The Observer index, January-December 2001 ... - Microform

Abbey National unless a rival £20bn bid from Lloyds TSB is
referred to the Competition Commission 04/02/01 N 1 1>4
* Guide to internet banking 04/02/01 C 12>13 1>6 Illustration
* How building societies are pulled in two directions in the
mutuality battle 04/02/01 C 24 1>6
* They are the new 'mass affluent' and the banks are after their
custom 04/02/01 C 25 1>6 Photograph
* A group of senior staff at Coutts & Co., the Queen's personal
bankers, masterminded complex frauds which cost the bank
more than £100m 11/02/01 B 13 1>4
* Internet banking 11/02/01 C 14>15 1>5 Illustrations
* The new Post Office has the ambition to do much more than
deliver letters - see Post Office, The 18/02/01
* Lloyds TSB will increase the cash element of its £19bn bid for
Abbey National if it escapes a reference to the Competition
Commission 18/02/01 N 2 2>6
* Irate investors want City watchdogs to investigate whether a
Scottish unit trust was wrong to surrender to a US vulture fund
18/02/01 N 3 1>8 Photographs
* Jill Insley on an online bank censured for its iffy advertising
18/02/01 C 32 1>6 Illustration
* Should Western banks do business with a Russian aluminium
giant accused of murder, extortion, fraud and money laundering?
18/02/01 N 6 1>8 Photograph
* As more of us become affluent, banks are focusing their efforts
on wealth management 18/02/01 N 9 1>8 Photograph
* Cheaper mortgages from Nationwide and Halifax could set an
industry standard - see Personal Finance 25/02/01
* The Equitable Life crisis 04/03/01 C 24 1>5 Photograph
* Barclays pays out £150m in City bonuses 11/03/01 N 1 1>3
* Abbey National and Cheltenham & Gloucester have become
the latest lenders to take up arms in the mortgage war 11/03/01
C 21 1>2
* Equitable Life bonuses are not what they seem for the last year
11/03/01 C 21 1>6
* Nearly 20,000 jobs are to go in the City by the end of 2002 as
the UK financial services sector feels the pinch from the global
share price meltdown 01/04/01 N 2 2>4
* Royal & Sun Alliance is in talks with giant Dutch rival Aegon
over a £1bn plus sale of its life insurance division 08/04/01 N 1
4>7
* The row over pay at the Royal Bank of Scotland escalated
yesterday as it emerged that a change in policy on share options
has given chief executive Sir George Mathewson a paper profit
of more than £1m 08/04/01 N 1 1>7
* 35 years of Bear Markets 08/04/01 N 3 1>5 Graph
* The City's leading financial institutions are playing a waiting
game, desperately trying not to sack people in the hope that
market conditions will improve 08/04/01 N 3 1>8 Photographs,
graph
* Insurers are at loggerheads with an influential committee of
MPs over their enthusiasm for genetic testing 08/04/01 C 5 1>2
* The exploitation of genetic testing by insurers is set to be
outlawed by the Government - see Genetics 15/04/01
* The life insurance industry is having to stump up £10bn to pay
for guaranteed annuities 15/04/01 N 1 1>7
* The new board of crisis-hit insurer Equitable Life has hired top
City law firm Herbert Smith to probe the conduct of the former
board and its advisers 15/04/01 N 1 3>5
OBSERVER INDEX: JAN-DEC 2001
79
* Thousands of private bank account details were illegally
distributed and then stolen after a security breach at Britain's
biggest card payment company, Bacs 15/04/01 N 1 4>8
* Lloyds TSB may be forced to sell Abbey National's large
consumer finance unit, First National, to gain clearance for the
£18bn takeover of its high street rival 15/04/01 N 2 7
* Insurer Scottish Widows is effectively bribing policy holders
covered by pension guarantees not to take them up, say
independent financial advisers 22/04/01 N 1 1>2
* The life industry, left reeling by a £10bn hit from guaranteed
annuities, has embarked on a number of strategies to try and
lesson the blow 22/04/01 N 10 1>7 Photograph
* Around 1,200 Allied Dunbar salesmen have failed exams they
were ordered to sit by after regulators found serious gaps in their
knowledge 22/04/01 N 2 7
* Carl Cushnie, the founder of lapsed trade finance house
Versailles, is suing his former finance director over the alleged
theft of £12m 29/04/01 N 1 4>6 Photograph
* The scandal over the £1.3bn bid for the Co-operative
Wholesale Society by entrepreneur Andrew Regan is set to blow
up again 29/04/01 N 1 1>7
* The Association of British Insurers is to try to calm the furore
over endowment mortgages by drawing up a new code of
practice 29/04/01 N 2 5>7
* Stockbroker Cazenove will put 'Group plc' after its name
which will signal the end of an era 29/04/01 N 3 1>8
Photograph
* The proposed merger between the Halifax and Bank of
Scotland is focusing on the finer details, such as who gets the top
job 29/04/01 N 3 1>5 Photographs, graphs
* The Scottish lobby insists Edinburgh should be home to the
merged bank of Halifax and Bank of Scotland 29/04/01 N 3 6>8
Photograph
* Prudential is facing sanctions in America after snubbing an
international commission set up to trace insurance policies stolen
or lost during the Holocaust 06/05/01 N 1 5>8
* The meltdown in the technology sector led to a devastating
slump in investment banking activity in the first quarter of this
year 06/05/01 N 2 7>8
* Merrill Lynch has launched a legal action to recover $65m
allegedly stolen from a client by one of its senior employees
13/05/01 N 2 1>3
* Insurer Royal & Sun Alliance is poised to slash its dividend by
up to 40 per cent after years of overpayment have left it
struggling 20/05/01 N 2 1>3 Graph
* Insurers will ask the Treasury to insist on better disclosures of
the costs of share dealing in pension funds rather than forcing
managers to include these bills in their annual fees 20/05/01 N 2
5>7 Photograph
* The management of Equitable Life will face angry
policyholders at its first annual meeting since being plunged into
crisis last year 20/05/01 N 2 1>4
* More than 7,000 investors in a Eurolife Assurance High
Income Bind have been told that some of their money will be
held in reserve for a potential tax bill owed by the company - see
Personal Finance 27/05/01
* Peter Davis, the former National Lottery regulator, is being
investigated over his role as a director of the stricken insurer
Equitable Life - see Davis, Peter 27/05/01
* The Financial Services Authority is questioning City banks
following allegations of corruption in the Wall Street securities
firms allocated shares in hot floating companies 27/05/01 N 2
1>2