“Defending the UK’s interests”: the Prime Minister vetoed a tax which “would have had a disproportionate impact on the City”
The City today gave a rousing cheer for Prime Minister David Cameron’s refusal to sign up to a financial transaction tax – known as the Tobin tax – across the European Union.
Cameron’s veto means it is now highly unlikely the eurozone will go ahead with introducing a Tobin tax across the 17 countries inside the currency.
The tax was set to be levied at 0.1% on shares and bond trades and 0.01% on derivatives but has been widely condemned in the UK because it would drive business out of Europe to America and the Far East.
Angela Knight, chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association, said: “An EU-wide Tobin tax would have had a disproportionate impact on the UK as it is Europe’s biggest financial centre, and the hub for the world’s financial transactions.
Our City does business globally but pays its taxes here, so retaining our strong, vibrant, international finance hub here is good for jobs and our economy.”
Xavier Rolet, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange said: “The Prime Minister is absolutely right to be defending the UK’s interests in Europe.
Territorial Bancorp Inc., the parent of Territorial Savings Bank Territorial Savings BankLatest from The Business JournalsTerritorial Bancorp reports M profit in Q3Territorial Savings Bank parent completes stock repurchase Follow this company , said Friday that its board of directors has adopted a third stock repurchase program.
Under the program, Territorial Bancorp. (Nasdaq:TBNK) may repurchase up to 552,000 shares of its common stock, or about 5 percent of outstanding shares.
“The Board of Directors believes this repurchase plan should enhance the long term interest of the Company’s shareholders,” CEO Allen S. Kitagaw
BENTONVILLE, Ark.—Wal-Mart has opened an internal investigation to determine whether its overseas operations have complied with U.S. federal law as it pertains to permitting, licensing and inspections.
The Bentonville, Ark., retailer offered few details about the investigation in a quarterly report filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company said that it opened the investigation after reviewing policies, procedures and internal controls tied to its global anti-corruption program. It said that it is taking “appropriate remedial measures.”
“We are taking a deep look at our policies and procedures in every country in which we operate,” said Wal-Mart spokesman Dave Tovar in an email. “As a result of information obtained during that review and from other sources, we have begun an internal investigation related to compliance with the” Foreign Corrupt Practice Act.
All companies doing business overseas must comply with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which broadly deals with bribery and accounting rules. <
The coming year-end spending spree after so much debate over budget deficits shows just how hard it is to stem the government’s flow of red ink.
Lawmakers are poised to spend $120 billion or so to renew a Social Security tax cut that averaged just under $1,000 per household this year. They’re ready to commit up to $50 billion more to continue unemployment benefits to people out of work for more than half a year.
And doctors have no reason to doubt they won’t be rescued, again, from steep cuts in their Medicare payments. Combine that with the tax cuts and jobless benefits, and Congress could add almost $200 billion to the federal ledger this month.
That’s why it’s excruciatingly difficult to cut the deficit, even when the House is dominated by tea party forces.
The year-end spree follows the failure of three high-profile efforts at big deficit deals: talks led by Vice President Joe Biden; efforts by President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to strike a “grand bargain”; and the ignominious cratering of a special deficit supercommittee before Thanksgiving.
Each disintegrated in great measure over the question of taxes.
Valero Energy Corp. has sued an insurance company that issued it a general liability policy, saying the insurer denied it coverage over a three-year period for claims against the refiner’s use of a gasoline additive that was said to pollute groundwater.
San Antonio-based Valero said Steadfast Insurance Co. of Illinois misrepresented the terms of the insurance policy, causing Valero to spend $20 million defending itself against lawsuits and more than $25 million in connection with settlements or judgments against it.
Valero seeks actual damages of $50 million, as well as exemplary damages and attorneys’ fees.
The news comes after Lloyds, which is 41 per cent owned by the British taxpayer, posted a loss for the first-quarter of this year after it set aside £3.2bn to settle claims connected to mis-sold PPI policies.
The provision was the biggest at the major UK lenders. Barclays set aside £1bn, while the Lloyds’s part-nationalised peer Royal Bank of Scotland made an £850m provision. HSBC said it was putting aside £270m earlier this year.
Lloyds’s remuneration committee, headed by the former chief executive Hermes Pensions Management Anthony Watson, is now looking at the implications on compensation in what is believed to be the first time a major lender has reconsidered bonuses awarded to senior executives such as Mr Daniels.
His 2010 bonus of £1.45m was part of the more than £5m awarded to the bank’s five executive directors. The a
“Defending the UK’s interests”: the Prime Minister vetoed a tax which “would have had a disproportionate impact on the City” 
BENTONVILLE, Ark.—Wal-Mart has opened an internal investigation to determine whether its overseas operations have complied with U.S. federal law as it pertains to permitting, licensing and inspections.