Solvency II will force all remaining defined benefit (DB) pension schemes to close and could lead to significant job losses as UK companies fold, lobby groups have warned.
Britain will avoid a double dip recession and modest growth should restart later this year, according to the CBI.
Some words commonly used in financial services have become synonymous with wrongdoing but, in most cases, describe fair and, often, essential practices.
Insurance brokers and life companies will attempt to cross-sell to existing customers in order to compensate for "downbeat" market conditions in 2012, research suggests.
Prime minister David Cameron has promised shareholders a binding vote on executive pay to try curbing excessive salaries.
The president of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Sir Roger Carr, has called for an end to the "demonisation" of banks, energy companies and the defence industry.
Auto-enrolment will force small employers to reduce benefits and potentially freeze recruitment to meet rising pension costs, trade bodies have warned.
Medium-sized businesses are the UK's "forgotten army", overlooked by government but with the potential to inject between £20bn and £50bn into the economy by 2020, according to the CBI.
Financial services will cut a further 8,000 jobs over the next three months, as the sector struggles under increasingly negative future prospects, according to a survey out today.
John Cridland, director-general of the CBI, is calling for a raft of measures to help first-time buyers, including revitalised Mortgage Indemnity Guarantee schemes to reduce the risk of higher loan to value mortgages.