Tuesday newspaper round-up: Banking commission, tablets, UK growth

12th Apr 2011 06:07

Banks breathed a sigh of relief yesterday as the Government's Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) stopped short of proposing radical measures to increase stability and competition in the sector. Presenting what he called "moderate" interim recommendations on banking reform, Sir John Vickers, the ICB chairman, denied his team had gone soft, reports the Independent.Lloyds Banking Group will face intense political pressure to sell more of its retail business even though the state-backed bank believes this would be detrimental to customers and shareholders. Lloyds was the only institution singled out for specific reforms as part of a package of measures from the government-appointed Independent Commission on Banking aimed at making British banks safer and more competitive, the Financial Times reports.Intel is launching its first chip designed for tablet computers in an attempt to wrest control of the fast-growing market from UK-based Arm, whose chip architecture is now behind the majority of smartphones and tablets. The world's biggest chipmaker will on Tuesday announce the availability of "Oak Trail", the first product released by its newly-formed "netbooks and tablets" group, at a conference in Beijing, according to the Financial Times.Sales of tablet computers such as Apple's iPad will more than quadruple from 15m worldwide in 2010 to 70m in 2011 and eat into the slowing PC market over the next four years, according to Gartner. The iPad will dominate the nascent tablet market for the foreseeable future, the research firm forecasts, selling about 48m this year, a near-fourfold increase on 2010, to control about 69% of the market in 2011. But rivals continue to chip away at its position, says the Guardian.However, the Guardian also reports that smartphone sales could drop by up to 5% this year because the Japanese earthquake in March seriously affected supplies of key parts, industry sources say. Among those affected in the £100bn industry are the world leader Nokia, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) and Sony Ericsson, the paper reports.The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has become the latest forecasting body to slash its growth outlook for the UK this year in the wake of the austerity cuts. In its World Economic Outlook, the Bretton Woods institution revised down its growth expectations this year from 2%to 1.7% "as necessary front-loaded fiscal consolidation dampens domestic demand". The IMF held its 2012 forecast at 2.3%, the Telegraph says.The high street saw its biggest monthly fall in sales since 1995 in March as consumers reined in their spending. Sales fell by 1.9pc, the largest monthly decline in the 16 years in which the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG have collated sales, the Telegraph reports. Bebo, once the UK's most popular social networking site, is relaunching with a new design and extra features that it hopes will reverse the decline in user numbers. The website's US owner, which bought it from AOL last year, has tapped new advisers and new investors, including the former BBC One and Channel 4 controller Michael Jackson, to help prepare the revamp, says the Independent.The Citigroup tower in Canary Wharf, one of Britain's tallest buildings, has been put up for sale for more than £1bn. It is being sold by Glenn Maud, a British entrepreneur, and Derek Quinlan, an Irish tax inspector turned property tycoon, who bought the 1.2m sq ft building for £1bn in 2007, according to the Guardian.Interest rates are set to quadruple within a year, adding more than £100 a month to a typical mortgage, a senior Bank of England adviser has warned. Families should brace themselves for a rate rise as officials try to get to grips with soaring inflation, said Andrew Sentance, of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, says the Daily Mail.