Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

The American investment bank JP Morgan is to trigger one of the City's biggest pay days by buying out the remaining 50% of Cazenove, the blue-blooded broker, for £950m. About £650m will be split between 80 former Cazenove partners, including a number of aristocrats and society figures, many of whom are retired, the Sunday Times reports.In a passionate and closely argued essay on the future of banking, John Varley, the chief executive of Barclays, said that banks had to show that they behaved responsibly, supported economic progress and contributed to society, for example through the tax system, the Sunday Telegrqaph reports. Bankers' contracts could be ripped up by City regulators and their banks fined under tough new powers designed to prevent another collapse of the financial system. Alistair Darling, the chancellor, will publish legislation this week that includes curbs to prevent the "casino" activities of the banks. The financial services bill, to be introduced in the Queen's speech on Wednesday, will hand fresh responsibility to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to clamp down on bankers pocketing excessive bonuses or even to cancel pay packages that encourage too much risk-taking, the Sunday Times reports.Gordon Brown will this week clear the way for customers to launch multimillion-pound class-action lawsuits against financial institutions for the first time. Customers would also be entitled to claim 'instant justice' against any bank they accuse of ripping them off. The measures, to be introduced in a Financial Services Bill on Thursday, are part of an effort by Mr Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling to react to public anger over the banks' profligacy, teh Mail on Sunday.Lloyds Banking Group has been forced to swallow a £600m debt-for-equity swap at Admiral Taverns, the pubs group, in the latest fallout from the banking group's ill-fated merger last year with rival HBOS. The deal, which could come this week in the form of a pre-pack administration, will force Lloyds to take control of Admiral, one of Britain's largest pub groups, after it fell behind on repayment of more than £1bn in debts, the Sunday Times reports.The Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into a fund controlled by a British financier alleged to have defrauded expatriates in Mallorca of £20m. John Hirst's firm, Gilher Inc, "targeted British nationals and other expatriates" on the island with a scheme that promised "guaranteed" returns of 20%, said the SFO, the Sunday Times reports.The former chairman and the chief executive of Woolworths Group, Richard North and Steve Johnson, have broken their silence on the retailer's collapse to slam the role that accountancy firm Deloitte played in its demise. North, Woolworths' former chairman, and Johnson, its former chief executive, claim that Deloitte's dual role as both adviser to Woolworths' banking syndicate and administrator to the company when it collapsed last November constitutes a potential conflict of interest, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Flyglobespan, Scotland's biggest airline, is believed to have staved off collapse with a last-ditch cash injection on Friday evening. Administrators were lined up to handle the airline's collapse but directors at Globespan Group managed to secure new funding at the 11th hour. But it is not known whether the additional cash has secured the long-term future of the airline, the Sunday Independent.British Airways hopes a deal can be struck with its pension fund trustees over the airline's £3bn to £4bn estimated pension deficit by Christmas, allowing the merger announced last week with Spain's Iberia to take-off as planned. BA's chief financial officer, Keith Williams, said on Friday that negotiations between the airline and its pension fund trustees are progressing well, and that both sides are confident that an agreement will be reached before the end of this year, the Sunday Independent.Thameslink and Crossrail services through the capital could be hit by Treasury crackdown on infrastructure projects. The £5.5bn Thameslink programme to upgrade one of Britain's busiest rail routes is facing £750m worth of cutbacks in a Treasury crackdown on costly infrastructure projects, the Observer says.Royal Bank of Scotland was last night under fire from critics concerned that the part-nationalised bank is acting against the best interests of the UK economy by backing foreign takeover bids and dodging its commitments on lending. A coalition of unions and MPs said a £630m RBS loan facility to Kraft, the US firm bidding to buy Cadbury, should be examined by ministers to prevent taxpayer funds being used to undermine the independence of British companies, the Observer reports.National Express management and the transport group's deputy chairman, Jorge Cosmen, are set for yet another confrontation, this time over the terms that give the Spaniard the right to sit on the board. The Cosmen family were granted a board seat when they sold the family business, Alsa, to National Express in October 2005. However, the terms of this deal are now under dispute as the board and the secretive family have interpreted them differently, the Sunday Independent.