The implication is that such damage would also restrain the banks’ ability to lend and sustain investment, the mortgage market and economic recovery.
Some in the industry have recently talked of a “mortgage famine”, wrote the Independent.
The accountancy and consultancy firm KPMG says regulatory pressures are building on banks across the world and that, if there is no change to their business models, new measures affecting bank liquidity will result in a “systemic reduction” in profitability.
London’s status as top financial centre ‘secure’
London’s position as the financial capital of Europe is secure according to Junichi Ujiie, the chairman of Nomura, one of the world’s largest investment banks.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph Ujiie claimed the bank had detected “a more realistic and pragmatic approach” in recent months at a government level.
The Nomura chairman had warned at the start of the year that bonus tax and over-regulation threatened London’s position as a leading financial capital.
The public declaration of support from the Japanese bank will be welcomed by politicians, writes the Telegraph.
Manufacturing can compensate for public-sector cuts, says EEF
Britain’s manufacturers are confident they will be able to fill the “growth gap” as the public sector contracts.
The Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) said its members – 6,000 industrial companies of all sizes – are “well placed” to respond to the Prime Minister’s call to “create and innovate; invest and grow”, wrote the Independent.
Having endured the worst downturn in three-quarters of a century, British industry has benefited from a 25% depreciation of sterling since its peaks in 2007, and most surveys of business confidence and export orders reflect a mood of optimism. This will hearten those in the Treasury and the Bank of England most worried about the “rebalancing” of the economy away from consumption and towards investment and exports.
Give middle classes a tax cut, says Laws
The middle classes should be given tax cuts before the next election, leading Liberal Democrat David Laws has said.
The former Chief Secretary to the Treasury warned those on middle incomes are bearing the greatest burden of the government’s austerity programme, writes the Mail.
He said that increases in ‘tax, national insurance, graduate contributions and pension payments’ mean middle-class families face losing 50p in every extra pound they earn to the Treasury.
