Tuesday newspaper round-up: Royal Bank of Scotland, Dollar, Microsoft

6th Oct 2009 06:16

The European Commission wants Royal Bank of Scotland to sacrifice up to 10% of its small business customers as the penalty for receiving billions of pounds in state aid.RBS, which is 70% state controlled, would have to give up about 100,000 of its one million small business customers under the plan. RBS, which controls about one third of the market, is resisting Brussels' proposal and wants to cap its divestments at a significantly lower level, the Times reports.In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning - along with China, Russia, Japan and France - to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar, the Independent reports.The City regulator has put itself on a collision course with banks over tough new rules that will force financial institutions to set aside a "buffer" in government bonds. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) published its final rules yesterday, drawn up after nearly two years of consultations, designed to force banks to build up a large reserve of highly liquid assets. Banks could be forced to hold up to £900bn in government bonds, three times more than at present, under the FSA proposals, the Times reports.Australia became the OECD nation to raise interest rates on Tuesday when its central bank increased the official cash rate from 3 to 3.25%. In raising rates from their 49-year low "emergency" rate, Glenn Stevens, governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, said economic conditions in Australia had been "stronger than expected", while measures of confidence had recovered. The Australian dollar, one of the world's most actively traded currencies, had risen strongly over the past day on growing expectations the RBA would raise rates as early as Tuesday, the FT reports.Minerva, the property developer, has called the bottom of the market for its commercial and residential businesses as it looks to take advantage after an emergency debt restructuring. The company became the first in the property sector to report a net liability per share after the collapse in prices, although it was upbeat about the future given its more stable financial footing, the FT reports.Microsoft's reputation has never recovered from the launch of Vista, Steve Ballmer, chief executive, said as the company gears up for the release of its latest incarnation of Windows. Mr Ballmer said the economic climate has hit sales of PCs, which are down some 10% to 15% from their peak. This in turn will impact sales of Windows 7, which launches on October 22, the Telegraph reports.Meanwhile, Britain's information technology industry will create almost 80,000 jobs over the next four years and will be vital to the country's economic recovery, according to the boss of Microsoft. Steve Ballmer, who was appointed chief executive of the US computer giant in 2000, said yesterday: "There will be three times as many jobs created in the information technology sector [as] in the economy at large," he said adds the Independent.George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, has announced plans to abolish national insurance for new companies during the first two years of a Conservative government. At the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, he said that he believed the scheme would create 60,000 new jobs and send the message that "this country is open for business", the Telegraph reports.Corporate governance body Pirc says ITV's board should offer itself up for re-election because of the saga over installing new leadership at the struggling broadcaster, the Telegraph reports.