Lunchtime Links: "Barclays Bank and BarCap are perfectly viable stand-alone businesses, the former based in the UK, the latter in New York"
Could Barclays Capital really spin off from Barclays and relocate to New York? Philip Augar, former managing director at Schroders, thinks so. In today's Financial Times, Augar says Barclays options are obvious: BarCap could cope very well on its own, based out of New York.
Is this really so? BarCap's cost of capital would almost certainly rise, but one senior BarCap insider tells us it wouldn't really make a massive difference if BarCap were separated from Barclays' retail arm because the two could simply concoct contracts replicating their current arrangements.
Whether BarCap's UK bankers would happily submit to US rule is more moot. To do so would feel a lot like a Lehman takeover, even if Diamond is still in charge.
'Barclays has conducted research into moving its headquarters to Singapore or New York while continuing to satisfy regulatory requirements relating to capital, liquidity and so on.' (Sky News blogs)
The voices against Bob are pretty much entirely LibDem. (Alphaville)
"Vince thinks this shows a lack of awareness about how the public feels. People can't get their head around the sums that Bob Diamond earns." (FT)
"[Barclays] must be pretty confident that they aren't going to get broken up or they wouldn't have appointed Diamond. (Bloomberg)
What the markets feared was that Diamond had pulled the wool over even his chairman's eyes, and that BarCap was a black box filled with hidden nasties that only he fully understood. (Telegraph)
Who is Jerry Del Missier? (Telegraph)
Who is Rich Ricci? (Telegraph)
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc plans to start brokerage businesses in London, New York and Hong Kong within the next six months. (Bloomberg)
Sumitomo said the same thing last December. (Trading Markets)
Mizuho is hiring 170 local bankers in Asia this year in areas including risk management and marketing. (Bloomberg)
Guy Hands says Citigroup fraudently enticed him to overpay for EMI by claiming a rival planned a higher bid. (The Times)
New university to educate traders in Singapore. (NY Times)
