Thursday newspaper round-up: BP, Deadlock, Lloyds

BP has reached a milestone in its legal battle to limit its compensation settlement for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, following a favourable ruling from a US court. The Fifth Circuit appeals court in New Orleans on Wednesday night approved an injunction to stop payments to businesses that had not "experienced actual injury traceable to loss" from the Deepater Horizon accident. The ruling overturned earlier decisions by the district court that rejected BP's calls for such an injunction, the Financial Times writes. The political deadlock in the United States would become "extremely serious" if it led to delays in the payment of interest on US government bonds, a senior Bank of England figure has warned. Paul Fisher, director of markets at the Bank, said that although traders expected some kind of deal on Capitol Hill, the public sector shutdown was a cause for concern. "Markets expect there to be a deal," he said. "If it got to the stage when the US did not pay interest on its debt, that could be extremely serious," according to The Times. Lloyds is closing in on a deal to sell Scottish Widows Investment Partnership as part of ongoing efforts to streamline its business and shore up its finances. A deal to sell the asset management arm of Scottish Widows could be signed off within weeks, according to sources close to the negotiations. FTSE 100 fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management is believed to be one of a handful of bidders still in the running, according to The Daily Mail. Less than a year after 4G promised to deliver super-fast mobile phone services, the telecoms regulator is taking the first steps towards a new generation of even more powerful technology. Ofcom is planning for a new era of mobile telephony ahead of a possible sale of the necessary spectrum ? the frequencies used to carry mobile phone signals, data and television ? as soon as 2018. It predicts that demand for mobile data will be 80 times greater in 2030 than it was last year, The Times says. Britain will not be able to claim a lasting recovery until regions outside London and the South East are growing strongly, the Bank of England Governor has warned. Mark Carney said "the economy is beginning to pick up", but he stressed that a durable recovery would need to be built on growth outside the capital. "This recovery, to gain traction, is going to turn on regions like East Anglia," he said. "As important as London is, it is going to turn on what happens in the broader economy. It is not enough just to have a recovery in London and the South East," The Daily Telegraph reportsClawing back bonuses from directors could be made easier as a result of a new consultation on pay from the UK's governance and accounting regulator. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has begun looking at whether the current rules claw back go far enough, or should be strengthened further in the wake of continued concern about executive remuneration. The FRC, led by Chairman Baroness Hogg, has begun a consultation in the wake of new legislation which came into effect on October 1st, which gave shareholders an binding vote on directors' pay, The Daily Telegraph reports. AB