Barclays Share News (BARC)

Sir Philip Hampton, the chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to quit his role at in charge of the bank and take on the same role at pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), The Guardian reported on Thursday.Confirming rumours reported here on Wednesday, Hampton will succeed Sir Christopher Gent at GSK, as the pharmaceutical firm's current chairman has announced his intentions to retire from the company at the end of 2015.The RBS chairman will not leave the bank immediately, however, as he is expected to remain on the board until after the general election in May.Should Labour win the general election in May, Ed Miliband would be under pressure to ensure British chief executives of overseas companies that profit from using tax avoidance schemes are sent to jail, The Independent reported.Paul Kenny, the general secretary of the powerful GMB union, is quoted as saying: "Tax avoidance is stealing, it's cheating. Give them, UK CEOs, five years, more – we need to change the rules to let them know they can't prosper like this."GMB, which is a major Labour party donor and represents over 630,000 workers, cited cases involving Google and Starbucks.Barclays has been told to pay a former client €10m after losing a court case related to claims it had misused confidential information, The Times reported.The bank allegedly used the information obtained from a customer to purchase a Swedish carbon trading company in 2010 and will now have to pay the sum in damages to CF Partners, a financial advisory firm, over its £98m takeover of Stockholm-based hydropower carbon credis trader Tricorona.On Wednesday, a federal judge stated that BP must honour the agreement it made with the companies it compensated for losses blamed on the 2010 Gulf oil spill, reported The Wall Street Journal.The firm had argued that nearly 800 companies had been allowed to overestimate their claims because of a flawed funding formula and about 150 claimants should return a total of $185m, BP said.US District Judge Carl Barbier, however, rejected the oil giant's stance and reiterated it must now stand by the agreement it made.Blackberry has launched a new handset characterised by a square screen and a keyboard that offers both touch-enabled controls and physical keys, The Financial Times reported.The company has seen the sales of its handsets declining and, according to initial reports, the new device should appeal to existing customers but it might struggle to win over new users.The new phone has a 4.5in (11.4cm) touchscreen with a resolution of 453 pixels per inch - higher than Apple's iPhone 6 Plus, but lower than Samsung's Galaxy Note 4.