January, 2020

• 19 January

  Morgan Stanley’s drive to rein in costs starts with chief Gorman

  

  Bloomberg Morgan Stanley just had its most profitable year on record. It wasn’t enough for its chief to land a raise. James Gorman’s compensation fell as the firm announced he will receive $27 million for 2019, according to a regulatory filing. That’s a 6.9% decline from the prior year and on par with the package the chief executive officer received ...

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• 19 January

  Barclays CEO reshapes trading unit at heart of growth plans

  

  Bloomberg Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley is pushing ahead with changes at the firm’s closely scrutinised investment bank, a key part of his strategy to drive growth. The British lender slashed about a hundred jobs globally at its securities unit this week, focusing on highly paid senior trading roles. The cull also included several senior members of an ...

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• 19 January

  China’s overall credit growth holds up in December

  Bloomberg China’s overall credit growth held up in December and a gauge of borrowing costs fell, signalling that policy makers are beginning to see some progress in channelling credit to the economy. The stock of outstanding aggregate financing expanded by 10.7% in the 12 months to December, the same pace as in November, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said. ...

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• 19 January

  ECB may get earful on prices this year

  

  Bloomberg If European Central Bank (ECB) officials use their review of monetary policy this year as a chance to connect with ordinary people, they need to be ready for some plain truths. At the heart of the assessment, likely to be announced on January 23, is how price stability should be defined and targeted. But ask citizens how they feel ...

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• 19 January

  Economists fall out of favour in a negative-rate test case

  

  Bloomberg In the country that’s had negative interest rates longer than anywhere else on Earth, economists are going through a bit of a rough patch. Since Denmark introduced subzero rates in mid-2012, citizens have struggled to get their heads around a world in which savers are punished, borrowers are rewarded and the basic laws of risk-return feel like ancient mythology. ...

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• 19 January

  Macron betters stock options to lure tech talent to France

  

  Bloomberg Emmanuel Macron’s pre-Davos summit for tech executives will hold some goodies for start-ups. In the third edition of his “Choose France” summit, timed to catch global CEOs in Paris on their way to the Swiss Alps’ World Economic Forum, the French president will detail measures in his 2020 budget that have improved stock options for start-ups in France. Macron ...

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• 19 January

  Amazon opens new office in Manchester

  

  Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc opened its first corporate office in the UK not to be based in the nation’s capital city, instead choosing the northern city of Manchester for a new site. The company said it’ll populate the six floors and 90,000 square feet it’s leased in the century-old Hanover Building with 600 new jobs “over time,” including software developers and ...

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• 19 January

  Stolen $66m painting found in museum wall is authentic

  Bloomberg The mystery surrounding a $66 million painting deepened last month after it resurfaced in the walls of an Italian gallery nearly 23 years after it was reported stolen. Officials announced that the painting by Austrian symbolist artist Gustav Klimt, created between 1916-1917, is authentic. Gardeners at the Ricci Oddi Gallery of Modern Art in northern Italy’s Piacenza province discovered ...

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• 19 January

  GAM CEO signals talks to begin on layoffs

  

  Bloomberg GAM Holding AG Chief Executive Officer Peter Sanderson is cutting bonuses and signalling talks on layoffs will begin imminently as the company adapts to losing more than 40% of its key assets in a rogue trading scandal. Bonuses will be cut since underlying profits are materially lower and the company will pay a higher proportion in deferred shares, Sanderson ...

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• 19 January

  UK profit warnings hit four-year high in 2019

  

  Bloomberg British firms issued 313 profit warnings in 2019, with consumer discretionary businesses — including retail and travel and leisure —, industrial support services, software services and construction and materials hit the hardest. The number of listed companies warning in 2019 was also the highest in 18 years, marginally above the figure of 2008, the report showed. “The UK economy ...

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