Monday newspaper round-up: Stress tests, Vodafone, Bank of England...

One in five banks in Europe have failed 'stress tests' and been ordered to come up with nearly €10bn to plug a shortfall in their balance sheets, reports The Times. Italian banks came out worst in the review, with four being responsible for a €3.3bn shortfall. All of the British banks passed the test.Vodafone has launched an investigation into its Spanish arm Ono, according to The Telegraph, amid allegations that the cable operator's profits were inflated by tax fraud. The probe is said to be centred around how much senior management knew about the alleged fraud ahead of Vodafone's £6bn acquisition which completed in July.Monetary Policy Committee member Ian McCafferty has called on the Bank of England (BoE) to raise interest rates now, claiming that spare capacity could be used up by the summer and add to inflation pressures, The Guardian reports. McCafferty "reiterated his view that raising borrowing costs now would help the BoE to nudge up rates only gradually", the paper said.Plans backed by Gazprom to create a gas link between Russia and Britain have been binned on the back of worries that it would have increased dependence on Russian gas, writes The Times. British ministers were believed to have backed the Russian state-owned energy group's plans when they were first proposed two years, but worsening relations between Moscow and the West as of late have changed that.The Scotsman cited figures from recruiter Brightpool which showed that financial-services firms have recently chosen the north of England over Scotland to expand in due to uncertainty caused by the independence referendum."There will be no blackouts. Period", according to energy secretary Ed Davey, who attempted to reassure households after a series of fires at power stations prompted concerns about an energy shortage this winter, writes The Guardian. His comments came before an assessment by Ofgem on UK energy supplies due out on Tuesday.