Asset price rally spurs Gartmore to action

The fund manager is hoping that this year’s robust growth figures will prove attractive to investors, but all bets will be off if the market slips into reverse

• Gartmore to cut debt with £250m IPO
• Lombard: NS&I/Gartmore/L&G

L&G set to appoint John Stewart as chairman

The UK’s third largest life and pensions company is on the verge of appointing John Stewart, the former head of National Australia Bank, as its new chairman, pending FSA approval

Mortgages before current accounts at Tesco

The supermarket chain, which has pledged to become the ‘people’s bank’, has indicated that it could look to introduce mortgages by the end of next year, but may not begin offering current accounts until 2011

Gartmore to cut debt with £250m IPO

The asset management group says the offering will cut net debt to £150m. Managers are expected to sell up to 20% of their shares

Brussels warns on accounts rules

The European Commission has warned that it will be months before it decides whether to support a radical overhaul of accounting rules on how banks and other financial institutions value their assets

Lex: KKR

The age of transparency is upon the private equity firm whose third-quarter results are its first since its merger with its Amsterdam listed co-investor

Analysis: A suburban salesman

The K1 affair: In detaining Helmut Kiener, German prosecutors have provoked much intrigue over the hedge fund operator with big banks as clients but a history of regulatory run-ins

Nationwide seeks help in new rash of acronyms

The building society sector, led by the leading operator, approaches regulators about a CoCo-based model that could buttress their stressed capital bases