Top-performing Jupiter Financial Opportunities fund manager Philip Gibbs has identified insurers as one of only a few current attractive investment opportunities in the battered financials sector.

Pension fund trustees are facing average returns of -13pc for 2008, preliminary State Street Investment Analytics figures reveal.

A succession of base rate cuts failed to encourage homebuyers to take out variable products in the final months of 2008, a Legal & General (L&G) study suggests.

An investor from West Yorkshire has been charged with five counts of insider dealing and an additional count of money laundering by the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Marks & Spencer is set to cap employees' annual increases in pensionable pay and change early retirement benefits in a bid to cut costs.

The FSA is testing the feasibility of applying its short selling disclosure regime to all UK shares.

A computer-based system designed to help advisers prepare for FSA ARROW visits, which the regulator says will now include TCF competency, has been launched.

Inherited estates in with-profits funds belong to policyholders, and should not be raided by insurers and their shareholders, advisers argue.

Loans company Cattles has announced a series of steps aimed at reducing costs and reshaping the group, including a cut in new lending and a number of redundancies.

The FTSE opened marginally lower on Wednesday, threatening to spoil its bid for six straight days of gains.