Ferrari at the back of the grid for speed of payment
The research by business intelligence firm Dun & Bradstreet ranks F1’s teams by the length of time it took them to settle their bills over the period from December until the beginning of April this year. Despite having the largest budget in F1, estimated at $395m by the sport’s industry monitor Formula Money, Ferrari pays its bills on average 16 days late – slower than any other team. Ferrari is followed in the payment ranking by McLaren and then Mercedes which settles its bills nine days late according to Dun & Bradstreet. These teams have the sport’s second and third highest budgets, indicating that in the current economic climate it may not be sustainable for car manufacturers to invest in F1.Click here for the full story >>

Energy bills confuse 70pc of customers
Almost 70pc of people find their energy bills confusing, according to research by Ofgem, the industry regulator. For many customers, energy bills are so riddled with jargon that customers struggle to understand how much they owe, but industry experts and consumer groups argue that the providers complicate the situation unnecessarily. And a study by Citizen's Advice found that the need for greater clarity does not stop in the presentation of fuel bills, and pointed out that many of the information leaflets and marketing material can often be unclear or misleading. Click here for the full story >>

City drives rise in pay inequality
Bankers' bonuses and pay at the top end of the financial services industry have driven Britain's rising in-equality over the past decade, new research from the London School of Economics shows. City bankers have experienced near-unprecedented income growth over the past decade, with the highest-paid workers taking home nearly a third of the UK's total wage bill, according to the analysis from the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE. The study reveals that the self-styled "masters of the universe" were the big winners in the pay stakes under Labour, with the top 10 per cent of workers seeing their share of wages rise from 27 per cent to 30 per cent between 1998 and 2008. Click here for the full story >>

Asda store charged charities for fund-raising
The supermarket charged two groups of charity fund-raisers £100 each to make collections and carry out bag-packing for shoppers. Christian Aid and a school raising funds for an expedition to Africa hoped to raise just a few hundred pounds in donations from the large store at Pontprennau, Cardiff. One parent said: "We couldn't believe our ears when Asda wanted a cut out of our collections. "Stores like this always talk about playing a role in the community – but then they want to take the money out of the children's pockets." Click here for the full story >>

Shoppers hit by 'high street tax'
Shoppers are being hit by a “high street tax”, paying up to 70 per cent more for goods bought in store rather than online, according to a new report. It suggested shoppers are paying hundreds of pounds more for the privilege of shopping in store. The average cost of a basket of 10 goods from the high street – including a camera, an ipod and a television – reached £2,252, compared to £1,785 for the best prices on the same products online, according to the report by shopping comparison website PriceRunner. It found 95 per cent of all prices could be beaten online. Click here for the full story >>

Pirc urges investors to say no to Barclays pay
Corporate governance consultant Pirc yesterday fired an early shot in what is expected to be one of the stormiest annual meetings seasons in years, urging its clients to vote against Barclays' remuneration report. In an "alert" to clients yesterday, Pirc – which advises pension funds and other investors on voting decisions – said the rewards offered by the bank were "potentially excessive" and highlighted the pay of its increasingly controversial investment banking chief, Bob Diamond. Click here for the full story >>

Fuld criticises Lehman's investigators 'distortions'
The former head of Lehman Brothers has hit out at the investigator who accused the bank of masking debts with an accounting trick, saying he had "distorted the facts" and Lehman's employees had been "unfairly vilified". Dick Fuld, chief executive of the 158-year old bank when it collapsed in 2008, launched a robust defence of the group's practices to the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services yesterday. The statements came just weeks after a bankruptcy court-appointed investigator published a 2,200 page report into Lehman's demise. Click here for the full story >>

Blackstone chief defends Goldman ethics
The chief executive of Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity group, on Thursday came to the defence of Goldman Sachs and its ethics, saying his firm would remain a “major client”. “We have been working with Goldman Sachs for the 25 years since Blackstone was formed and we never had any circumstance where there was any question about ethical character or behaviour,” Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone chief, said. “We are a major client of Goldman’s and we will continue to remain a major client. Click here for the full story >>

Ryanair accused of letting passengers down
Chris Bryant, the Europe Minister, condemned Ryanair yesterday for the way that it had treated thousands of Britons desperate to return home from Spain. Mr Bryant told The Times: “Most of the airlines have been exemplary. But many people feel badly let down by Ryanair for failing to let them know whether they are getting on a flight or not.” The minister had to dodge questions about claims that he had been sent to Spain to save the Government’s face during the travel chaos. Click here for the full story >>

Mining giant BHP Billiton admits it may have bribed foreign officials
The world’s biggest miner admitted yesterday that it had uncovered possible corruption involving the bribery of foreign government officials at some of its exploration projects. BHP Billiton is in talks with the Serious Fraud Office and the US Securities and Exchange Commission over the alleged offences. No details were given, but the projects under scrutiny are thought to be in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cambodia. BHP is the latest in a series of multinationals whose dealings in foreign markets have come under scrutiny as international regulators step up their efforts to tackle corporate corruption. Last month, four employees of Rio Tinto were jailed in China after admitting taking bribes. Click here for the full story >>

Lloyds shareholders warned over large executive bonuses
Shareholders in Lloyds Banking Group are being urged to consider carefully the bank's decision to award large bonuses to senior executives before they vote on its pay policy at a meeting next month. The Association of British Insurers yesterday issued an "amber top" alert on Lloyds's remuneration policy. "There is some residual concern among some shareholders in the way the remuneration committee made its decision on bonuses," said Peter Montagnon, director of investment affairs at the ABI. Investors have questioned the performance criteria used by Lloyds's pay committee that led to senior executives being awarded bonuses worth more than £5m in a year the state-backed bank recorded a £6.3bn loss. Click here for the full story >>

BP's reputation at risk after oil rig explosion
The rig, called Deepwater Horizon, was owned and operated by Transocean. Eleven of the Swiss-based company's staff are still missing. BP has sent a flotilla of 32 ships to help to clean up the resulting oil slick. The US Coast Guard says about 200 barrels of oil were spilled and there was no oil escaping from the well the rig had tapped. Mr Hayward has worked particularly hard to restore the reputation of BP in the US since he took the helm at the oil major three years ago. An explosion at its Texas City oil refinery in 2005 killed 15 Americans and injured almost 200 – resulting in significant damage to the company's reputation. Click here for the full story >>

Goldman Sachs launches charm offensive to protect reputation
Top Goldman officials in London have embarked on a desperate charm offensive following a series of allegations that threaten to do irreparable damage to the reputation of the Wall Street firm. The calls were being made as Gordon Brown said "hundreds of millions of dollars" should be paid to taxpayers if allegations of fraud at Goldman Sachs were true. On a campaign visit to Coventry, the prime minister said: "If what happened at Goldman Sachs and any other bank is proven to be wrong, then hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation should be paid to British banks and, because we are the biggest shareholder in many of them, to the British taxpayer." Click here for the full story >>

West must harness ingenuity to bridge governance gap
Suppose you had been asked a decade ago whether the western model of corporate governance should be copied by the developing world. “Certainly,” you would have said. But not now. The state capitalism of the emerging economies may have the edge. That arresting notion comes not from me, but from Sir David Walker, the UK’s elder statesman of corporate governance. At the heart of his disquiet is the widening gap between western boards and their owners. Click here for the full story >>

‘Water rats’ to carry on polluting
Britain’s “water rats” — the giant utility companies — have been given permission to carry on polluting beaches just as families start digging out buckets and spades for the summer holidays. The government’s Planning Inspectorate has rejected an attempt by the Environment Agency to impose regulations on 4,200 outlets that pump raw sewage into the sea and rivers. Instead, Britain now faces the ignominy of being fined and ordered to purify its water by the European Court of Justice over deaths of fish in the River Thames. Click here for the full story >>

Big bonus for Channel 4 bosses seeking bailout
CHANNEL 4, the publicly owned broadcaster, has awarded bonuses to its bosses worth 20% of their salaries for last year, when it is lobbying ministers for a multi-million-pound bailout from the BBC. Members of the channel’s executive board received the payouts after the network said it had hit most of its performance targets for last year. Staff will also receive bonuses of up to 10% of their salaries. The payouts are surprising because, until last summer, Channel 4 was arguing it needed handouts to rescue it from a projected £150m funding shortfall by 2012. Click here for the full story >>

Four BA executives ‘agreed secret price-fixing deal with Virgin Atlantic’
Four British Airways executives fixed the price of fuel surcharges in a secret deal with Virgin Atlantic, a court was told today. The four defendants agreed with others at Virgin “to make and implement agreements which would lead, and which in fact did lead, to price fixing,” Southwark Crown Court in Central London was told. Andrew Crawley, BA’s sales and marketing director; Iain Burns, former head of communications; Alan Burnett, who led sales in the UK and Ireland; and former commercial director Martin George each deny a cartel offence under the Enterprise Act 2002. Click here for the full story >>

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Police chief hits out at public sector bosses' pay
The level of pay among public sector chief executives is untenable, one of Britain's top police officers said today. In an opinion piece in The Times, Sir Norman Bettison, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, revealed that his salary and benefits package totalled £213,000. Last year he chose to "step aside" from any bonus, it was reported. Writing in the newspaper, Sir Norman said: "The best leaders are those who can secure long-term public value and a vision for their staff, not some mercenary performance manager peddling a short-term fix.

Sub-prime lender fined £1.2m over unfair charges
Sub-prime lender Kensington was today hit with a £1.23 million fine and ordered to return up to £1.07 million in unfair charges to customers. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) found "a number of serious breaches" at the lender, with an estimated 16,000 customers affected. Between January 2007 and October 2008, Kensington's staff failed to treat customers in arrears fairly and focused on getting back cash as quickly as possible rather than basing repayments on individual circumstances, the FSA said.

NHS executives' pay soars by 7% a year
NHS bosses' pay rose three times faster than pay for nurses and other front-line staff in 2008-9, to an average of almost £150,000 a year. The figures, published today, will cause embarrassment among senior managers who are warning the NHS needs to save £20bn over the next five years to meet rising demand. Details of the inflation-busting 6.9 per cent rise came as a report released at the weekend said falling productivity in the NHS was one of the biggest failings of the 13 years of Labour rule and that a "relentless drive" to improve it must be the top priority of the incoming administration.

Abercrombie & Fitch boss paid $4m to limit plane use
The chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch is being paid $4m (£2.6m) to curb his personal use of the company plane. Michael Jeffries previously had unlimited use of the firm's aircraft. In 2008, his personal use incurred costs of $1.1m. Now, if he exceeds $200,000 a year he must reimburse the teen retailer.

Strike-hit British Airways only airline to award pay rises
The pay of British Airways cabin crew rose by 5 per cent last year despite the airline reporting record losses and other carriers cutting or freezing crew salaries.
Previously unpublished figures from the Civil Aviation Authority revealed that BA’s 12,000 crew were paid an average of £31,400 last year. This was 5 per cent up on the £29,900 the year before. By comparison, Virgin Atlantic’s crew had their pay frozen at £14,400. Crew at bmi had a 6.5 per cent average reduction to £17,200, while Monarch and Thomas Cook, the charter airlines, cut crew pay by about 13 per cent.

Ex-Northern Rock directors fined and banned by City watchdog
Two of Northern Rock’s top former directors have been fined by the City watchdog and banned from working at any bank for concealing the scale of bad debts at the mortage lender in the years before its nationalisation. David Baker, the deputy chief executive from 2004 to 2008, made “misleading statements” about loans that were three months or more in arrears, according to the Financial Services Authority, and Richard Barclay, Northern Rock’s managing credit director, “failed to ensure that the information reported was accurate despite warning signs at an early stage”.

Toyota's Lexus hit by new safety fears
Toyota's safety crisis deepened further today after it was forced to suspend sales of its latest Lexus 4x4 model in the United States. The Japanese carmaker took the 2010 Lexus GX 460 off the market after an influential American consumer magazine warned customers that the vehicle was unsafe. Dealers in Canada have also been asked to temporarily halt sales while Toyota investigates claims that the car could flip over, with potentially fatal consequences. On Tuesday the Consumer Reports magazine took the unusual step of issuing a "don't buy: safety risk" rating on the Lexus. It claimed that the sport utility vehicle's electronic stability control system did not activate fast enough, leading to handling problems when a driver took a tight turn.

Bosses are 'authoritarian and secretive' says survey
Only one in 10 workers believed their bosses were accessible, usually describing them as authoritarian, bureaucratic or secretive, according to a new report today. The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) said its survey of 500 employees showed that the country's economic recovery was at risk because of the "dominant" style of managers. The study also found that more than a third of employees would prefer to be managed by Conservative leader David Cameron, compared with a fifth preferring Gordon Brown or Nick Clegg.

Civil servants charge £1 billion to government-funded credit cards
High-ranking civil servants spent a record £1 billion on “perk” credit cards last year, as Britain nose-dived into its worst-ever recession. Figures show that 141,000 senior public sector workers went on a huge spending spree with their “Government Procurement Cards”, including dining out at top restaurants. As fears grow of 25,000 local government job cuts in the next five years, the astronomical sum was branded an “insult” to rank-and-file council workers across the country.

Late payments 'hurting small and medium-sized firms'
More small and medium-sized businesses are suffering as their customers make late payments, research suggests. A study by RBS and Natwest found that 71% of firms had suffered from late payments in the past 12 months. Meanwhile the latest data from payment group BACS said small firms waited an average of 41 days longer than original agreed terms, before being paid. About 4,000 firms collapsed in 2008 due to late payments, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said.

Primark padded bikini row: other high street chains caught 'sexualising children'
Primark, which has withdrawn a padded bikini aimed at young girls, is not the first high street chain to face claims its products encouraged the sexualisation of children. In 2006 supermarket giant Tesco agreed to remove a home pole-dancing set from the toys and games section of its website. The £49.97 Peekaboo Pole Dancing kit included an extendable pole, frilly garter, a DVD to demonstrate sexy dance moves and fake money to reward budding dancers.

Will the proposed corporate governance laws improve a company's ethics?
A raft of corporate governance rules and regulations are on their way. The Walker Review, the resultant changes to the Combined Code and the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) stewardship code for institutional investors, the consultation on which closes tomorrow, all highlight systemic failings of ethics and corporate governance as an important cause of the financial crisis. All three attempt to “do something about it” but what can be done and is it possible for the wrong kind of regulation to make matters worse? Are regulators straying into uncertain territory where they are ill-equipped to tread or are they finding a new and fruitful path in seeking to alter behaviours and engender a longer term, more sustainable and responsible view?

OFT levies £225m fine for cigarette price fixing
A dozen tobacco manufacturers and retailers, from supermarkets to petrol station operators, have been fined a record £225m by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for unlawfully inflating the cost of cigarettes. The fine, the largest ever levied by the watchdog, comes after a seven-year investigation found that tobacco manufacturers had struck deals with retailers that linked the price of their cigarettes and tobacco with rival brands, restricting the retailer's ability to set its own prices. The OFT said the companies had "engaged in unlawful practices in relation to retail prices for tobacco products in the UK".

Stitzer gets £40m pay-off after Cadbury sale
Todd Stitzer, the former chief executive of Cadbury, walked away with a £40m pay-off after selling the company to US food giant Kraft, it has emerged. The American executive amassed a significant amount of remuneration through pension pot supplements and by cashing in shares from the company’s performance-related pay scheme. The company’s annual report, released late last night to US regulatory authorities, revealed the extent to which Mr Stitzer benefited from the controversial £11.4bn takeover by Kraft.

US regulators suspected Stanford in 1997
American regulators had concluded in 1997 that Allen Stanford, the sports-mad financier who bankrolled English cricket, was probably a fraudster, but they didn't charge him for 12 more years because it was too complicated a case. Their inaction meant that a $250m fraud spiralled into a Ponzi scheme worth $8bn (£5.2bn), second in size only to Bernard Madoff's, and that Mr Stanford, pictured, remained free to enjoy the lifestyle of an international playboy.

$1bn fraud charge for Goldman Sachs
One of the world’s most successful banks was charged with a $1 billion securities fraud yesterday, casting a dark cloud over Wall Street. Goldman Sachs is accused of tricking investors into spending millions on a rotten mortgage product. It is the latest blow for the US bank, already pilloried for its big bonuses and apparent disdain for public opinion. Royal Bank of Scotland was the biggest victim of the alleged scam, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Wall Street financial watchdog.

Blue chips rapped over green boasts
A damning report has slammed the green credentials of some of Britain’s biggest firms, accusing them of paying little more than lip service to environmental responsibilities. Almost 80% of Britain’s biggest listed companies fail to back up the claims they make about the size of their carbon footprint and other green credentials, the report reveals. Only 75 of the companies in the FTSE 350 provide a so-called “assurance statement” to verify their environmental statistics. Many of these statements are not checked by the company’s auditors or any other independent expert, but simply signed off by the board or another internal body.

Northern Rock cover-up inquiry widens
The former finance director of Northern Rock is being investigated by the City watchdog over claims that he helped to cover up bad debts in the bank’s mortgage book. David Jones, right-hand man to Adam Applegarth, former chief executive of the collapsed bank, is believed to have been aware of plans to hide problem loans from investors. Two former Northern Rock executives — David Baker and Richard Barclay — were banned from working in the City last week, and fined a total of £644,000, after it emerged that they hid almost 2,000 mortgages from the bank’s accounts.

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Unilever boss slams short-term profit mentality
The debate over companies using short-term goals to fuel profits escalated today when the chief executive of Unilever hit out against the traditional City benchmark of "shareholder value". Following last week's warning by Richard Lambert, director general of the CBI, that companies were too focused on the short term, the Unilever boss, Paul Polman, said he was more concerned about customers than shareholders. Lambert's assertion to a business audience last week that too much focus on the short term and too much pay for executives was turning bosses into "aliens", sparked a debate about whether deeper changes were needed to the current way the stock market operates. Click here for the full story >>

Toyota faces $16.3m fine for delaying recall of 'dangerous' cars
Toyota faces a $16.3m (£10.6m) fine from the US government after it found that the company knew of life-threatening safety problems with accelerator pedals in its cars at least four months before it recalled them. The fine – the maximum possible – will be the biggest-ever civil penalty against a car company in the US, and is a direct result of the Japanese firm failing to promptly inform the US Department of Transportation (DoT) of its sticking accelerator pedals. Click here for the full story >>

Kraft 'acted irresponsibly' in Cadbury takeover
US food giant Kraft has been criticised by MPs over the way it handled its takeover of UK chocolate maker Cadbury. Kraft acted both "irresponsibly and unwisely", a report by the business committee said. The report follows a hearing last month in which Kraft apologised for pledging to keep open Cadbury's Somerdale plant in Keynsham, which is now being closed. When Kraft announced its bid for Cadbury last September, the firm said it believed it "should be in a position to continue to operate the Somerdale facility". It reiterated that statement in its offer document to Cadbury shareholders in November. Click here for the full story >>

Total faces Iraq bribery investigation
French oil company Total is to be investigated over allegations of corruption relating to Iraq's oil-for-food programme. A French judge has filed preliminary charges accusing Total of bribing Iraqi officials while Saddam Hussein was in power in order to secure oil supplies. This marks the first time the company itself will be investigated. Total reacted with surprise to the news. It insists it abided by the rules of the UN-sponsored programme. Click here for the full story >>

MPs call for more support for local news media
A parliamentary committee will today call for the Government to relax local media merger rules, in an effort to help the industry to fight off challenges from internet services such as Google News. The Culture, Media and Sport Committee also believes that council “freesheets”, which compete with local newspapers, should be investigated by the Office of Fair Trading. John Whittingdale, the committee’s chairman, said that local media was facing “unprecedented challenges” from the recession and the internet. Click here for the full story >>

German anti-Facebook backlash gathers speed
Anti-Facebook feelings in Germany grew Wednesday as a major consumer group urged people to abandon the social networking website unless it scraps planned changes to its privacy policy. "If protection of your personal data is important to you, we can only advise users to oppose the planned changes, and together with their friends to choose another operator," said the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBZ), an umbrella group for 42 German consumer associations. Click here for the full story >>

Trinity Mirror's Sly Bailey gets 66% pay package boost to £1.68m
Sly Bailey, the chief executive of Trinity Mirror, received a recession-busting 66% increase in her total remuneration package in 2009 to £1.68m. Bailey's pay packet included a £736,000 basic salary and pension contributions of £248,000. She also received a bonus of £671,000, despite the Daily Mirror-owner reporting a 41% fall in pre-tax profits in a year that saw 30 titles shut or sold and 1,700 job losses. In 2008 Bailey's total remuneration package was about £1m. Click here for the full story >>

Ex-Citi chiefs say sorry for loan losses
Chuck Prince and Robert Rubin on Thursday apologised for Citigroup’s severe losses on mortgage related securities but insisted that there was nothing wrong with the company’s risk management ahead of the financial crisis. “I can only say that I am deeply sorry that our management – starting with me – was not more prescient and that we did not foresee what lay before us,” Mr Prince told a congressionally mandated commission on the financial crisis in Washington. Mr Prince was chief executive at Citi for most of 2007 as the mortgage meltdown, which ultimately led to a $45bn (€34bn) government bail-out of the bank, began to unfold. Click here for the full story >>

Shareholders call for ‘no’ vote on BP pay
BP was facing a shareholder rebellion last night after two leading lobby groups questioned bumper pay awards to top directors including Tony Hayward, the chief executive. PIRC, the pension fund consultant, urged investors to oppose the energy giant’s remuneration report at next week’s annual shareholder meeting, calling the payouts “excessive”. PIRC, which speaks for pension funds controlling £1,500 billion of assets, also complained about the lack of transparency in performance targets for BP executives’ long-term incentive schemes. Click here for the full story >>

UK's big firms warn of danger within new corporate code
British Airways and several other top UK companies have warned that the revised corporate governance code, to be published next month, could lead to disgruntled employees removing all their directors. The new code plans to introduce the annual re-election of directors but BA, currently hit by cabin-crew strikes called by the Unite union, warned that staff owning shares could use them to leave the company leaderless. BA, led by chief executive Willie Walsh, was also backed by major firms including supermarket groups Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury, whose chairman, David Tyler, said annual re-election was a "charter for mischief making". Click here for the full story >>

Toyota executive urged management to ‘come clean’
Toyota’s attempt to rebound from a worldwide recall crisis took a double hit yesterday as Chinese regulators opened an inquiry into uncertified car parts and as an internal e-mail begging management to “come clean” came to light. The investigation in China, which was reported yesterday by state media, could be damaging for Toyota as the company tries to compensate for its image problems in the United States and to expand into the world’s largest car market. The Japanese company can ill-afford setbacks in China, where it was slow to enter the market and where rivals such as Volkswagen have a far deeper foothold. Click here for the full story >>

Facebook a 'real concern' says online child protection head
Facebook has not passed a single complaint about suspected paedophiles grooming vulnerable child users to police, the head of an organisation safeguarding youngsters online said yesterday. Jim Gamble, who heads the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), said he had "real concerns" about the social networking site's work to protect children. He challenged the company to reveal evidence that its staff are working to disrupt devious criminals and bullies who lurk online. Click here for the full story >>

Morrisons blames investors for loss of chief executive
The debate over executive pay took a another twist today when Morrisons, the supermarket chain that recently lost its chief executive Marc Bolland to a £15m poaching raid by Marks & Spencer, claimed its shareholders had blocked plans to increase pay awards for its star boss. The company said it had ditched plans to increase Bolland's performance awards a year ago under pressure from shareholders and governance groups. It said these plans had latterly been resurrected to ensure Morrisons does a better job of retaining Bolland's successor Dalton Philips. Click here for the full story >>

It's time call centres started treating customers and staff fairly
Is this Britain's worst call centre – or is this just common practice? Policyholders using this centre currently have to wait an hour hanging on the phone to speak to someone in customer services. A huge backlog of policy administration problems has backed up. Staff turnover is so high – because wages are so low and customers so disgruntled – that almost no one knows how to resolve queries. Automatically generated insurance quotes have multiple figures in them, leaving customers hopelessly confused, while a new computer administration system has made matters worse, not better. Click here for the full story >>

Wall Street banks accused of window dressing debt
Leading Wall Street investment banks have been accused of understating debt levels used to finance security trades by an average of 42 per cent at the end of each financial quarter for the past five quarters. A group of 18 banks including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan and Citigroup, which release debt data each quarter, subsequently boosted the debt levels in the middle of successive quarters, according to The Wall Street Journal. While the practice of “window dressing”, or using cosmetic devices to make published accounts look more attractive, is not necessarily illegal or uncommon, the findings have led some to question how much the banks have learnt from the crisis. Click here for the full story >>

Google given dressing down by Lord Puttnam
Lord Puttnam, the Government's digital adviser, has attacked Google for not paying enough tax and argued the search engine could become too powerful. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the award-winning film- maker said it was "outrageous" that the search engine Google paid so little in taxation. A report last year showed that it paid only £600,000 in UK corporation tax in 2007, despite local revenues of more than £1.25bn. Click here for the full story >>

Facebook under privacy microscope
Regulators globally are grappling with a conundrum: how to contend with the rise of an internet phenomenon that five years ago did not exist? Facebook, founded in a Harvard dorm room just five years ago, now boasts 400m users and is the world’s largest social networking site. But its meteoric rise has also brought with it an increase in scrutiny from regulators and privacy advocates, who are questioning the direction in which such sites are heading. Social networking sites by definition have courted controversy over their privacy policies, including Google’s YouTube and Buzz, but it seems that Facebook has been the one to stick its neck out. Click here for the full story >>

Banks prepared for a spring of investor discontent over executive bonuses
High street banks are braced for a gruelling round of annual meetings as shareholders consider rebellion against pay packages for their top bosses. Investors in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have been warned by trade body the Association of British Insurers (ABI) that they need to make a "careful considered judgment" before voting on bank pay plans, which include new bonus arrangements for chief executive Stephen Hester. Lloyds is facing controversy over bonus awards to its boardroom executives while HSBC is facing questions about a relocation package for chief executive Michael Geoghegan, who has moved to Hong Kong from London. Click here for the full story >>

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Ofcom gets tough on internet suppliers over broadband speed claims
Internet users are still not getting the broadband speeds promised by internet service providers, more than a year after the industry signed up to a voluntary code of practice, forcing Ofcom to threaten mandatory regulation. ISPs are supposed to give consumers an accurate estimate of the maximum speed their lines can support but they should also explain the actual speed may be slower. But a mystery shopper exercise carried out by Ofcom late last year showed that while 85% of callers were provided with a maximum speed estimate for their line before they signed up, three-quarters of them were not warned that their actual speed was likely to be slower. Click here for the full story >>

Rio Tinto may face SFO inquiry on China bribes
Stern Hu, the former head of mining company Rio Tinto's iron ore operations in China, was among the men who were on Monday found guilty of taking bribes and stealing commercial secrets. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. It is understood that the SFO has already started gathering intelligence about the activities of Rio, although a spokesman for the SFO stressed it had not yet launched a formal investigation. Click here for the full story >>

Eric Daniels' £6.2m pay deal causes 'serious reservations' says leading investor
One of the City’s biggest institutional investors has said that it has “serious reservations” about the way in which the £6.2 million pay packet of Eric Daniels, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, has been structured. Keith Skeoch, chief executive of Standard Life Investments, revealed his concerns in a letter to Lord Myners, the City Minister. He was disappointed by the linking of top executives’ pay at Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland to share price performance — an indicator over which management has limited control. Click here for the full story >>

Fraudulent insurance claims forcing up premiums
The majority of lawyers, in a survey, said they had seen an increase in exaggerated claims or invented injuries from consumers in a bid to make money from their insurance companies. Meanwhile, statistics from the authoritative quarterly AA Insurance Premium Index, due out next month are expected to show that customers are having to pay at least 15 per cent more than they were a year ago to insure their cars. "The recession has led to more people making claims. When times are hard people fall to less honest methods to meet their bills," said Ian Crowder, an AA spokesman. Click here for the full story >>

Kraft boss Irene Rosenfeld in 41% pay hike
The US food giant boss behind the controversial hostile takeover of Cadbury received a 41 per cent hike in pay and bonuses last year, it emerged today. Kraft chairman and chief executive Irene Rosenfeld saw her pay package jump to $26.3m (£17.4m) in 2009, compared to total compensation of $18.7m (£12.4m) in 2008, the company said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Click here for the full story >>

Critics unite over executive pay to force the 'aliens' of business down to earth
City minister Lord Myners tonight called on the Financial Services Authority to wade into the debate about the role and responsibilities of shareholders after one of Britain's most influential business leaders slammed companies for focusing on the short-term and attacked the soaring levels of boardroom pay. Richard Lambert, the director general of the CBI, blamed globalisation, hostile takeovers and what he called "Jack Welch capitalism" – a relentless drive to improve returns to shareholders at the expense of other stakeholders – for the image problem business now faces. Click here for the full story >>

RBS fined £29m for "anti-competitive" behaviour
Royal Bank of Scotland has been fined nearly £30m by the Office for Fair Trading after admitting some of its staff gave confidential details of loans to Barclays, engaging in what was described as "anti-competitive" behaviour. Staff at RBS and Barclays, which escaped a fine by coming forward first to the OFT to admit its guilt, were found to have met and called each other on several occasions to discuss general and specific details of loans to a range of leading legal, accountancy and real estate businesses, which were clients of the banks. Click here for the full story >>

BA pay-slips 'fast-tracked to show strike losses'
British Airways cabin crew claimed today that their pay slips had been brought forward to show them how much money they had lost by joining the wave of strikes over jobs and cost-cutting. The Unite union said one crew member was given a hand-written pay slip showing she had lost £800 as a result of the three-day walkout last week and a four-day stoppage which will end tonight. Unite leaders Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson are expected to address the cabin crew to praise their "bravery" in going on strike in the face of allegations of bullying from the company. Click here for the full story >>

Will the Bribery Bill ever become law?
The heavy sentences handed down on Monday by a Shanghai court to four Rio Tinto executives — including an Australian — suggest that even in China they are now starting to take seriously cases of bribery. Whatever the motive of the Chinese authorities it is clear that bribery in the People’s Republic must now be viewed as a high-risk activity. Can the same be said of the UK? At the time of writing the long-anticipated Bribery Bill hangs in the balance. Backed by both main parties, it has progressed steadily through Parliament. Yet with a general election just weeks away it may not make it over the line. Click here for the full story >>

Unilever may keep your whites gleaming but its advertising leaves a grubby tinge
Since the 1950s, washing powder advertisements the world over have featured bubbly housewives and their blinding whites. In India, a glimpse has just been given of what lies beneath the marketing gloss — a world of cut-throat competition and allegations of illegal dirty tricks. Across India, where “disparaging” advertising campaigns are illegal, experts have been staggered by HUL’s unprecedented attack on a rival. Some believe that a new era of belligerent marketing is in the offing, one that could surpass even the infamous American “Cola Wars” of the 1980s. Click here for the full story >>

Asda's Bangladesh workers to go on webcam
Britain's second biggest supermarket has put webcams into its foreign clothing factories in an effort to reassure customers that its standards and working conditions are up to scratch. Asda is installing the cameras in two factories in Bangladesh where clothing is made for its George range so that customers can view what is happening at asda.com/yourasda. Asda is one of three supermarkets, along with Tesco and Primark, that has come under pressure in recent years to improve standards for workers abroad, after a Guardian investigation in 2007 revealed the long hours and low pay of Bangladeshi garment workers who supply them. Click here for the full story >>

Daimler agrees to pay $185m after admitting bribery
German carmaker Daimler has pleaded guilty to corruption in the US and will pay $185m (£121m) to settle the case. The charges relate to US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into the company's global sales practices. Daimler, the owner of Mercedes-Benz, admitted to paying tens of millions of dollars of bribes to foreign government officials in at least 22 countries. The company said it had now reformed the way it did business. Click here for the full story >>

Sir Stelios accuses banks of paying ‘lip service’ over loans
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who has had to use shares in easyJet as collateral to finance a property acquisition, yesterday attacked high street banks over their failure to support small businesses with loans. He said that he had been turned down for a mortgage on a £5.2 million commercial property due to the strict lending criteria adopted by the banks. Click here for the full story >>

Will-drafting firms use small print to slice thousands off inheritances
Anyone who has written a will should carefully re-examine the terms after it emerged that many will drafting firms, including leading banks, hide huge fees in the small print that can slice tens of thousands of pounds off an inheritance. This is only one of the failings that has prompted calls for tighter controls on will writing, a service that remains largely unregulated. Click here for the full story >>

MPs warn City to give better deal to women
A damning indictment of the discrimination women face in the City has been issued by a powerful committee of MPs. The Treasury Select Committee also says today that the presence of more women in senior positions in bank boardrooms might have made the financial crisis less severe, as they might have curbed reckless risk-taking. The view, reflected in expert opinion quoted in the report Women in the City, echoes remarks by the Equality minister, Harriet Harman, who once said that "Lehman Sisters" might not have gone broke. Click here for the full story >>

Daimler faces $185m fine to settle corruption case
Industrial giant Daimler, the company behind the Mercedes-Benz business, has pleaded guilty to corruption in America and faces a $185m (£121m) fine to settle the case. The US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission have been investigating the firm's business practices in Russia and elsewhere. Daimler officials were said to have given money and lavish gifts to help win contracts in countries including China, Russia, Thailand, Greece and Iraq. Click here for the full story >>

Bank documents back business secretary's attack on Bob Diamond
Barclays has tried to defuse an attack by Lord Mandelson on a £60m reward scheme for one of its most senior bankers, described by the business secretary as the "unacceptable face" of banking. But calculations, first carried out by the Guardian, do show that Diamond had a reward scheme of £60m. The paper reported last month that, like all executive pay schemes, Diamond has a basic salary, entitlement to a one-year bonus and then a complex series of arrangements designed to link his pay to performance, usually involving shares. Click here for the full story >>

Scramble for help ahead of new UK bribery law
Leading companies are scrambling for advice on dealing with a long-awaited UK corruption law that could hit reputations and cut profitability, particularly in emerging markets. Lawyers and corporate investigators told the Financial Times they had received many requests from multinationals anxious about the bribery bill expected to be approved this week. The response to the bribery bill of UK companies contacted by the Financial Times was mixed. The likes of BP, Tullow Oil, BAE Systems and Tesco welcomed the bill and said their business principles already clearly outlawed bribery. Click here for the full story >>

Citigroup bankers accused of sex and pregnancy jokes
A female investment banker is accusing Citigroup of sexual discrimination after colleagues allegedly joked about starting a sweepstake to bet how much baby weight she would gain during pregnancy and made sexually explicit references about her. Dorly Hazan-Amir – who has worked in the bank's Asset Finance group since 2006 specialising in power, rail and aviation – also blames the bank for demoting her to a lower position after she returned from maternity leave. She alleges that she received lower pay and bonuses than male colleagues. Click here for the full story >>

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