After two false starts in as many weeks, international lenders on Tuesday reached a deal to overhaul Greece’s faltering bailout programme and release a long-delayed 34.4bn-euro aid payment by agreeing to a series of measures that could relieve Greece of billions of euros in debt by the end of the decade. The measures, which include reducing interest rates on Athens’ bailout loans to levels so low that some countries will probably take losses, are intended to cut Greek debt levels to 124 per cent of economic output by 2020, or 20 percentage points lower than Athens’ current debt path, officials said. [Financial Times]
France’s industry minister has accused the world’s largest steel-maker, ArcelorMittal, of “lying” and urged it to leave the country. In an extraordinary attack, Arnaud Montebourg also threatened the company with temporary nationalisation. “We no longer want Mittal in France because they don’t respect France,” Montebourg said in an interview with the financial newspaper Les Echos. In a broadside directed at Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian-born British billionaire who heads the company, he added: “Mittal’s lies since 2006 are overwhelming … he’s never kept his word”. [The Guardian]
Credit Suisse is to cut about 100 investment banking jobs in the UK as it pushes ahead with restructuring plans designed to find SFr4bn of savings by 2015, according to a person familiar with the situation. The job losses will mainly affect the investment bank’s equities, fixed income and advisory businesses and will occur over the next 90 days. [Financial Times]
Europe is preparing to follow the United States in delaying the introduction of stricter rules on bank capital, while it lobbies for a rethink of the US stance, according to reports. The delay could push back the start of global rules in Europe, known as Basel III, by about six months, and that could be even longer if diplomats and lawmakers fail to break a deadlock on a law meant to be phased in from the start of 2013. [The Telegraph]
The City watchdog was accused of presiding over a “stitch-up” last night after a company at the heart of the Arch Cru mis-selling investment scandal avoided a fine. The Financial Services Authority decided not to impose a £4 million penalty on Capita Financial Managers because it deemed that the company was unable to pay without additional help from its parent, Capita Group. Capita Group, which is the biggest outsourcing company in Britain and runs BBC television licensing and the Criminal Records Bureau, made underlying profits before tax of £191 million in the six months to June 30 and has a market capitalisation of £4.8 billion. [The Times]
Hundreds of thousands of homeowners in flood hit areas may be left without insurance after talks between the government and insurance firms broke down. An existing deal between ministers and insurers that enables companies to provide affordable cover for flood-prone properties will expire next June. Negotiations have been ongoing over a replacement for the past two years but the process spectacularly fell apart on national radio and television on Monday. [The Telegraph]
Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who favours a greater burden on the wealthy, yesterday called for a minimum tax on America’s millionaires but proposed a higher threshold for increased taxes on the rich than the one put forward by the White House. Mr Buffett, who earned the moniker “The Sage of Omaha” as he built Berkshire Hathaway into a multi-billion enterprise through decades of canny investing, hit back at the suggestion the rich would somehow “go on strike” if asked to cough up a little bit more. [The Independent]
