Hargreaves steps down as Hargreaves Lansdown chief
Peter Hargreaves is to step down as chief executive of Bristol-based investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, it was announced yesterday.
Peter Hargreaves is to step down as chief executive of Bristol-based investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, it was announced yesterday.
Staff at Axa Life’s Bristol offices are fearing for their jobs, after it was announced that 350 posts nationwide would go in an attempt to save up to £150m. In a statement today, Nicolas Moreau, group chief executive of Axa UK, said the company would have to make “difficult” decisions in relation to employee headcount, but the business would emerge from the recession leaner and stronger.
Lloyds Banking Group, which employs about 5,000 people in Bristol, has posted a first-half loss of £3.1bn according to its 2009 interim results. The bank revealed the losses this morning, showing the cost of the merger with HBOS in January. Lloyds took over HBOS in the middle of the banking crisis and has been forced to set aside £13.4bn pounds for bad debts.
Chancellor Alistair Darling has thrown down the gauntlet to Britain’s banks, effectively threatening them with a competition inquiry if they do not start to lower borrowing costs to small businesses. Mr Darling met the heads of seven of the country’s leading institutions at the Treasury on Monday, after revealing his concerns to the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday that lending rates were too high.
Britain’s banks are set for a showdown with the Chancellor after he criticised them for not reducing their borrowing rates for small- and medium-sized businesses. Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday, Alastair Darling said he was “extremely concerned” that lending rates were too high, and accused the banks of not living up to the promises they made when the Treasury bailed out the system at the end of last year.
More than 100 jobs are set to go at Lloyds Banking Group’s offices in the city’s Harbourside, the BBC has reported. The move, called “Groundhog Day” by unions, is part of plans to axe up to 1,200 jobs nationwide in IT support and insurance services. The company recently merged withScottish Widows and Clerical Medical, and the job losses are as a result of this deal.
Bristol staff at Alliance & Leicester’s Commercial Bank have been told their jobs are safe, despite parent company Banco Santander merging the Abbey and A&L corporate banking brands.
