Thursday newspaper round-up: Banks, Bernanke, BSkyB

14th Jul 2011 06:27

Britain's banks have lined up to oppose reforms proposed by the Government's Independent Commission on Banking (ICB). In submissions to the ICB, the "big four" banks - Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group - raised objections or tried to buy time on the ICB's proposals. The key bone of contention is the ICB's call for ring-fencing of retail and investment banking to protect economically vital functions from trading and other volatile activities.The Chairman of the Federal Reserve last night raised the prospect of a new round of money-printing to boost America's flagging recovery, bolstering stock markets but triggering a slide in the dollar. Delivering his half-yearly "end of term" report to Congress, Ben Bernanke signalled that the option of further monetary stimulus might be back on the table, as he warned that the weakness in the economy may prove more "persistent" than official forecasts had predicted, the Times reports.A powerful shareholder group has demanded that James Murdoch stand down as chairman of BSkyB in a bid to clear up the "questionable governance practices" at the company. Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (Pirc) said the FTSE 100 broadcasting company needed a chairman free from connections with its biggest shareholder News Corporation, says the Telegraph.The gold price hit an all-time high on Wednesday, as the euro crisis deepened and on the prospect of more quantitative easing in the US. The price of gold for immediate delivery hit a record $1,578.55 on Wednesday evening, the Telegraph reports.A second US fund dedicated to investing in still-private social networking and other technology companies has launched, marking the return of an investment strategy not seen since the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s. The new fund, Keating Capital, announced it has raised $86m in capital from investors in an initial public offering, and is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange as a closed-end fund by the end of the year. Earlier this year, GSV Capital raised $50m, and is currently trading on the Nasdaq, reports the FT.Royal Bank of Scotland, the taxpayer-owned banking giant, has been threatened with cyber-attacks by the hacker collective Anonymous, for lending financial support to oil projects in Canada. Anonymous, which gained notoriety last year when it launched retaliatory hacker raids in support of the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, widened its campaign of civil disobedience and launched Operation Green Rights, according to the Independent.A pay protest by staff dominated Sainsbury's annual general meeting. Dozens gathered outside London's QEII exhibition centre, wearing facemasks of chief executive Justin King and demanding a 'living wage' for employees, the Daily Mail reports.Royal Dutch Shell and its partner Mitsubishi are closing in on a long-awaited $12bn (£7.5bn) gas deal in southern Iraq. Iraq's government yesterday signed a final contract for the two companies to produce gas from fields near Basra. Now all the deal needs is final approval from Iraq's cabinet, according to the Daily Express.