Two of Britain's best-known company bosses are poised to step down in a dramatic changing of the guard in FTSE 100 boardrooms. Headhunters have been called in to find a replacement for Sir John Bond as chairman of Vodafone, the mobile phone giant. Sir John Parker, meanwhile, is in the early stages of planning his exit from the chairman's seat at National Grid, the utility group, the Sunday Times reports.The United States, Japan and large parts of Europe have exhausted their policy arsenal, leaving them defenceless against a double-dip recession as recovery slows to 'stall speed'. "The US has run out of bullets," said Nouriel Roubini, professor at New York University, and one of a caste of luminaries with grim forecasts at the annual Ambrosetti conference on Lake Como, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Britain's biggest banks will hand over their worst economic case survival plans to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) next month ahead of the G20 summit in South Korea. The recovery and resolution plans, more commonly known as "living wills", will form part of the G20 talks on reform of the global banking system on 11 and 12 November. HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Standard Chartered, Lloyds Banking Group and Santander will all submit draft plans next month as part of the FSA's living will pilot programme, the Sunday Independent reports.George Osborne is considering scrapping plans that would have forced banks to reveal the giant pay deals handed to star traders. Reforms put forward by Sir David Walker last year would have required banks to disclose the number of employees paid more than £1m. The rules would also have forced banks to reveal detailed information, breaking down the number of multi-million-pound bankers into "pay bands". Although part of the Financial Services Act passed in the final days of the last parliament, no detail on the new disclosures was agreed, the Sunday Times reports.The Bank of England is this week set to hold interest rates at 0.5%, with a growing expectation that when rates do start to rise they will do so quickly. The decision on Thursday should mark the 18th consecutive month of unchanged rates, as the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) weighs up the risk of a faltering economic recovery against the prospect of high inflation, the Sunday Telegraph reports.BP has put its $20bn (£13bn) stake in North America's largest oil field, Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, up for sale. The move is part of a global auction of assets to cover the rising cost of the Gulf of Mexico spill. It is understood BP is also in advanced talks to dispose of between $5bn and $10bn of its international assets ? including a large package of North Sea oil fields ? to TNK-BP, its Russian joint venture, the Sunday Times reports.The safety device that should have helped prevent the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was being raised to the surface late last night, handing investigators the first chance of gaining a better understanding of what caused the disaster. Weighing about 300 tonnes and measuring 50ft, the device, known as the blowout preventer, was painstakingly lifted from the Gulf of Mexico's seabed using a combination of cranes and drilling pipes by engineers from BP, the Sunday Telegraph adds.British consumers are enduring the hardest times since the early 1980s, with inflation, low wage growth and unemployment creating a "perfect storm", a new study has found. Conditions may become even tougher if the Bank of England follows recommendations by four members of the shadow monetary policy committee to raise the interest rate to 1% this week. The "hard times index" created by Oxford Economics ? incorporating tax, average earnings, inflation, levels of benefit payments and debt-serving costs ? suggests household finances are more constrained than at any time for nearly three decades, the Sunday Times reports.National Grid is facing an investigation by United States regulators over allegations it is trying to charge more than $26m in excessive costs to American consumers, including management expenses for private school tuition fees and the transatlantic shipment of a wine collection. The claims have come from New York and Massachusetts, where the heavily-regulated British electricity giant is trying to raise rates by $369m and $107m respectively in a crucial election year, the Sunday Telegraph reports.British Airways boss Willie Walsh is planning to create the world's biggest international airline - overtaking Lufthansa and Air France-KLM - after he has finalised the merger with Spain's Iberia. Setting aside recent problems such as the threat of industrial action, record losses and groundings following the volcanic ash cloud, Walsh has identified a South American airline to buy, the Mail on Sunday reports.Gartmore, the fund management firm hit by regulatory concerns, has awarded 3.5% of the company's equity to a group of top staff to encourage them to stay at the business. The company was rocked by a Financial Services Authority (FSA) inquiry earlier in the year and has since suffered the resignation of star trader Guillaume Rambourg, who quit to focus on the FSA probe. Only last week Gervaise Williams, another high-profile fund manager, left the business after a run of poor returns, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Singapore Telecoms, the sovereign wealth-backed mobile phone-to-pay TV giant, is considering a bid for FTSE 100 group Cable & Wireless Worldwide. Cable & Wireless shares spiked last week following rumours that US rival AT&T was putting together a takeover plan. Some analysts have dismissed the speculation surrounding AT&T's interest, but SingTel has contacted bankers in Asia and Europe to discuss its own ideas for the Bracknell-based company, the Sunday Independent reports.Neville Bain, the chairman at the Institute of Directors (IoD), has hit out at City regulation that forces board members of all FTSE 350 companies to face re-election every year. Introduced this summer, the move replaces the regime that saw directors stand for election every three years. There are fears that activist investors will use an annual vote to impose ideas on reluctant management, the Sunday Independent reports.Tim Waterstone, the founder of the books chain that bears his name, is considering a £100m-plus bid to take the chain private if the parent company, HMV, fails to turn the business around by the new year. Well-placed City sources say Waterstone is closely monitoring developments at the bookshops, where sales and profits have plunged under HMV's ownership, the Observer writes.
Last checked at 
