Treasury

The European Commission has dropped plans to introduce reforms which could have required investment firms tape every telephone conversation with clients.

Pensions reform features heavily in this morning's papers with the government's tax plans coming under fire and pensions fund trustees being warned they could face legal action fior failing to take their share from US securities class actions.

BRITAIN'S "ZOMBIE" or closed book investment funds grew in value by £11bn last year to £135bn, according to research by KPMG, quoted in this morning's Times .

PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS should be compulsory for all employees, the Daily Telegraph quotes a leading business group as saying.

GORDON Brown will be forced to raise taxes by at least £10bn to tackle a persistent deterioration in the public finances, according to a leading forecasting institute, say this morning's papers.

Employers are now able to promote group personal pension and stakeholder pension schemes to their employees, under changes made by the Treasury to the Financial Promotions Order (FPO) which start today.

The industry has seen the sheer volume of regulation and administration rocket since the introduction of the Financial Services Authority in 2001.

The government as responded to calls for a reduction in the amount of business regulation by announcing requirements will be cut in favour of a risk-based approach, under proposals unveiled today for the Better Regulation Action Plan.

John Healy has replaced Stephen Timms as financial secretary to the Treasury while Ivan Lewis has stepped in as economic secretary in the latest government junior minister reshuffle.

The Treasury is still discussing whether to scrap plans for a tax on with-profits funds after consultation with the industry, despite hopes it would be scrapped today.