Papers

STANDARD LIFE IS cutting about 100 Edinburgh-based jobs linked to its direct sales force, even as it pays out big bonuses and awards pay rises to senior executives, writes The Scotsman.

The FSA claims it has found evidence of the alleged "magic circle" of split capital investment trusts, so chief executive John Tiner is preparing to launch enforcement proceedings, reported in the Scotsman.

THE PENSIONS Bill has been dealt another hefty blow after a large number of Labour MPs attacked it for refusing to pay compensation to workers who have already lost their pension savings when their companies collapsed.

STANDARD LIFE'S members will for the first time be given the chance to decide what the board of directors' remuneration should be, says this morning's Scotsman newspaper.

SESAME, THE IFA NETWORK, has made the national press this morning, after announcing to the Daily Telegraph it would no longer be selling Standard Life with-profits products.

FEDERAL RESERVE chairman Alan Greenspan has warned the country's politicians that unpopular steps must be taken to ensure the US economy does not suffer from a pending federal deficit crisis.

SELFLESS PARENTS lending their children a helping hand to get onto the housing ladder could face a new stealth tax costing tens of thousands of pounds per property, reports today's Daily Telegraph.

PRUDENTIAL HAS restated that it is open to offers for its stake in Egg, the internet bank, after the company reported a fall in profits at the lower end of market predictions.

LAUNCH OF the Pensions Protection Fund for members of failed occupational pension schemes is likely to cost British industry an extra £600 million a year, says the Times newspaper.

IT'S NOT PERSONAL FINANCE, but the lead story in all the national newspapers this morning suggests Chancellor Gordon Brown is going to "tax" the food we eat by introducing a new "fat tax" on junk food.