Wednesday newspaper round-up: EU tightens pressure on Lloyds Banking,

30th Sep 2009 06:17

Banking executives will be disqualified from holding directorships if regulators believe they have overpaid themselves and their employees, Gordon Brown declared yesterday.The hardline position on bonuses was announced after the Prime Minister told the Labour Party conference in Brighton that an executive of a major bank had told the Government that his institution was solvent hours before it became clear that it would need to be bailed out with taxpayer funds, the Times reports.The pound strengthened on Tuesday after the Bank of England told economists that it had no immediate intention of lowering the rate on banks' reserves. At a rare briefing at the Bank, Charles Bean, deputy governor, Spencer Dale, chief economist, and Paul Fisher, executive director for markets, clarified the Bank's position after heightened expectation that it was about to follow Sweden's lead by effectively imposing a charge on a proportion of cash that UK banks keep in its vaults, the Telegraph reports.EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has tightened the screw on Lloyds Banking Group by reiterating her demand that it sells off some activities to compensate for being propped up by state aid. Ms Kroes told the European Parliament that Lloyds needed to reduce its operations in some areas where it was dominant for the Government's multi-billion pound bail-out to be approved, the Telegraph reports.Banks and loan companies ? including Lloyds and Barclays ? that sell payment protection insurance (PPI) have been ordered to improve their handling of customer complaints by the City regulator amid widespread evidence of abuse.As part of the regulatory clampdown, companies will be required to reopen 185,000 previously rejected PPI complaints to assess whether the decisions made had been fair. The FSA estimates that this will result in up to £195m being paid in compensation to consumers, the Times reports.South Korea's $200bn (£125bn) state pension fund would be "interested" in buying the Canary Wharf headquarters of HSBC if the bank was to put the skyscraper up for sale. The giant government-run fund has already declared plans for a global property-buying spree and said that the tower was among a number of trophy assets that it was considering buying in London, Paris, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo, the Times reports.The advertising market experienced a "significant" shift this year as companies spent more money on the internet than on television for the first time. Spending on internet advertising grew 4.6 per cent in the first half of 2009 to hit £1.7bn, according to digital marketing trade body Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). Advertising on television amounted to £1.6bn, down from £1.9bn year on year, the Independent reports. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, on Tuesday carried out a surprise shake-up of its top management team, ousting Bill Winters, co-head of investment banking, and anointing Jes Staley, a veteran banker, as likely heir for the top job. Under the reshuffle, Mr Staley, who has been at JPMorgan since 1979, will take over the investment bank while Steve Black, the other co-head, becomes executive chairman of the unit for the next 18 months, the FT reports. French companies are to get a €10bn ($15.5bn, £9bn) tax cut in one of the biggest structural reforms since Nicolas Sarkozy came to power two years ago. The French government will announce on Wednesday the partial scrapping of the taxe professionnelle, a local business tax levied on fixed investment that has become a heavy burden, particularly for manufacturing companies, as part of next year's budget.