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RBS is awash with liquidity

A small but important detail buried in the third-quarter results of Royal Bank of Scotland – which produced a pre-tax profit of ?2bn, albeit because of an accounting quirk – helps to illustrate just how differently the bank is being run now than in 2008 when it ran out of money. In 2008 the bank …

From the archive, 4 November 1975: Wilson wants Buy British code in oil revolution

A new economic order was heralded for Britain by the Queen yesterday when she officially inaugurated the flow of oil from British Petroleum’s Forties field 130 miles out in the North Sea – a flow which the Prime Minister said will lead us to a new industrial revolution. The Queen said the day was one …

HSBC investigates card and website problems

HSBC is investigating technical problems that prevented customers from accessing its online banking service and withdrawing money from some ATMs and branches. The bank said it had identified a problem at 2.45pm this afternoon and was working to resolve the issue. At 4.45pm it said ATMs should be working again by 5pm, and customers started …

Politics Live blog – Wednesday 16 November 2011

9.20am: The unemployment figures and the Bank of England’s growth forecast are likely to dominate the political news today, but the Border Agency controversy is still in the headlines. Brodie Clark, the former head of the agency’s border force, gave an interview to the Today programme which was broadcast at 8.10am and, as my colleague …

Olympus admits hiding losses for 20 years

Shares in scandal-hit Japanese camera-maker Olympus tumbled 30% in Tokyo after the company admitted it had been hiding losses going back more than 20 years and sacked its vice president. The firm, which has become engulfed by a scandal involving offshore payments that has attracted the attentions of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, added …

Asda wagyu beef: raising the steaks?

Well I didn’t expect that. Asda, the buttock-slapper’s favourite, is about to start selling wagyu beef. That’s the Japanese stuff supposedly massaged by geishas, fed with beer and free to enjoy a long and Zen-like existence in some twittering prefecture. A 170g Australian wagyu filet mignon costs ?85 plus service at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant on …