Britain's biggest banks have admitted for the first time that there was a problem with lending to small businesses and that they should offer greater support. In a wide-ranging report published last night, the banks - Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC, Santander and Standard Chartered - acknowledged that there was a "squeeze" on the supply side of credit to small companies, the Times reports.Bailed-out lender Lloyds Banking Group is to axe a further 4,500 jobs in its IT division as it continues with a huge restructuring programme following its takeover of HBOS last year. The latest job cuts will bring the total number of roles lost at the bank since its merger with HBOS in January 2009 to "about 22,000", the company said, according to the Telegraph.Britain's largest airlines have written to the Government to complain that it is giving subsidies worth potentially billions of dollars to their international competitors. Britain's Export Credit Guarantee Department works with other European countries to support foreign airlines when they buy Airbus aircraft. However, British airlines are not eligible for the same assistance. Steve Ridgway, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said yesterday that this meant Britain was effectively subsidising airline jobs on other continents, writes the Times.The European Commission is pressing EU governments not to issue any new deepwater oil and gas exploration licences until tougher safety standards are in place. Günther Oettinger, the European energy commissioner, said today that a moratorium would provide breathing space in which to examine the changes that needed to be made to existing legislation to prevent any repetition of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in European waters, according to the Times.Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, has robustly defended how the bank evicts homeowners, as the row over repossessions in America escalates in the run-up to key elections. The country's second-biggest bank has suspended repossessions in 23 states amid allegations that homes have been taken back without the necessary paperwork being properly checked, reports the Telegraph.F&C, the UK fund manager, plans to vote against the re-election of the chairman of News Corp's audit committee in protest at political donations the media company has made in the US. "We are concerned to see the company deploy shareholder funds for activities that are best left to those individuals whose views they reflect and are not obviously a matter for the company," said Karina Litvack, head of governance and sustainable development at F&C, according to the Telegraph.Guy Hands, the private equity financier, is seeking a staggering £7bn in damages from Citigroup in a showdown with the American bank that moves to a New York court next week. Hands's investment group, Terra Firma, is suing Citigroup over its disputed take- over of EMI for £4.2bn on the eve of the credit crunch. He is demanding compensation for EMI's accumulated losses of £1.75bn and a punitive sum worth three times that figure, which would give him £7bn, the Guardian reports. The amount of money people can save into a tax-free ISA looks set to rise by £470 next year, it emerged yesterday, according to the Independent.
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