The Bank of England's deputy governor Paul Tucker has asked to be allowed to address the Treasury Select Committee following the revelation he contacted Bob Diamond to discuss Barclays' LIBOR submissions.

Barclays boss Bob Diamond has resigned from the bank with immediate effect, just one day ahead of a parliamentary hearing into his conduct following the LIBOR scandal.

The UK economy shrank by 0.3% in the first quarter, the final official reading has confirmed.

Barclays has been slapped with the largest-ever fine by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and a huge penalty by the US authorities after it breached rules regarding LIBOR.

Hargreaves Lansdown is confident its business model has the flexibility to cope with the ban on platform rebates proposed today by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The ban on rebates from fund managers to platform providers is to cost platform operators up to £10m a year, the FSA has estimated.

The FTSE 100 fell alongside other major markets across Europe today, after the Federal Reserve cut its growth forecast for the US economy.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted five to four to maintain quantitative easing (QE) at £325bn this month, overruling the governor and three colleagues who called for further expansion.

The current crisis in Spain will result in Spanish bank bondholders taking severe haircuts, after a similar scenario in Ireland last year, Henderson Global Investors says.

Spanish government bond yields have shot through the danger level of 7% as fears grow its debt could soon be rated as junk.