highlighted the failure to assert political control of the banks. Nothing was done, or seems to...
Posted by David Worsfold on February 12, 2009 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Lloyds TSB suffers bonus backlash
‘Bonus’ has become a dirty word, certainly when mentioned in the same breath as banks and in the earshot of some Labour MPs. Last night Lloyds TSB met around 20 Parliamentarians over dinner (arranged many months previously) to share its...
Posted by David Worsfold on October 22, 2008 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Wither the ratings agencies?
When the dust finally settles on the wreckage of the financial system once the current storms have subsided one area the spotlight of scrutiny and blame will fall on will be the ratings agencies. Listening to several well informed MPs...
Posted by David Worsfold on October 15, 2008 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
McFall lowers the temperature
There was a useful bit of scene setting yesterday by John McFall, the combative chairman of the Treasury Select Committee as it prepares for its first foray into the violent storms gripping the financial markets. Showing a perceptive awareness of...
Posted by David Worsfold on October 10, 2008 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
AIG: Alive but still in chains
The cataclysm sweeping across global financial markets is moving so fast that no-one can keep up. That includes readers of this blog. I was chided last night for my comment of a few weeks ago that AIG was a dead...
Posted by David Worsfold on October 8, 2008 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Treasury Committee will be akin to blood sports
The financial chaos around the world is obviously going to dominate the first few weeks of the new Parliamentary session. I noticed a few commentators wondering why Parliament wasn’t recalled early – maybe yesterday’s response to the Chancellor’s statement provides...
Posted by David Worsfold on October 7, 2008 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Trade credit row could turn nasty for insurers
The trouble with the sort of help the government announced in the Budget to help ease the pressures in the domestic trade credit market is that it suddenly alters people's expectations. With many businesses, especially in the retail sector, going...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 27, 2009 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Treasury Committee picks off its targets one-by-one
The Treasury Select Committee looks to be pursuing an interesting strategy when it comes to reporting on its in-depth inquiry into the causes of the banking crisis. Usually Select Committees publish single reports at the end of such inquiries with...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 20, 2009 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Is breaking up the RBS and Lloyds a good idea?
I am totally unconvinced by the new Conservative policy of breaking up the partially state-owned banks as their ownership is returned to the private sector. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne's speech advocating this earlier this week was full of glib phrases...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 9, 2009 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
G20 points to a new era of regulation - but by whom?
There will be hundreds of thousands of words written over the next few days analysing the outcome of yesterday's G20 Summit in London and I will be looking hard for an answer to this question: who is in charge of...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 3, 2009 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
ABI pitch for London-based regulator is a canny move as G20 meets
Well, they have arrived at Excel and within a few hours we will find out was has been agreed and what has not been agreed. It will no doubt take a forensic scrutiny of every word in the statements published...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 2, 2009 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Myners isn't the Goodwin fall guy
The Tories seem intent on pursuing Lord Myners, the City minister, out of office over what he did or didn't know about Sir Fred Goodwin's pension arrangements. They are wrong and do themselves no credit.As I have said before, it...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 1, 2009 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
What can Brown salvage from the G20 Summit?
I am still struggling to see where this consensus the Prime Minister keeps talking about over fiscal stimuli and international agreement on future regulation is going to come from. His current mini-world tour in the run up to next week's...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 25, 2009 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Trade credit insurers calm the political waters
It has certainly been a day of competing attractions at Westminster. The scurrying back and forth through the corridors of the Palace of Westminster and the conspiratorial knots of MPs in almost every corner suggested something was going on...
Posted by David Worsfold on May 19, 2009 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Should Myners have stopped Goodwin's pension?
Another day, another report from the Treasury Select Committee - and another barrage of disclosures about MPs' expenses. This morning we have the third instalment from the Treasury Select Committee following its inquiry into the banking crisis, Banking Crisis: reforming...
Posted by David Worsfold on May 15, 2009 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Banks could face a mutual future
The second installment of the Treasury Select Committee's report into the banking crisis is a 120 page blockbuster. Predictably, it doesn't pull many punches when it comes to apportioning blame and roundly condemns the banks and their managements for what...
Posted by David Worsfold on May 5, 2009 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
All Party Group tackles trade credit insurance
The All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services will be looking into the issues in the UK trade credit insurance market on Tuesday 19 May (11.30am, Committee Room 17, House of Commons) when the Association of British Insurers...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 29, 2009 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Financial services regulation: House of Lords backs the global option put forward at G20
As the political chaos unleashed by the MPs' expenses scandal continues to dominate the headlines and totally absorb political leaders of all parties, there are some sharp reminders that life - real life - goes on in the world of...
Posted by David Worsfold on June 2, 2009 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Treasury Select Committee plays a long game
The long-awaited report from the Treasury Select Committee on the future of financial regulation seems to have disappointed some people. I think they need to look a little harder at what John McFall's committee is saying. Just because it doesn't offer...
Posted by David Worsfold on July 31, 2009 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Treasury Select Committee has its say on regulatory reform
The Treasury Select Committee is promising a blizzard of reports over the next week, including its much-awaited verdict on reform of the financial regulatory system next Friday (31 July). The first reports are out this morning and should have a...
Posted by David Worsfold on July 24, 2009 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Banking reform: reports galore promised over the next couple of weeks but will they get us any further foward?
Those following the debate about reform of the regulation for the banking and financial services sector are promised a wheelbarrow load of reports over the next couple of weeks: plenty of summer holiday reading.Today, we will see the report from...
Posted by David Worsfold on July 16, 2009 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Vince Cable's book The Storm is worth reading for a real insight into the causes and consequences of the financial crisis
The Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What it Means is a breathtaking tour of economic policy that amply demonstrates why Vince Cable has eclipsed all other politicians with his response to the financial and economic crises of the last...
Posted by David Worsfold on July 14, 2009 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Regulation of banks, building societies and insurers now looks to be a significant political battleground
The initial reaction to the Chancellor's announcement of a relatively tame and limited package of reforms of financial regulation has to be that the most significant aspect is actually the Tories' response. The Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, told the House...
Posted by David Worsfold on July 8, 2009 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Irresponsible bankers will smile at the global regulatory reform chaos
The last week has seen a flurry of activity around the world on the regulatory front but I have a suspicion that the only people who will be really satisfied are the very people at whom the reforms are...
Posted by David Worsfold on June 22, 2009 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
So many of the big issues for financial services were overlooked at the party conferences, although Cameron did remember at the last minute
I have watched, waited, searched and searched again for signs that our three main political parties are looking for answers to some of the key issues surrounding the future of the financial services sector. My wait appears to have been...
Posted by David Worsfold on October 9, 2009 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
At last the mutuality debate gets underway, starting with Northern Rock
As bankers' bonuses grab the headlines and the European Union and G20 battle it out over who is leading the way in reshaping financial regulation, the debate about when and how to return the nationalised banks to the private sector...
Posted by David Worsfold on September 28, 2009 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
EU hedge fund debate is getting an injection of commonsense
The European Union's headlong rush to be seen to be tough on hedge funds - which many in Europe find an easy target to blame for the financial turmoil of the last couple of years - is being slowed down....
Posted by David Worsfold on September 17, 2009 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Obama bank plan puts UK on the defensive and EU in the shade
Barak Obama has clearly run out of patience, not just with Wall Street but with other governments and financial regulators around the world. His shock announcement yesterday of a a radical new regulatory regime for the banking sector has obviously...
Posted by David Worsfold on January 22, 2010 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
IMF bank tax proposals tick off one election issue with a minor victory for Labour
The leak about the proposed double tax on banks from the International Monetary Fund strikes directly at one of the policy differences between the three main parties in the UK General Election campaign. Although a relatively discreet issue, this topic has already surfaced a...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 21, 2010 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Tories have got their way over the future of regulation - that's the story behind the abolition of the FSA
Last night's announcement by the Chancellor, George Osborne, that there is to be a massive overhaul of financial regulation with the Bank of England moving firmly into the driving seat and the Financial Services Authority falling by the wayside is...
Posted by David Worsfold on June 17, 2010 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Tories have got their way over the future of regulation - that's the story behind the abolition of the FSA
Last night's announcement by the Chancellor, George Osborne, that there is to be a massive overhaul of financial regulation with the Bank of England moving firmly into the driving seat and the Financial Services Authority falling by the wayside, is...
Posted by David Worsfold on June 17, 2010 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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David has been a financial journalist for 30 years and is currently Group Editorial Services Director at Incisive Media.
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