Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has attempted to quell City complaints over Friday's widely-criticised industry stress tests, telling analysts they would have liked to have made them harsher but were unable to do so. The Sunday Telegraph reports that the EBA admitted that figures given by the banks in some cases "materially" changed after being challenged. "It is clear the EBA is telling us it was unable to perform the type of tests it wanted to and considering the difficulties it faced it didn't do a half bad job," said one market professional. Criticism of the tests was largely on the loss assumptions it used for banks' sovereign exposures. Monday is the first chance for investors to give their view on the tests. Many observers are expecting a volatile trading session as the markets assess the findings of the exercise.Investors are in talks to resurrect failed care homes operator Southern Cross with a cash injection of between £50m and £100m and new management, the Sunday Times reports.It is not yet clear which shareholders would support the move. Southern Cross's three biggest investors are Henderson, JO Hambro and Waterfall, the family office of the Israeli tycoon Meir Gurvitz. Scottish Widows and RCM also have stakes.Chai Patel, founder of the Priory healthcare chain, has been tipped as a potential chief executive of the new business.The chairman of Castlebeck, the company behind Winterbourne View, the care home at the centre of the recent BBC Panorama abuse exposé, has resigned as the group braces itself for what it expects to be a highly critical report into care standards conducted by the Care Quality Commission and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Observer reports.Paul Brosnan, the 35-year-old son of Denis Brosnan, one of Ireland's richest men, will make way for Dick Stockford, a veteran healthcare consultant and troubleshooter who has worked with senior figures across the NHS including chief executive David Nicholson and Lord Darzi.Clive Cowdery, the self-made insurance tycoon, is considering a surprise bid for the 630 bank branches being sold by Lloyds Banking Group. The bid will be made through his Guernsey-based company rather than the listed Resolution vehicle, the Sunday Times believes.The entrepreneur was among a handful of players to lodge first-round indicative bids for the assets by last week's deadline. Virgin Money and NBNK, a bank buyout vehicle led by Lord Levene, also submitted bids. National Australia Bank is expected to table a late offer. Small shareholders and furious corporate governance campaigners in the US are stepping up their effort to shake the Murdoch family's grip on News Corp, after the British newspaper phone-hacking scandal finally spread across the Atlantic, the Independent on Sunday reports.A legal assault on alleged nepotism by Rupert and his son James, and dereliction of duty by the rest of the board, was first launched earlier this year after News Corp spent $615m (£381m) to buy Shine, the television production company controlled by Elisabeth, James's sister. Last week, the attorneys behind the lawsuit dramatically increased its scope, alleging that the hacking scandal would never have got out of control if the board had been able to stand up to the Murdochs.The lead plaintiffs in the suit are a trio of activist investors with a long history of campaigning for reforms at companies they say are being poorly run. As new developments in the hacking scandal unfolded, one of them, the Central Laborers' Pension Fund in Illinois, said that News Corp was not living up to its responsibilities to outside shareholders.The head of Formula One (F1), Bernie Ecclestone, has revealed that News Corp's planned purchase of the motor sport could fail because he does not want the sport on pay-TV, the Sunday Telegraph says. In May, News Corp and the Exor investment fund said they were "exploring the possibility of creating a consortium" to buy F1. "It isn't possible that F1 could go on to pay-TV, we wouldn't want to do that," Ecclestone said.Prime Minister David Cameron met senior News International executives 26 times in 14 months, a disclosure that exposes just how close the Conservative leader has been to the most powerful players in Rupert Murdoch's media empire, The Scotsman states.Cameron also invited former director of communications Andy Coulson to his country retreat, Chequers, as a personal guest, two months after the former News of the World editor quit his government job over the phone-hacking scandal, Downing Street has confirmed.Russia's biggest gold mining company Polyus, which will join the London Stock Exchange this month, is finalising a nine-year strategy to wow its new investors, claims The Independent on Sunday. The board of Polyus believes that several of the company's gold projects are little known among international investors and analysts, and that the strategy document will help increase the company's valuation. The group is already expected to be valued at $13bn (£8bn) when it completes the reverse takeover of the London-listed KazakhGold.Britain's fragile economy will expand by just 1.4% this year as Europe's debt crisis hits business confidence, the latest Ernst & Young Item Club report warns. As recently as April, Item was expecting growth of 1.8%, amid hopes that the cheap pound would boost exports and fuel business investment, the Observer notes. In its latest quarterly health-check of the economy, Peter Spencer, Item's chief economist, said the deteriorating international environment meant the UK was now at a "critical juncture"."Confidence is particularly fragile," he said. "The risks to the eurozone are plain to see, starting with the Greek default, which hangs like the sword of Damocles over Europe."Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) is pulling out of the financial advice market and axing its 670-member door-to-door sales team as the mutual focuses on its core banking, mortgages and general insurance units, The Scotsman reports.The Co-op is transferring a further 82 branch-based posts to Paris-listed insurance giant Axa, which will offer financial advice from 248 Britannia Building Society and 90 Co-op Bank sites.News of the job losses comes as Royal London, the UK's largest mutual life and pensions company, revealed that it is in exclusive talks to acquire the Co-op's £20 billion asset management and life assurance businesses. As part of its strategic review, the Co-op approached Royal London - which owns Edinburgh-based brands including Scottish Life, Scottish Provident and Bright Grey - with a view to selling the businesses.--jh