UK Business News

Loophole may save bankers bonus tax

Shares awarded in long-term incentive plans may be exempt under certain circumstances, according to the Revenue's website

ITV directors go as clearout continues

Two non-executives, Heather Killen and Agnes Touraine, will leave before the arrival of new chairman, Archie Norman

• ITV deputy chairman quits

• Norman set to conquer at ITV

MPC leaves door ajar for more new money

Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to leave rates unchanged and declined to rule out more quantitative easing

• Times MPC urges Bank to leave rates on hold

• MPC holds rates at 0.5%

Balfour Beatty celebrates new work

Infrastructure group to manage UK sites for defence technology company and build schools in southeast London and Scotland

• QinetiQ warns on profits over Afghanistan

• Balfour Beatty to buy Parsons Brinckerhoff

World Business News

Japan shocked by £630bn spree

Japanese Prime Minister has surprised a nation mired in economic troubles with a budget aimed at ‘saving people's lives’

Celtic Tiger finished off by debunked ‘miracle’

Ireland, first eurozone country to enter recession, is struggling - insolvencies have doubled and house prices have crashed

• Exports to avert double-dip recession in Japan

• After the crunch came the squeeze

General Motors sticks by Saab closure plan

Chances of GM selling Swedish brand to Spyker remain remote and billionaire John de Mol denies he is backing a purchase

• Spyker extends deadline for Saab offer

• Saab brand to disappear as GM abandons sale

Buffett poised to pick up GM mortgage business

Warren Buffett is understood to be in talks to buy Residential Capital, which was was hit by the housing market crash

Analysis  

In which Pooh learns that honey isn’t everything

The bonus culture has even taken root in the Hundred Acre Wood, as Tigger bounces with pleasure for more extract-of-malt

• Bank bonuses back to bite Alistair Darling

• Lower bank bonuses could have averted crisis

2009: from ExCel to the Ex-Factor

From the trillions spent on saving the world to the 88p spent on a plug it has been a time of excess

A deal more roadworthy than it seems

Geely takeover of Volvo opens way for Chinese giant to acquire latest technology and open up Mainland market

Law  

Camra calls on consumers in pub fight

Campaign for Real Ale vows to launch legal challenge to OFT ruling that big pub companies are not behaving anti-competitively

Dickensian ‘logbook loans’ to be banned

Kevin Brennan, the Consumer Minister, says lenders are able to seize cars from vulnerable borrowers without court orders

• How to find the cheapest loan

• Time to crush loan-shark revival

Kuwait Airways edges closer to restitution

New development in 19-year battle by airline over the loss of half its fleet after invasion by Saddam Hussein in 1990

Money  

OFT drops case against banks' overdraft fees

Watchdog will not pursue legal action but admits it is still concerned about high charges

• Dickensian ‘logbook loans’ to be banned

• Bank customers in line for £6bn refund

Pension projections are ‘too optimistic’

Savers in closed with-profit pension funds are being given optimistic assumptions as to what they will receive in retirement

• Retirement planning just got trickier

• Third company snubs government pension work

Where next for the soaring price of gold?

Half the fund managers recently surveyed said the precious metal was overvalued and would fall next year

business travel  

How business travellers take their holidays

With Christmas upon us, we look at how frequent business travellers approach leisure travel

Flybe raises threshold for lounge access

Airline to nearly double the number of points required for a Premiercard but will allow a named guest from 1 January

Hilton hikes Hhonors points for free nights

Hotel group goes against the recent trend of more generous guest loyalty programmes to try to attract guests