BP Share News (BP.)

Emergency plans were being drawn up last night for a massive boost to the eurozone's bailout facility to protect the banking system from the fallout of the Greek debt crisis. The Times has learnt that German officials are studying plans to increase the fund's effective size by €1trn to buy up high-risk sovereign debt, in a scheme similar to the $700bn bank bailout in the United States approved by George Bush in 2008, the paper says.Christine Lagarde has signalled that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may have to tap its members - including Britain - for billions of pounds of extra funding to stem the European debt crisis. The head of the IMF has warned that its $384bn (£248bn) war chest designed as an emergency bail-out fund is inadequate to deliver the scale of the support required by troubled states, the Telegraph reports.The investment banks that own LCH Clearnet are pushing the London Stock Exchange to guarantee a cap on fees in exchange for control of the clearing house. The LSE, which is scrabbling to shore up its position in the face of a game-changing tie-up between NYSE Euronext in the United States and Deutsche Börse in Germany, emerged this month as the leading contender to buy the London-based clearing house, the Times reports.BP is set for a $610m (£404m) windfall after directors at its troubled Russian joint venture TNK-BP agreed a $1bn special dividend. The payout comes six months after BP claimed the oligarchs behind TNK-BP blocked a similar payment, according to the Telegraph.Shareholders will this week issue their first set of guidelines on how companies can beef up board performance and repair the flaws in boardroom composition and succession planning that shareholders say can destabilise companies and create market uncertainty. The Association of British Insurers is urging companies to step up the numbers of female directors on boards, and come up with clear long-term strategies for evaluating directors and recruiting key executives, the Financial Times reports.At least 80 people were arrested in New York over the weekend as hundreds marched through the Lower Manhattan financial district in protest against bank bailouts and corporate greed on Wall Street. The demonstrators beat drums and blew horns as they made their way through the city on Saturday, although barricades kept them away from the New York Stock Exchange. Most of the arrests were for disorderly conduct and for blocking traffic, the Independent reports.Union leaders will seek urgent talks with the defence group BAE Systems after it emerged the firm is planning to axe a further 3,000 jobs in a "shocking" and "devastating" blow to the industry.The job cuts come after the company cut 15,000 roles worldwide over the past two years in a cost-cutting programme that many observers expect to continue into next year, says the Guardian.Tax breaks designed to boost entrepreneurship and small businesses are to be unveiled by the Chancellor today. Fulfilling a budget pledge, George Osborne is to offer a £100m of new income and capital gains tax breaks to investors in fast growing technology and manufacturing firms, the Daily Mail reports.Ian Dyson is expected to stand down as chief executive of pubs group Spirit by the end of this year. His departure will come just over a year since he was appointed to run Punch Taverns and decided to split the firm into two - a managed pub arm Spirit, which owns the Chef & Brewer chain, and a tenanted group, Punch. Dyson stayed as boss with Spirit, the Daily Express reports.---RG