Tuesday newspaper round-up: Retail job losses, repossessions, Lloyds, IEA

The squeeze on spending was threatening more than 8,000 high street jobs last night as TJ Hughes became the latest chain to teeter on the brink.The collapse of the Liverpool-based discount department store would put 4,200 jobs in jeopardy. Another 1,600 are at risk at the Jane Norman fashion chain, while the HomeForm kitchen group is expected to enter a pre-pack administration today, says the Times.Britain's biggest lender Lloyds Banking Group has nearly double the riskiest kind of mortgages on its books than rivals, the Bank of England's latest Financial Stability Report showed. Around 60% of the state-backed bank's secured lending has a 'high' or 'very high' loan-to-value (LTV) ratio - that is, a loan worth between 70% and 90% of the property's value, writes the Daily Mail.Britain is facing a tsunami of house repossessions as soon as interest rates start to rise, one of the country's leading bankers has warned. Richard Banks, the chief executive of UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), the body that runs the £80bn of mortgages bailed out by the taxpayer during the banking crisis, also said in an interview with the Guardian that the Labour government's pleas at the start of the crisis for lenders to keep families in their homes was forcing some homeowners further into debt.Traders were dumping oil even before last week's release of strategic reserves by the International Energy Agency (IEA), new figures suggest. Brent crude fell a further 18 cents to $104.94 on Monday as the IEA said it may consider releasing more oil. The Paris-based agency said it will decide in 30 days whether to tap additional stockpiles, reports the Telegraph.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has identified five "global shocks" that will destabilise the world economy with increasing frequency in coming years. Rather than the traditional perils of conquest, war, famine and death, the OECD identifies viral pandemics, cyber attacks, financial crises, socio-economic unrest and geomagnetic storms as the five "global shocks" that will have to be endured, says the Independent.An employee at Citigroup transferred more than $19m of the bank's money to his own account last year without anyone noticing, it was alleged in a criminal filing yesterday. The transfers were made by a man overseeing part of the bank's derivatives trading, and were only discovered recently by an internal audit, according to charges laid against 35-year-old Gary Foster of New Jersey, according to the Independent.The government's planned reforms of the financial sector may not be radical enough to prevent a repeat of the payment protection insurance scandal, a member of the Independent Commission on Banking has warned. Clare Spottiswoode said the Coalition's new financial watchdog would have been powerless to stop the 'outrageous' payment protection insurance scam or outlaw draconian overdraft charges, says the Daily Mail.Andy Hornby, who led mortgage giant HBOS before its near collapse and rescue by Lloyds TSB, is among the front runners to take the reins at bookmaker Coral. Andy Hornby, 44, who resigned as chief executive at Alliance Boots last March for "a few months' break", is believed to be on the shortlist for the role of Coral managing director vacated nearly a year ago by Nick Rust, who joined rival Ladbrokes. Coral declined to comment, according to the Daily Express.