Thursday newspaper round-up: Elections, JPMorgan, Clydesdale Bank

7th May 2015 06:38

"David Cameron and Ed Miliband made their final pleas to voters on Wednesday, as the UK heads to the general election vote with pollsters saying the contest is tied," the Financial Times said.French prosecutors have launched a formal investigation into JPMorgan Chase's main US banking unit about possible complicity in tax fraud, The Wall Street Journal revealed.Australia's NAB is to demerge its troubled UK business Clydesdale Bank and raise up to A$5.5bn (£2.87bn) in capital to strengthen its balance sheet and help meet tougher regulatory requirements, The Guardian reports.Standard Chartered's chairman Sir John Peace said the board is "listening carefully" to shareholders over the decision on whether to leave the UK, though it has not yet initiated a formal review into an overseas move, The Times said.According to The Telegraph, the Bank of England has admitted it has got data wrong on UK gilt purchases from foreign investors for the past two months.Trade body Oil & Gas UK has said that oil firms need to slash costs by 40% in order to extract the estimated 23bn barrels of oil and gas that remain in the UK North Sea, writes The Scotsman.Michelin has snapped up British tyre e-retailer Blackcircles for £50m, whose backers include former Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy, The Telegraph reports.Advisory firm ISS has recommended shareholders of JPMorgan Chase to vote against boss Jamie Dimon's pay after the company gave him a "large discretionary cash bonus [. . . ] without a compelling rationale", the Financial Times said.