tagged w/ Bradford bingley
-
The UK Government has confirmed this morning that it has nationalised Bradford and Bingley's £41bn residential mortgage book after no-one wanted to buy it.
Rumours were rife over the weekend as to B&B's future, but Alastair Darling has spoken this morning saying the mortgage side of the business has been nationalised and that the savings side of the business has been sold to Spanish banking dons, Santander, for a figure believed to be in the region of £612m.
The UK Government has confirmed this morning that it has nationalised Bradford and... more
-
-
WASHINGTON - In the short run, congressional leaders have achieved their goal of producing an agreement Sunday on a federal bailout of banks and other financial institutions holding bad mortgage debts before the world's stock markets reopened.
But in the long run, the scope and still-unknown effects of the greatest government intervention in the financial markets since the Great Depression and the remaining underlying instability of the nation's economy -- will impose a new political challenge for the next president and Congress elected in November. The situation already has reshaped the election campaign debate.
Congressional leaders face another immediate and uncertain challenge this week with the House expected to vote on the plan as soon as Monday, and the Senate as soon as Wednesday in corralling enough votes to both pass it and present the controversial two-stage bailout as a bipartisan response to a national crisis.
While resistant House Republican leaders have agreed to it, many rank and file members still are balking at the unprecedented bailout of the nation's financial institutions, piling as much as $700 billion of new federal debt on the nation's taxpayers.
Congressional leaders are attempting to frame the measure as their own best compromise on a plan that the Bush administration proposed which they are now calling unacceptable.
This means, in part, dividing the bailout into two phases, starting with $350 billion but requiring congressional approval for a second pay-out. And it includes a demand that if the government does not recoup all the money that it invests in reselling mortgage debt that it purchases, it comes up with a plan to get the financial industry to cover any projected taxpayer losses.
"This is the administration's problem,'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday, "they sent us their bill, we did our best to improve it, and now we'll see how much support we can get
We will have to have bipartisanship to pass it.''
President Bush, who proposed the Treasury Department rescue and has pushed for it with national television and radio addresses, calls it essential to averting "financial panic' in frozen lending and a "long and painful recession. Congressional leaders agree that it is essential in averting a freeze in credit for everything from home loans and car loans to student loans and credit cards.
"Getting this done soon, promptly, is absolutely critical to the confidence of the markets,'' Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), one of the lead negotiators, said Sunday, predicting the votes to approve it this week. "The option of not passing it is not acceptable.''
WASHINGTON - In the short run, congressional leaders have achieved their goal of... more
-
-
The U.S. dollar rose against the yen and the euro, and US Treasury bond futures slipped on Sunday evening as U.S. lawmakers geared up for a Monday vote on creating a $700 billion government fund to buy bad debt.
U.S. stock futures edged higher, but momentum was held in check as another big U.S. bank appeared in the throes of an emergency takeover and two struggling European banks looked set for nationalization.
And while Washington's bailout package is seen as crucial in tackling the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression, doubts remain as to whether it could immediately thaw the money and credit markets.
"What you hope for is a positive reaction in Asia and Europe overnight and stability in the U.S. financial markets, most particularly the credit markets this week," said Jim Awad, Chairman at W.P. Stewart & Co. Ltd in New York.
"I would view any (stock market) rallies as being transitory because now the real work begins," he added.
Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis faced nationalisation on Sunday after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet held emergency talks with Belgian and Dutch ministers on rescuing one of Europe's 20 banks.
Britain's government, meanwhile, will nationalize troubled mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley and were discussing a sale of its savings book and branches, people familiar with the matter said.
In Germany, Hypo Real Estate was in urgent talks with German banking regulator Bafin and the finance ministry about solving a refinancing squeeze at the bank, sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The New York Times reported that Citigroup and Wells Fargo were locked in a bidding war over a possible emergency takeover of Wachovia Corp. The U.S. government, led by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department, are also involved in the Wachovia talks, the paper said.
S&P 500 stock index futures rose 2.4 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average index futures rose 10 points and Nasdaq 100 index futures were up 3.25 points.
New Zealand's stock market rose 1.1 percent in early trade.
Shortly after 6:30 p.m. New York time (2230 GMT) on Sunday evening, the 10-year Treasury note future opened down about 3/32 in price at 114 and 13/32, as the safe haven bid for government debt faded slightly.
The euro slipped 0.6 percent to $1.4530. Against the yen, the dollar was last up 0.3 percent at 106.26 yen.
Spot gold prices slipped 0.6 percent to $878 an ounce.
Wall Street equities had scratched out a gain Friday as financial stocks rallied late in the session on hope the U.S. Congress could reach agreement on the rescue plan. Still, Friday also featured much the same move to safe-haven assets that have dominated global markets for the past two weeks.
Gold jumped 4.0 percent at one point on Friday and the yen climbed broadly as investors piled into safer assets after news the bailout talks had stalled, while the failure of Washington Mutual, the biggest bank closure in U.S. history on Thursday, eroded confidence.
Oil prices slipped on Sunday night, pressured by concerns the financial market crisis would slow demand. Further pressure came as investors, who flocked into oil and other commodities earlier this year as a hedge against inflation and a weak dollar, shift into safer havens. U.S. crude oil futures settled at $106.89 a barrel on Friday, down $1.13.
Asian stocks ended last week lower. Japan's Nikkei share average shed 0.2 percent for the week, and the MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan fell 1.5 percent.
MSCI's main world equity index fell 2.8 percent last week week. Central banks injected fresh liquidity into the global banking system, helping lower soaring inter-bank borrowing rates, but money markets remained mostly paralyzed.
The U.S. dollar rose against the yen and the euro, and US Treasury bond futures... more
-
-
Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush and congressional leaders said they had reached agreement on a $700 billion bank-rescue package designed to revive moribund credit markets.
``I am confident Congress will do what is best for our economy by approving this legislation promptly,'' Bush said in a statement today in Washington.
The House may consider the plan as soon as tomorrow, and the Senate will vote at least by Oct. 1, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. House Republican leaders, who had resisted the Bush administration's initial proposal, urged their colleagues to support the plan today in a private meeting, Representative Mark Kirk of Illinois said in an interview.
The support of House Republicans leaders boosts the chances the rescue package will pass Congress.
Bush's comments came during a weekend of talks aimed at reaching agreement before global financial markets reopen today. It would give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson an immediate $250 billion to buy bad loans from financial companies, with the rest to be doled out in stages.
Lawmakers steered a path between voter anger at having to foot the bill for the mistakes of Wall Street bankers and the need to shore up a financial system shaken by the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Washington Mutual Inc. Bush, in a speech yesterday, said the package was needed to prevent a ``deep and painful recession.''
The agreement alters the Bush administration's original request for unchecked authority to purchase distressed debt securities from financial companies reeling from the record number of home foreclosures.
Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush and congressional leaders said they... more
-
-
Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Bradford & Bingley Plc, Britain's biggest lender to landlords, may be taken over by another bank or nationalized today under a U.K. government-backed plan to protect 21 billion pounds ($39 billion) of customer deposits.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling will announce details of the plan before 8 a.m. today, his office said late yesterday. Treasury officials worked through the night on a partial government takeover, acquisition by a rival bank or a break-up and purchase of assets by several buyers.
``The government is stepping in,'' Yvette Cooper, chief secretary to the Treasury, said yesterday in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. ``Depositors and ordinary savers must be properly protected, and they will be as part of the arrangements we'll set out.''
Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Bradford & Bingley Plc, Britain's biggest lender to... more
-
