HSBC

Calls from employers and the insurance industry to amend age discrimination laws to prevent the costs of insuring older workers against death and long-term illness from soaring have been rejected by ministers, reports the Financial Times .

Investment experts fear a further week of stock market turbulence will spell ruin for the 2006-07 equity Isa season by causing retail investors to run scared from the tax shelters, reports the Times .

The Financial Services Authority is coming under mounting pressure from City investors to clarify the rules which apply to foreign companies listing their shares in London, says the Guardian .

House prices are rising at their slowest pace since last June, giving further signs the nation's booming housing market may be running out of steam, reports the Guardian.

HBOS today shored up its strategic position in its 10-year banking partnership with J Sainsbury, paying £21m to buy a further 5% of Sainsbury's Bank, the embattled supermarket-based financial services operation, reports the Times .

HSBC stunned investors late last night with a stark warning its bad debt provisions would rise by $1.7bn as a result of US borrowers defaulting on their mortgages, says the Daily Telegraph .

HSBC has teamed up with insurer Standard Life to target self-invested personal pensions at small to medium businesses and commercial customers of the bank.

Average house prices throughout the UK have broken through the £100,000 barrier for the first time, with the biggest growth in Scotland and Wales, reports the Times .

The government will cap the taxpayer's liability for civil service pensions should increases in life expectancy exceed expectations, Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister responsible for the civil service, said yesterday, reports the Financial Times...

More than 10,000 people a month are expected to declare themselves insolvent this year as a culture of unsustainable debt grows among the "buy now, pay never" generation, says the Times .