Tuesday newspaper round-up: BP, Equitable Life, UKFI

Tony Hayward is to be offered a non-executive role on the board of BP's highly profitable Russian joint venture as part of an exit package that includes early entitlement to a £600,000-a-year pension.A meeting of the oil giant's board broke up last night after discussions about the future of the company, as the group prepared to approve the appointment of Robert Dudley to replace Mr Hayward as chief executive. Hayward, 53, who is expected to qualify for payments from his £10.8M pension pot when he leaves in November, will also be offered a lucrative role at TNK-BP, Russia's third-biggest oil producer, the Times reports.BP's billionaire partners in Russia indicated they are willing to back their old adversary Bob Dudley as its new chief executive, as the oil giant's board met on Monday night to finalise a radical shake-up. The endorsement will be a boost to BP, as it attempts to draw a line under itsGulf of Mexico oil spill by on Tuesday announcing the departure of chief executive Tony Hayward and revealing hefty impairment charges of up to $25bn (£16bn), the Telegraph reports.The Parliamentary Ombudsman weighed into the row about compensation for victims of the Equitable Life scandal yesterday, saying she could not support the findings of a Government-backed inquiry published last week. Ann Abraham said that proposals in Sir John Chadwick's report, to which the Government has lent its support, "seem to me to be an unsafe and unsound basis on which to proceed", the Independent reports.The National Audit Office has called for a project-by-project review of future Private Finance Initiative contracts amid concerns about a rise in bank lending rates. An NAO report said that higher rates charged by private sector lenders meant that the PFI was less likely to represent value for money in future. Deals entered into during the credit crunch locked in an extra £500m to £1bn of financing costs because of higher bank charges, the NAO report found, the Times reports.Europe's stress tests for banks have greatly reduced pressure on Spanish lenders but have so far done little to ease broader strains in the interbank credit markets. Three-month Euribor rates have crept up to a one-year high of 0.889pc. The "Libor-OIS spread", watched as a key gauge of stress in the system, also nudged up to 26 basis points, the Telegraph reports.The directors of the agency set up to manage the Government's stakes in Britain's part-nationalised banks have agreed to take a 5% pay cut as public-sector spending is slashed. Sir David Cooksey, the chairman of UK Financial Investments (UKFI), said it was focusing hard on cutting its costs, which would be "substantially below" the targets in its business plan, the Independent reports.EU regulators have begun two investigations into IBM, the world's largest computer services firm, following accusations the American company has been abusing its dominant position in the market for mainframe computers. The European market for mainframe computers and softwarewas worth €3bn (£2.5bn) last year, the Guardian reports.