Bank of England is to have a new Governor  when Sir Mervyn King’s term ends (June 30). Mark Carney, currently Governor of the Bank of Canada, will be taking his post ‘at a crucial time in the Bank of England’s history’, as the first non-British national to lead the Bank.

The Autumn Statement  may see forecasts of VAT being put up to 25%, further spending cuts, plus tax rises, as part of the brown/black announcements of the economy that run alongside the self-imposed targets for economic growth.

First time buyers’ priority is…. a garden, according to research carried out by Yorkshire Building Society. Regional differences applied to the priorities of the report which looked at living near family, transport, property maintenance, property size, potential first time buyers and actual first time buyers.

A wide ranging inquiry into the private rented sector is being reviewed by the Government and is to include the regulation of landlords and letting agents. Submissions looking into housing standards, rent control, fees, charges, tenancy agreements are to be made by January 2012.

BofE governor, Sir Mervyn King wants the proposals to be subject to a compulsory review after 5 years.  `We are always being told that the Bank of England is far too powerful, this is another power I do not want to receive.’  RBS CEO Hester has claimed that High Street Banks  ‘were less prone to collapse than investment banks’ and that ‘the biggest banking disasters have been simple banks’ therefore it would be ‘wrong to believe that it was dangerous to mix the cultures of investment banking and High Street or retail banking with the same institution’, whilst Lloyds’ CEO has compared retail banks to an army, due to their much hierarchical structure, and that ring-fence would make it easier for the government to deal with banks that went bust. Comments relative to the new banking ring-fence, designed to separate a bank’s core activities from its riskier investment banking, as recommended by the Independent Commission on Banking (Vickers) are expected to be implemented in 2019.

The City has congratulated itself on 20 years of UK corporate governance codes, which, since the Cadbury document (1992), 70 other countries having followed-on by adopting similar guidelines. That is 19 Best Practice principles for corporate governance; the role and structure of the board which are now called the UK Corporate Governance Code. The question is, has the code done its job?

A new study of male office workers claims that men who wear pink shirts earn an extra £1,000 than their counterparts, are better qualified, more confident and a greater number of compliments from their female colleagues, the green shirted are most likely to be late and white shirted are punctual.  However, what the study didn’t tell us was….. how many mix their colours with their whites in the wash.

Image and Article credit: Copyright SUF 2012