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Wednesday evening business bulletin
A joint inquiry into the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS should be carried out by the Scottish Parliament and Westminster, the Scottish Liberal Democrats said today.
The call came from party leader Tavish Scott as MSPs at Holyrood debated the future of the former Bank of Scotland, now HBOS, this afternoon.
Mr Scott said he has written to John McFall, the chairman of Westminster’s Treasury Select Committee and to Iain Smith, of Holyrood’s Economy Committee.
``I have asked them to convene a joint inquiry into the failures that have led to this crisis and the impacts that it will have on business and prosperity for companies and individuals all across Scotland," he said.
``We must learn why and we must work on the future."
Lloyds TSB agreed a £12.2 billion takeover of HBOS last week after the latter’s share price plummeted.
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has earlier made a statement to Parliament, telling MSPs he would ``strain every sinew" to maximise the benefits for Scotland, but welcomed indications that the new group will retain a Scottish headquarters on Edinburgh’s Mound.
The £12.5bn takeover of British Energy saw its shares shine today in an otherwise lacklustre session for the London market.
French giant EDF’s improved 774p a share offer for the nuclear power firm drove its stock up the risers’ board, ending the day with gains of nearly 5%, or 41p, to 765p.
But with losses for miners offsetting improved sentiment for banking stocks, the FTSE 100 Index closed down 40.6 points to 5095.6.
British Energy was pipped to the top spot by London Stock Exchange, which said it was taking steps to improve competitiveness. Shares closed up more than 7%, or 58.5p to 882.5p.
British gas parent Centrica, in talks over taking a 25% stake in BE, also saw slim gains despite turning ex-dividend - meaning shareholders are not entitled to the latest payout. The stock nudged up 0.5p to 331p.
Despite uncertainty over the US Government’s banking bail-out plans, traders took some cheer from news of billionaire Warren Buffett’s £2.7bn investment in Goldman Sachs.
The chances of snap interest rate cuts in the wake of last week’s financial market turmoil were played down by a Bank of England rate-setter tonight.
Andrew Sentance, a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said policymakers should not "over-react" despite a week when financial markets went ``to hell and back".
He told a business audience in Leicester that the MPC needed to make ``a broader assessment" of the impact of the turbulence on the wider economy.
Dr Sentance said: ``After a week in which it appeared that the financial markets went to hell and back, it is important to keep in mind that total financial services employment in the UK is around 1 million out of a total of nearly 32 million workforce jobs - about 3% of total employment.
The pound at 5pm was US$1.8506 compared to US$1.8544 at the previous close while the euro at 5pm was £0.7924 compared to £0.7937 at the previous close.
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