Short-sale "not a negative thing", says EU markets Chief Steven Maijoor

Politicians in France and Germany have been vocal in their criticism of what many consider malicious speculation Photo: AFP

Speaking publicly for the first time, former senior regulator Dutch Steven Maijoor, who was appointed last month, the President of the European Securities and markets (ESMA), Authority said in short circuit, where a trader borrows a security and then immediately sells, hoping to buy it at a lower price, were "not a negative thing.

"I'm not a banner." This will be an activity that is exceptional. "You want to count on the choice and innovation," said Mr. Maijoor, adding that fact short-circuit markets more liquid.

His comments came at a confirmation hearing in the European Parliament, where he was questioned by MEPs.

Short-selling is proven to be highly controversial in recent years, and the United Kingdom and United States both temporarily banned short selling of shares of the financial sector at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. Germany prohibits so-called "naked" shorting - where a security is not even borrowed before it is sold - eurozone government debt last year that the Greek sovereign debt crisis was blamed partly on short-circuit paper fund shares.

Mr. Maijoor said that it remained open to the possible need to prohibit the sale of short, but think that it was more often beneficial to market.

"The question to what extent there was manipulation, was not a clear answer yet," he said.

Politicians in France and Germany have been vocal in their criticism of what many consider malicious speculation and Tuesday, the EU said that it supported edges on speculative investment in commodities such as grain after recent extreme price movements.

Regulator high Bank of the European Union also made his first public appearance since his appointment conditionally employment. At his own confirmation hearing, Adrea Enria explained to MEPs stress tests planned this year for the largest banks in the region would need to be much more difficult than last to regain credibility with the market.

"We cannot rely solely on the conduct of national authorities stress tests." "We peer review to ensure that the results are robust," said Mr. Enria, in an implicit criticism of tests last year doesn't have to soothe market fears.

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Former Turquoise Chief Eli Lederman continues LSE

Turquoise was founded in November 2006 by seven investment banks including Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs as a commercial alternative to the largest stock of Europe.

Eli Lederman, who led the Turquoise until the London Stock Exchange bought the share of trading in February, claiming the conduct of the London Stock Exchange was "unacceptable and unreasonable" leading up to his departure. It has also objected to the restrictions imposed on him during the so-called gardening leave.

In a statement, Mr. Lederman said he decided to continue the LSE "when it became clear that the other members of the Turquoise team were also pursuing claims against the LSE". He argues that the restrictions imposed on him after his dismissal were a "deliberate" and "blatant usurpation of rights".

The case will be heard before a London employment tribunal Court on Thursday. Judicial proceedings are likely to reveal details of the exchanges between Turquoise and the London Stock Exchange prior to the acquisition.

Turquoise was founded in November 2006 by seven investment banks including Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs as a commercial alternative to the largest stock of Europe. The trading platform went live a few days after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, who sent falling global equity markets.

Mr. Lederman was replaced as Chief Executive Officer of former Chief of the information of the LSE David Lester, who continues to head the company.

The London Stock Exchange refused to comment on.

The stock market is in the process of a merger of 4 £ 5.3 with Canadian rival TMX.

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ANNUAL international "used as the personal store for the President and Chief Executive", says shareholders

In an extraordinary Award announcement, a chain of allegations were made against administrators of annual international, including corruption, nepotism and excessive remuneration.

Claims will add to concerns about AIM, corporate governance London junior market.

CIG is worth about 250 m £ and develops residential systems top retail range in Moscow and the surrounding area. He floated on AIM in December 2006.

Synergy Classic took a 22 25pc stake in the company in may after the subscription a placement of 90 m $ (£ 57 m). However, in a letter to the shareholders Monday, Petr Shura, head of Synergy, called for a general meeting of emergency after "sudden and unexplained quit" Glenn Aaronson and Rafael Eldor as independent directors of CIG in the past three weeks.

Mr Shura alleges that Boris Kuzinez, Chief Executive and Jacob Kriesler, President, used funding to boost their earnings by $3. 9 m, violating the terms of the agreement.

Mr. Kuzinez and Mr. Kriesler are co-owners of Holdings Commercial, a shareholder of annual 40pc. In his letter, Mr Shura claims annual is "unduly influenced" by attending and "not work anywhere near way approaching acceptable standards for a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange aim market.

Mr Shura says when it management to their compensation, M. Kuzinez said he needed money "in exchange of bribery that it should give".

Synergy alleges that the annual runs up to "substantial costs" operating an Office in Israel, live well Kuzinez, family is that none of the development projects in the region, and the management wanted to pay the wife of Mr. Kuzinez $500,000 for executing development main project CIG, Tsvetnoy Mall. The letter argues the wife of Mr. Kuzinez has "no previous management experience in this highly specialized" and the shopping centre open up 30pc empty and with "virtually no base rents payable by the tenant.

Mr Shura, who is a member of the IRG Board said expresses its concerns about the company meetings, but annual won an injunction before the High Court of London by preventing sharing comments. The injunction was released last month.

Mr Shura calls for a vote on the removal of three directors, including Mr. Kriesler EGM and require that the company has an odd number of Directors, with the majority being independent.

He added: "I believe that it is essential that all shareholders have the opportunity to elect an improvement Committee to act independently on behalf of all shareholders and to ensure that appropriate standards are implemented and maintained.

CIG has refused to comment.

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UK austerity plan averted gilts crisis, says debt management chief

 Mr Stheeman said the Chancellor's plans for a declining deficit have "clearly given markets a lot of reassurance over the last months". Photo: PA

Robert Stheeman, head of the UK Debt Management Office, said the picture has brightened so much over the last year that gilts have benefited from "safe-haven flows".

"The trajectory of the declining deficit and financing requirement over the next years has clearly given markets a lot of reassurance over the last months," he told a Euromoney bond conference in London. "We were on negative watch by Standard & Poor's and we are no longer on negative watch."

Mr Stheeman said the average maturity of the UK public debt is 13.5 years, by far the longest in the OECD club. "The fact that we have this undoubtedly helped us," he said.

Mr Stheeman was careful not to take sides on the bitter dispute between the Coalition and Labour over the pace of fiscal tightening.

Ed Balls, the Shadow Chancellor, has accused the Government of repeating the "mistake" of Margaret Thatcher's austerity policies after the 1979 oil shock, draining £13bn with a VAT rise just as the economy gasps for air.

However, it is clear that Britain was close to the precipice in early 2010, when investors feared political paralysis. Bill Gross, head of the bond fund PIMCO, said gilts were "resting on a bed of nitroglycerine."

Mr Stheeman said it was too early to sound the all clear. "I would not want to give the impression of complacency. We are conscious that we still have to issue very large sums of debt compared to a few years ago."

Separately, it emerged yesterday that the $237bn PIMCO Total Return fund had cut its holdings of US government-related debt to zero for the first time since early 2008, highlighting investor expectations of rising interest rates.

The move follows warnings by Mr Gross that bond yields were set to rise as the US Federal Reserve comes towards the end of its quantitative easing programme.

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Ireland should honour its debts, says Irish business federation chief Danny McCoy

Pressure is mounting on the Irish government to rethink its plans for a "haircut" on the subordinated debt of Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide Building Society. Photo: AFP

"Ireland should honour its debts if it can," said Danny McCoy, head the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC).

"The country makes a living taking capital from people and looking after it, and you don't want to get a reputation for carrying out partial defaults," he told The Daily Telegraph.

Ireland's financial services industry is around 9.8pc of GDP, with big players such as Merrill and Citigroup operating from Dublin's 'Canary Dwarf'. But foreign investment is also the lifeblood of the country's manufacturing industry, led by computers and pharmaceuticals.

IBEC's comments come amid mounting pressure on the Irish government to rethink its plans for a "haircut" on the subordinated debt of Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS).

Millhouse, the asset management group of Roman Abramovich, is the latest foreign fund to express fury, warning that Ireland faces possible legal action and a "huge reputation loss" if it imposes a haircut on creditors. The fund said it had been "misled and deceived" by the Irish government, though this class of debt was quietly dropped when the guarantee was extended last month.

The exact shape of any "burden-sharing" is still unclear. Brian Lenihan, finance minister, has said the junior bondholders should make a "significant contribution toward meeting the costs" of the state bailout.

These investors took extra risk to enjoy extra yield, and cannot expected shield when the bank collapses. The debt of senior bondholders is considered sacrosanct.

Mr Lenihan has to walk a fine line: talk of debt restructuring for Anglo and INBS conflicts with his other message that Ireland is recovering from the crisis and still enjoys reserves of economic wealth.

Yet like finance ministers across the West, he also has to secure political support for austerity measures. This is increasingly hard to do without forcing bondholders to share at least some of the pain.

Hedge funds also have to watch their step. The political balance of power in Europe is moving against them. If they were to bring a small country like Ireland to its knees, the EU authorities would undoubtedly respond.

IBEC's Mr McCoy said the €40bn(£35bn) total cost of bailing out the banks had landed on the shoulders of 2m people in the Irish workforce, or €20,000 per person.

While this is an understandable cause of anguish, Mr McCoy said savings from a partial default on €3bn of Anglo and INBS subordinated debt, would be a small fraction of this.

Separately, Moody's called for a "credible plan" by the Irish government to bring its budget deficit back to 3pc of GDP by 2014, warning that the country could face a further downgrade. The report had no market impact.

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Hedge fund chief David Harding earns £54m from predicting swings in commodity prices

David Harding's Winton Capital uses complex algorithms to bet on movements in the price of bonds, shares and commodities. Photo: CORBIS

The founder of hedge fund Winton Capital Management received a £54m dividend last year, according to accounts just filed at Companies House.

As the ultimate controlling party of Winton Capital, Mr Harding is also likely to be its "highest-paid director", who received £4m in pay last year, according to the accounts.

Many hedge fund owners have seen their fortunes continue to soar despite the economic downturn.

Louis Bacon, the London-based American who runs Moore Capital, saw his fortune nearly double to £1.1bn last year, according to a list compiled earlier this year. Moore Capital's global investor fund was up 18pc last year.

The latest accounts for Winton Capital, filed late last week, show that it paid out a dividend of £96.2m over the year to December 31, 2009.

Of this, £61.1m was paid to executive directors on their ordinary shareholdings in the company. Mr Harding's shareholding values his share of the pay-out at around £54m.

Over 2009, Winton Capital had a turnover of £102m, down from £395m in 2008. It made a pre-tax profit of £60.3m, compared to £288m the year before.

Although Mr Harding's recent bumper pay-out dwarfs most pay packages in the City, he actually took a cut in pay and dividends compared to 2008 due to the relatively weaker performance. Then, Mr Harding, 47, received £101m in dividends and £17m in salary.

Mr Harding used to own AHL, a commodities trading firm that was bought by Man Group. He left and in 1997 founded Winton.

The Kensington-based company uses complex algorithms to bet on movements in the price of bonds, shares and commodities.

It is thought to employ more than 50 researchers with PhDs in esoteric subjects such as extragalactic astrophysics. His staff are said to study historic data in minute detail to develop complex computer programs capable of predicting future trends.

Mr Harding himself studied theoretical physics before going into finance. He loves punk music and his hobbies include walking and economic history.

Last year, he was quoted as saying: "It is nice to have a golden life and a purpose to engage in, a reason to go to work. I wouldn't have set out to be a futures trader if I hadn't wanted to make a lot of money."

The accounts show that Winton Capital Management paid corporation tax of £16.8m in 2009, down from £86.2m the previous year when profits were higher.

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LSE Chief said London aim at risk "jealous" European market

Xavier Rolet said it was vital for the British convince Europeans that their capitals would not benefit from a reduction in importance of London as a financial centre continental.

Xavier Rolet stated in the Commission of the Treasury as "unique" of Alternative Investment Market London (AIM) to raise funds for small businesses and fierce needed jobs against Europeans.

First banker of Lehman Brothers said that there was "rivalry" between London and other European capitals, adding that European regulators "does not include" goal success.

"London has succeeded to wire the decades and grown into a prominent centre," said Mr. Rolet. "I don't know if the Europeans hold a grudge, but I can tell you that some people see an opportunity through the process of regulatory harmonisation greenhouse return some business".

Mr. Rolet said it was vital for the British convince Europeans that their capitals would not benefit from a reduction in importance of London as a financial centre continental."If regulations are introduced that cause traders and companies leave London, which is unlikely to migrate to Paris, Frankfurt, Milan,", he said. "He will go to Asia and elsewhere.»

He told MEPs proposals for the financial restructuring of the British Columbia Colombia Government threatened to vulnerable AIM market.

Rather that divide the responsibilities of the authority list UK (UKLA) between the Bank of England, the financial reporting Council (FRC), the protection of consumers and markets (CPMA), M. Rolet argued that it must remain intact in the CPMA .essentiellement CPMA is set on the United Kingdom voice on the new super regulator of Europe, Mr. Rolet supports should also speak directly to the UKLA.

Baroness Hogg, the pattern of the RHS has previously disagree with Mr. Rolet.Mais testify to the after him, she admitted that regulatory plans were "sub-optimal."

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