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Economy

Morning business news

Written by Roberta Murray and Sharecast

Thursday, 23 October 2008

Thursday 23rd Oct: Credit Suisse, FSA and Lehman brothers making the morning healines.

Credit Suisse (VTX:CSGN) has this morning announced a net loss of CHF 1.3 billion in the third quarter of 2008.

However the Group has also stressed that it enjoyed a continued reduction of risk exposures to assets most severely impacted by the dislocation in the mortgage and credit markets.

There were also solid results in some businesses in Investment Banking, including global rates, foreign exchange, electronic trading and prime services.

BAE

According to the Financial Times a top BAE Systems (LON:BA) executive and ex-defence official has been questioned by investigators over a suspected bribery plot involving a Viennese count to win European arms contracts.

FSA

The Financial Services Authority is to pull back from changes that could force life assurers to downgrade assumptions of investment returns and hold more capital. It fears such a move could inflame the volatile situation created by falling stock and bond markets, says the FT.

Lehmans

Britain’s Pension Protection Fund may have a seat at the Lehman Brothers creditor’s table in the US when it comes to divide the proceeds of the liquidated group among lenders, according to the administrator of its UK pension fund, writes the FT.

Meanwhile hedge funds delivered their worst performance on record last month as volatile markets and bans on short-selling battered the industry, says the Times.

Other market news

American International Group, the US insurer that was recently bailed out by the government, agreed to freeze any payments that had been due to Martin Sullivan, its former British-born chief executive, whose contract calls for $19 million plus other benefits, according to the Times.

UK mortgage lenders will be forced to prove that they are repossessing Britons' homes only as a last resort under new rules announced yesterday by the Prime Minister. Gordon Brown has introduced new rules to clamp down on lenders that rush to repossess homes in a bid to recoup as much money as possible when homeowners are unable to meet their mortgage repayments, reports the Times.

Hungary has raised interest rates by three percentage points to 11.5pc in a drastic move to stop the collapse of its currency peg against the euro, raising fears of a crunch across Eastern Europe as a string of states are forced to follow suit to stem capital flight, writes the Telegraph.

Non-food spending is forecast to fall in the run-up to the crucial Christmas trading period for the first time in more than a decade, according to a report by Verdict Research, says the Telegraph.

The BBC has become one of the latest casualties of sliding share markets as it emerged yesterday that as much as £1billion had been wiped off the value of its pension scheme in less than four months, according to the Times.