A steady stream of customers were greeted with an array of gimmicks. Not only does the bank welcome dogs, it provided them with free biscuits and offered their owners free breakfast. “We’re in the business of turning customers into fans,” American billionaire and Metro Bank co-founder Vernon Hill told reporters. Metro Bank aims to have…
Guinea must review billions of dollars worth of mining deals signed since a coup in 2008 to make sure the West African state is getting its fair share of revenue, election front-runner Cellou Dallein Diallo said. Contracts signed by multinationals such as Rio Tinto, Vale, and Chalco should be reviewed fairly, in a way that…
A key lobby group has became the latest body to downgrade Russia’s 2010 crop prospects as the worst drought in 130 years threatened harvests in the major wheat exporter, sending key wheat prices to 22-month highs. The recent jump in US wheat prices followed a 42 percent leap in wheat futures on the Chicago Board…
The pressure on Prudential chief Tidjane Thiam to quit in the wake of the insurer’s failed bid for Asian rival AIA has eased, with big investors refusing to put their weight behind an attempt to remove him. Both Thiam and Pru chairman Harvey McGrath faced calls to step down after the insurer’s $35.5bn bid for…
The International Monetary Fund has chosen not to call the yuan “substantially” undervalued, a move that recognises China’s efforts to free up its exchange rate and avoids friction with an increasingly influential shareholder. The summary of an annual review of China’s policies omitted the contentious word, used by IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn as recently…
BP Plc has named American Bob Dudley as its next CEO, saying Tony Hayward would stand down after his gaffe-prone handling of the worst oil spill in US history that triggered a $17bn quarterly loss. Dudley, the US executive managing BP’s response to the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, will get the top job…
Ross Mandell, former head of Sky Capital Holdings, was indicted in July 2009 on charges he and five others defrauded investors in a scheme US prosecutors claim pressured people to buy stock from what they called a “trans-Atlantic boiler room” with operations in London and New York. Released on $5m bail, the 53-year-old Mandell faces…
Spain’s smaller regional lenders, or cajas, will start a roadshow aimed at reassuring investors after the test results showed five of their peers among the seven banks that failed, and several more close to failing. Problems among the cajas have long been flagged, however, and are being remedied. The euro was little changed in the…
Britain’s economy grew almost twice as fast as expected in the second quarter of this year, buoyed by a sharp pick-up in services output and the fastest rise in construction output in almost 50 years, according to official data. The Office for National Statistics said GDP jumped 1.1 percent on the quarter, the fastest rise…
“China’s presence in Europe is visible across the board whether in China’s recent purchase of several hundreds of millions of euros of government bonds in the eurozone, particularly Spain or Greece, or in other large-scale investments too, such as the acquisition of Volvo by the car maker Geely,” European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said….
