| Business: Bank's meeting place for bosses
THE Lord Mayor of Coventry, Cllr Dave Batten, has officially opened a new business lounge aimed at city executives. Cllr Batten cut the ribbon at Lloyds TSB's High Street branch which now offers the bank's customers from Coventry, Nuneaton and Rugby a place to meet. The lounge has a boardroom for up to 14 people, tea and coffee facilities, a chill-out zone and wi-fi. Use of all the facilities is free for customers. Business advisers will also be on hand to offer assistance. Chris Tucker, area director of Lloyds TSB in Coventry and Warwickshire, said: "Lots of small companies lack the space to break away from their desks or hold meetings with clients so we have established the lounge to provide our customers with a great alternative environment. "The new lounge will provide an excellent opportunity for our customers to network with other local business people, talk to a member of our team about their banking requirements, or simply take a break from the office." .
Britain’s Brown faces fury over huge data blunder
About 25 million people's personal data, including bank account details, vanished.published in issue 4068 page 10 at 2007-11-22LONDON - Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised and announced an investigation yesterday amid angry questions about how private records containing about half of Britain's bank details vanished in the post.
Some 25 million people's personal data, virtually every family with children aged under 16, likely including Brown's own, went missing in the biggest-ever loss of personal information by any government. Two password-protected compact discs containing the names, addresses, dates of birth and bank account details of millions disappeared after a junior official, who failed to post them recorded delivery, sent them to auditors.
The incident is a serious embarrassment for Brown who, as finance minister under Tony Blair, prided himself on restoring his Labour Party's reputation for economic competence and oversaw the creation of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the body responsible for the loss.
Argentina Stocks End Up, Bonds Down On US Econ Uncertainty
BUENOS AIRES (Dow Jones)--Argentine stocks closed slightly higher Tuesday while bonds closed lower amid lingering uncertainty on the state of the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve's next moves as minutes from the Fed's last meeting showed October's interest-rate cut was a close call. The peso closed unchanged against the U.S. dollar at ARS3.1325. The Merval benchmark index closed 0.10% higher to 2,245.89, while the broader General index gained 0.27% to 125,234.62, amid average trading volumes which stood at ARS112.8 million ($35.9 million). As oil prices closed above $98 a barrel, oil-related stocks were the biggest winners. Shares of Petrobras (APBR.BA) gained 2.19% to ARS165. However, the gains were offset by losses in banking shares on the continuing weakness of their local bond portfolio.
(AFX UK Focus) 2007-11-20 13:30 GMT: PureCircle appoints former HSBC investment banker as non-executive chairman
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - PureCircle, which produces naturally extracted food ingredients, said it has appointed the former deputy chairman of HSBC Investment Banking, Paul Selway-Swift, as its non-executive chairman. PureCircle said Selway-Swift has "over 40 years of blue chip experience", and his "expertise in the areas of capital markets and investment will be vital to the company as it prepares for AIM admission in December". TFN.newsdesk@thomson.com rda/cmr COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
(AFX UK Focus) 2007-11-21 12:06 GMT: Indian shares fall heavily on gloomy US outlook, weak dollar
MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - Indian shares fell heavily on Wednesday, rattled by the US Federal Reserve's gloomy outlook for the US economy and the dollar sinking to new lows against major currencies. Equity markets in Asia and Europe were also rocked by high crude prices, which rose to within striking distance of the 100 usd a barrel mark. The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark Sensex fell 3.52 pct, or 678.18 points, to 18,602.62, while the National Stock Exchange's S&P CNX Nifty lost 3.80 pct to 5,561.05. Yesterday, the Fed forecast business growth to slow next year, with gross domestic product (GDP) gaining 1.8-2.5 pct. All 30 stocks tracked by the Sensex fell today. The broad sell-off percolated down to the mid-cap and small-cap companies. On the domestic front, SEBI's restrictions on the use of participatory-notes (P-Notes) by overseas investors was also seen dragging the indices down.
Loan buyer Freddie Mac has its worst quarter
The mortgage crisis intensified Tuesday as Freddie Mac, the nation's No. 2 buyer and guarantor of home loans, posted its largest quarterly loss ever and warned that it may need to curtail its business unless it can raise fresh capital. Freddie Mac lost $2 billion in the third quarter, much more than Wall Street was expecting, primarily because it needed to set aside $1.2 billion to account for bad home loans. Freddie Mac also said it may slice in half its quarterly dividend of 50 cents per share -- which would be its first dividend cut since becoming a public company in 1989. That double dose of bad news sent Freddie Mac's shares skidding 28.7 percent, the largest decline in the two decades its shares have traded in public markets. It also sent a shudder through the mortgage market since Freddie's loss was even larger than the $1.4 billion quarterly deficit of Fannie Mae, its bigger government-sponsored competitor.
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