Papers

The chairman of HBOS yesterday criticised the failure of Britain's financial regulators to punish insider trading, as he asked shareholders to back the bank's £4bn rights issue despite its share price sliding below the subscription price for the fourth...

The high street is about to embark on its toughest six months in 16 years, warned the CBI as retail sales remained weak for a third successive month, The Telegraph reports.

Resolution, the investment fund headed by Clive Cowdery, met with Bradford & Bingley advisers last night in an attempt to convince the mortgage bank to back its bid to take effective control, The Independent reports.

More than a third of a million jobs will be lost to the economy over the next 18 months, according to a survey of business leaders, The Independent reports.

The City regulator has ended its investigation into the short selling of HBOS shares despite repeated attacks on the bank that last week pushed its stock price below the level of a planned rights issue, The Guardian reports.

FBI agents arrested two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers at their homes yesterday, the first Wall Street executives to be formally charged by the US Government in relation to the credit crunch, The Times reports.

Morgan Stanley yesterday became the latest financial services group to fall victim to a rogue trader as it admitted that it had suspended a credit trader in London for trying to hide losses of about $120m (£61.3m), The Times reports.

Deutsche Bank has been privately scolded by the Financial Services Authority for advising clients to short rights issues at Britain's embattled banks to cash in on a collapse in their shares, The Telegraph reports.

Inflation is expected to hit the highest since the Bank of England was granted independence more than 10 years ago, underlining the financial squeeze endured by British families, The Telegraph reports.

Some wealthy Britons are exploiting a tax loophole that allows them to retire abroad with their UK pension savings and live tax-free, The Guardian reports.