News

People returning to work after Easter face a series of tax bombshells from today as the Chancellor seeks to pay down public debt.

The FTSE 100 was marginally up in early trading, by 0.06% or 3.41 points to 5,748, only a few hours before the Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to call a General Election for 6 May.

Gordon Brown believes the large economies are close to agreeing a global tax on banks which would cost the financial sector billions of pounds a year - but he played down expectations of a final deal at the next G20 meeting in June.

Tesco has revealed it expects to gain a 10% share of Britain's financial services market, making it roughly as big as Abbey and more than half the size of Barclays.

Greece will this month launch a multibillion-dollar bond in the US, selling itself for the first time as an emerging market country as demand for its debt dwindles in Europe.

Gordon Brown has confirmed the General Election will be held on 6 May, with the state of the economy and the future of financial services regulation to be the key manifesto targets.

Gartmore's suspended fund manager Guillaume Rambourg used the Bloomberg instant messaging system to "direct" trades for nearly a year, the Sunday Times reports.

Former chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan believes there is "momentum building up" in the US economy and the chance of a double dip has fallen significantly.

Unum has launched a new online underwriting system.

An adviser has been banned by the FSA for exposing customers to the risk of receiving unsuitable advice and failing to take remedial action.