Wednesday newspaper round-up: Banks, Goldman Sachs, Paddy Power

Britain's banking system is to be investigated by a cross-party group of senior MPs which plans to draw up proposals to put the wider interests of society at the heart of a reformed banking sector.The Future of Banking Commission is to include John McFall, Labour chairman of the Commons Treasury Select Committee, Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats' Treasury spokesman, and the former shadow Home Secretary David Davis, who will chair the commission, the Independent reports.Investors now view Britain as a riskier lending proposition than Italy, with its cost of borrowing rising comfortably above the 4% mark for the first time this year. The yield on 10-year gilts rose briefly above the 4.1% level in intraday trading and spent most of the day higher than the yield on benchmark Italian bonds, as fears over Britain's fiscal credibility continued to haunt markets, the Telegraph reports. Manufacturers increasingly are moving production back to Britain as shoddy quality and higher freight prices are undermining the cost advantage of producing goods overseas. A report into the state of the manufacturing sector by the EEF and BDO, the accountants, finds that one in seven companies surveyed had moved production back to the UK from abroad in the past two years, the Times reports.Britons would have been spared £11bn in taxes had public sector pay rises been kept in line with the private sector over the past two years, according to a think-tank. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) calculated that the equivalent saving in government spending could have been made had the state employee wage bill been reined in. Total public sector pay was £180bn in the year to September 2009, the CEBR said, marking an 8.4% rise over two years. Private sector pay rose by only 1.8% over the same period, it said, the Telegraph reports.Goldman Sachs has moved to justify spending millions of dollars short-selling some of the financial products it made and sold to clients. In a rare statement of defence, the American investment bank has offered a detailed explanation of its dealings in mortgage-backed products, particularly regarding collateralised debt obligations (CDOs), in the years preceding the financial crisis, the Telegraph reports.Monarch Airlines has denied it is in any financial difficulty and branded Paddy Power "irresponsible" for running a book claiming it could be the next carrier to go bust. The Irish bookmaker cut the odds on the UK's largest charter airline becoming the next victim of the aviation downturn from 50-1 to 4-1 favourite after taking more than 100 bets over Christmas, the Telegraph reports.Google will start the new year with a mobile product announcement, setting the stage for what is turning into a showdown with its former ally Apple over mobile computing devices.The search group revealed earlier this month that it had issued employees with a mobile device to test, though it did not give details. On Tuesday it disclosed that it would hold an event at its headquarters in Silicon Valley next Tuesday for a mobile announcement, prompting speculation that the device would be unveiled, the FT reports.Petrol prices are set for a 5p-per-litre hike over the first three months of 2010, and potentially twice as much by the end of the year, a fuel retailers' group is warning. The possibility of a 10p-per-litre rise in 12 months is from tax and duty rises only, and does not take into account any rises in the oil price, says the RMI Independent Petrol Retailers Association, the Independent reports.The Japanese government on Wednesday unveiled an ambitious economic revitalisation plan with a target to achieve more than 2% growth in gross domestic production over the next decade.The target represents a major turnaround from the record 4.3% contraction in nominal GDP the government forecasts for fiscal 2009, ending next March, the FT reports.A group of shareholders in Cattles has vowed to fight for the doorstep lender to be wound up, in an attempt to improve the chances of pursuing a legal case against some of its former employees. Barry Dearing, a Lancashire-based solicitor, has started a shareholder action group to press for Cattles to agree to close down promptly so that potential legal action could be considered under the Insolvency Act. The group is racing against the clock as there is a limited period to prosecute certain offences, the Times reports.Retailers are holding off passing next week's rise in VAT on to consumers in an attempt to prolong the post-Christmas sales surge. Monday was the busiest shopping day this year, according to Synovate ? surpassing Saturday, December 19 by 1.2 % and beating last Boxing Day by 27.5% in terms of footfall. The market researcher said that the rise in shopper numbers was driven by the impending increase in VAT from 15% to 17.5%. Tesco, Asda and J Sainsbury, Britain's three largest supermarkets, said that they intended to postpone the VAT on thousands of items. They joined John Lewis, which last month committed to freezing the rise as part of its "never knowingly undersold" pledge, the Times reports.Natural catastrophes have left the world's insurers with a claims bill totalling $22bn (£13.7bn) this year as the number of disasters linked to climate change increased markedly. The total costs of such catastrophes, which this year included devastating tornados and severe storms, reached $50 billion worldwide, according to research from Munich Re, the German reinsurer, the Times reports.