Coventry Building Society is examining a range of capital instruments through which it could raise hundreds of millions of pounds to fund a takeover bid for Northern Rock, according to reports.

A group of eleven women - over half of whom are pensioners - have denied running an illegal pyramid scheme in the first UK case to be brought under new consumer protection regulations.

Advisers have warned their whole of market status could be threatened by the number of different ‘best quotes' on offer from financial research portals.

Brewin Dolphin said it is in talks with the FSA about the fairness of regulatory fees after its half-year pre-tax profits were slashed from a near 10% increase to a 21% decline by a £6.1m FSCS levy.

The head of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) wants to raise salaries by 50% to put his staff on a par with those at the FSA, in a bid to stem a flow of departures and attract high-calibre recruits from private practice.

The FSA is to fire a warning shot about firms which encourage savers to borrow money against their pensions.

David Barral has been appointed chief executive of Aviva's UK Life business, replacing Toby Strauss as he leaves to join Lloyds Bank.

Life coach Maria Nemeth's top tips for forging, not faking, trust-based client relationships in less than the time it takes to make a cup of coffee.

Roderic Rennison, director of consultancy The Ideas Lab, slices the move to fees into three manageable chunks.

Stephen Gay, director general of the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA), has said poor performance is all IFAs deserve from their trade body unless they start funding it properly.