Thursday newspaper round-up: City jobs, Retail sales, British Gas

17th Nov 2011 06:59

BNP Paribas, Merrill Lynch and Nomura became the latest major banks to announce job cuts on Wednesday as falling revenues forced them to follow several rivals and shed staff.(...) BNP Paribas said it would cut about 1,400 jobs in its investment banking division, which employs several thousand staff in London, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) has begun cutting broking employees, with about 15% of roles at risk, according to two sources.A spokesman for BoAML said the figure was "way off" and did not comment on suggestions the bank had ceased to produce research in several major sectors, including property, media and leisure, The Telegraph reports.Down nearly 50%, analysts are now seriously questioning the long-term survival of Game Group. This seems harsh. After all, Game is a company taking market share in an industry that has become so popular it has overtaken the film industry in terms of size. (...) Part of the problem is the intense cyclicality of the games industry. The market has been hit by not only the lack of exciting new hardware (the launch of the 3D Nintendo DS was considered by most to be a damp squib, like most 3D events) it has also been hit by piracy and the never ending march towards a digital future, The Telegraph says. British Gas is cutting about 850 jobs from its services business, which installs and repairs boilers and other household energy appliances. Britain's largest energy supplier claimed that the money saved would help it to keep bills lower for customers. Unions warned, however, that the job losses would harm customer services and that they would fight any compulsory redundancies. British Gas said that the cuts ? which represent almost one in ten jobs in its services division ? would focus on management and support roles and it insisted that customer services would not be affected, according to The Times.High Street banks could face punishment after damning evidence showed they feed 'shockingly' poor investing advice to inexperienced older savers. Nearly nine in ten High Street bank advisers failed an undercover investigation by consumer group Which?. Bank staff made 'misleading statements', tipped overly risky and 'inappropriate' products, and even lied to researchers about charges. Which? also said one in three independent financial advisers failed its standards for 'good' advice, although the sample was much smaller, The Daily Mail writes. Retail sales figures from the Office for National Statistics are expected to show that sales in October have either fallen by 1% or remained flat. Capital Economics, the forecasting house, is predicting that sales volumes in October will have fallen by 0.2%, after the surprise 0.6% jump in September. This is worrying news for retailers as the critical Christmas sales season looms. It also fuels concern that the economy is in danger of stagnating or even worse in the fourth quarter, given the critical role of consumer spending (it accounts for some 63% of GDP on the expenditure side)," according to The Telegraph. Olympus Corp's battle for survival stepped up a gear after the scandal-hit Japanese group said it was preparing legal action against former executives and would fight to keep its stock market listing. The SFO will liaise with the FBI in the US which is also investigating after Olympus revealed last week that it covered up investment losses dating back to the 1990s with inflated acquisition fees. Shuichi Takayama, Olympus's new president, sent a memo to staff on Tuesday threatening action against executives found responsible for the scandal. That came ahead of a meeting with creditors on Wednesday at which Olympus outlined its financial position and pledged to meet a December 14 deadline to release trading figures, The Telegraph reports. AB