Citibank has come to an agreement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to buy back several billion dollars worth of auction rate securities, the risks of which had been misrepresented.
The SEC had recently looked into the situation and decided Citibank had mismarketed and sold the securities as being less risky than they were. Citigroup had promoted them as being as safe as similar cash based products though this is not the case.
Although Citibank are buying the securities back it is something they could really do without since they have been hit very hard by the collapse of the sub-prime lending market. Financing the buyback will damage the bank further as they will have to reimburse any customers who sold for a loss, on top of paying fines worth USD100 million.
A survey carried out by Tesco Finance has found that nearly half of the people talked to are taking steps to be more eco-friendly, though it is saving money rather than saving the planet that is the motivator.
As the cost of gas, electric and petrol soars ever upwards so about two thirds of people in the Tesco Finance survey say they make sure electrical items are switched off rather than left on standby. Three quarters of people now use low energy lightbulbs too.
A smaller percentage, around 20 percent of people surveyed, told Tesco Finance that going green was just too expensive. There are aspects of this that are true, but it is in the practical aspects that consumers can save money by thinking green.
Barclays saw a drop in profits of a third for the first half of the year, with write downs impacting seriously on the bottom line. Barclays Insurance though, a division of the bank, performed very well.
The bank still made profits of GBP2.75 billion despite the write downs and, even though the bank itself was disappointed, industry analysts felt this was better than could have been expected. Other financial institutions have suffered much more dramatic cuts than Barclays, insurance and other sectors helping support the bank.
Looking forwards the Barclays management team are expecting trading conditions to remain testing and are advising the market that it could be some time before they are back to previous levels of profitability. Barclays Insurance, having performed very well, may actually see some parts of it sold to bolster the balance sheet.
