Sunday newspaper round-up: Cuts protest, Banks, BP...

27th Mar 2011 12:35

Retailers expressed their fury over lack of action by both the police and the Government after shops and businesses in London's West End were attacked and occupied in violent protests organised by splinter groups involved in yesterday's trade-union-organised anti-cuts march.Mobs attacked stores including Topshop, McDonalds and Anne Summers as well as HSBC bank, before occupying Fortnum & Mason in a campaign organised on social networking site Twitter. Leading retailers and property owners spoken to by The Sunday Telegraph said they had given the police and the Goverment plenty of notice about what might happen.Britain's high street banks will come under attack again this week for their anti-competitive behaviour and poor level of service when an influential Government inquiry recommends tough new regulation. As well as changes to the ways banks are policed, the Treasury Select Committee will propose radical ways to inject competition into the sector. These are likely to include recommending that the Financial Conduct Authority - the new consumer watchdog being created out of the Financial Services Authority - should take greater responsibility for looking at retail banking operations, the Sunday Independent reports.Britain has a rival when it comes to bashing bankers. After a furious row over pay packages at Amsterdam-based ING in which thousands of customers threatened to make mass withdrawals, the Netherlands is now vying for the title of Europe's most bonus-hating country. A growing Dutch political storm could end with a blanket ban on bonuses to financiers who work for institutions bailed out by the taxpayer. ING customers mobilised on Twitter and other social networks to protest at bonuses paid to bosses at the bank, one of the biggest in the country, the Observer reports.Southern Cross has told care home landlords it will not pay next quarter's rent, underlining the scale of the cash crisis at the beleaguered operator and raising fresh questions about its future. Britain's largest retirement chain, which looks after 31,000 elderly people, wrote last week to landlords who own one third of its 752 homes to tell them it would switch from quarterly to monthly payments. The move, which will give the company £10m of breathing space, infuriated property owners because it came a day before the quarter's rent was due, the Sunday Times reports.Vladimir Putin, the prime minister of Russia, gave a direct warning to BP's chief executive about the oil giant's troubled deal with Rosneft saying that investors in TNK-BP would "make a scene" about it. Although the warning from the very top of the Russian government was taken on board by Bob Dudley, BP's chief executive, he still believed he could push through the $16bn share swap and Arctic exploration deal, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Europe's biggest banks are selling their holdings of Portuguese bonds, adding to pressure for a £65bn international bailout of the cash-strapped nation. Market sources claim the stress tests of eurozone banks, launched two weeks ago, have encouraged lenders to slash their risk exposures. The rapid plunge in the value of Portuguese bonds, which was accelerated last week by further credit rating downgrades, has forced many banks to cut their holdings, the Sunday Times reports.Lloyds Banking Group is this weekend scrambling to raise a £20bn loan to kickstart the sale of 600 branches. The cash is needed to plug a funding gap at businesses it has been ordered to sell by the European Union. Lloyds has to give up 19% of its mortgage business and a group of branches that together account for 5% of British retail banking. The operations up for sale have £30bn more in outstanding loans than they have in customer deposits ? a gap currently filled by Lloyds, the Sunday Times reports.Savers could be robbed of more than £1.36m in tax allowances over their lifetimes under measures hidden in the small print of last week's budget. The chancellor said the annual increase in allowances for direct taxes would be linked to a lower measure of inflation from April next year. This affects the annual Isa and capital gains tax (CGT) allowances, as well as the threshold for paying inheritance tax (IHT). The move could lead to a reduction of nearly £800,000 in the value of a stocks-and-shares Isa portfolio over 50 years, according to research for The Sunday Times by Buck Consultants, the actuary, the Sunday Times reports.