Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

French and German officials are pressing Ireland to increase its low corporate tax rate in return for an aid package, setting the stage for a showdown over a policy long resented by Dublin's European partners, the FT reports.Ireland views the corporate tax rate, set at 12.5% as the cornerstone of its industrial policy. On Thursday Irish officials reiterated their determination to protect it. "It's non-negotiable," Mary Coughlan, the deputy prime minister, told parliament.The British and American housing markets are at risk of a double-dip downturn that poses significant risks to recovery, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned yesterday. The report came as Britain's Council of Mortgage Lenders said that net mortgage lending would be only £9bn this year ? the lowest since 1980 ? amid stagnant property demand, the Times reports.Austerity measures pose "headwinds" to British growth, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned, as it slashed its forecast for the UK in 2011. The influential think-tank now predicts gross domestic product (GDP) will expand 1.7% next year, far less than the 2.5% foreseen in its May economic outlook, the Times adds.The European Central Bank (ECB) has issued a clear warning that it will press ahead with plans to raise interest rates and withdraw lending support for banks despite the eurozone debt crisis, even if this risks pushing Ireland, Portugal and Spain into deeper trouble. "The central bank must guard against the danger that the necessary measures in a crisis period evolve into a dependency as conditions normalise," said Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB's president, the Telegraph reports.Lloyds Banking will be behind almost one-sixth of all property deals in the UK this year, as some £4bn of property has been shifted by boom-time borrowers needing to repay loans to the bank's £30bn troubled real estate debt division. Lloyds, the largest lender to commercial property with almost a quarter of the £250bn of outstanding debt, has formed a 425-strong business support team headed by Richard Dakin, the FT reports.North American investors have regained possession of an American industrial icon, with US and Canadian mutual and pension funds and retail investors scooping up more than 90% of shares in General Motors as it returnned triumphantly to stock markets in New York and Toronto today. In their first day of trading, GM's shares, which were initially priced at $33, advanced as much as 9.1% in New York following the company's $23bn IPO, before slipping back to close at $34.19, up 3.6%. the Times reports.President Obama's car czar has been charged with paying kickbacks to obtain investments for his former firm from New York's biggest pension fund. Steven Rattner, who advised the White House on the General Motors bailout and is now promoting his book on the subject, was also hit with two lawsuits from the New York Attorney General over sham deals, the Times reports.The London Stock Exchange, which is trying to get into the lucrative derivatives market, has pledged to break the monopoly enjoyed by its main European rivals. Xavier Rolet, the chief executive, said that the LSE hoped to launch an equities derivatives offering on its Turquoise trading platform next year, the Times reports.Sir Philip Green, the tycoon behind the Topshop to Bhs retail empire, vowed his group would be debt-free in two years' time as he unveiled a "solid" 6.4% rise in its profits yesterday. The billionaire is also considering closing a large number of stores as he shakes up the property portfolio at Taveta Investments, the holding company for the seven Arcadia brands and Bhs, the Independent reports.Lenders are not "crying wolf" when it warns that large numbers of people will be excluded from owning a home if strict new mortgage rules are introduced, the head of the Council of Mortgage Lenders has warned. Matthew Wyles, chairman of the CML, said the regulations being proposed by the City regulator would end up hurting more borrowers than they would help, the Telegraph reports.