Nokia to cut another 3,500 jobs

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29 September 2011 Last updated at 12:21 GMT Nokia has been slower than rivals to take advantage of the lucrative market for smartphones Mobile phone giant Nokia is to cut 3,500 jobs and close a plant in Romania as part of its restructuring plan.

The cuts are in addition to thousands of job losses already announced by Nokia, which in April unveiled a 1bn-euro cost-cutting programme.

Nokia said it would shut its plant in Cluj, Romania, and cut jobs in its location division, whose products include maps for mobile phones.

It is also reviewing the future of plants in Finland, Hungary and Mexico.

"We must take painful, yet necessary, steps to align our workforce and operations with our path forward," said chief executive Stephen Elop.

Nokia shares have almost halved this year and opened down 1.7% on Thursday, but staged a recovery and were 1% up by midday.

"Nokia plans to close its manufacturing facilities in Cluj, Romania, by the end of 2011... and plans to close its (locations and commerce development) operations in Bonn, Germany and Malvern, US," by the end of next year, the company statement said.

Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight, said: "The scaling back of its manufacturing presence was sadly inevitable but it's clear that Elop is not afraid of taking the tough decisions to ensure Nokia's long-term survival."

Nokia's statement said the company would look to "focus its feature phone manufacturing on those locations with optimal proximity to suppliers and key markets".

Some analysts interpreted this as a signal that Nokia could shift manufacturing to Asia.

"If you think about where the markets are, the growth markets are in Asia, and it makes sense to manufacture a product close to the customer," said Pohjola Bank analyst Hannu Rauhala.

In July, the company plunged into the red as sales fell and margins were squeezed in the second quarter.

The firm made a net loss of 368m euros ($521m; ￡323m) in the three months to the end of June, compared with a profit of 227m euros a year earlier. Net sales fell by 7% to 9.3bn euros.

Nokia has lost ground to competitors such as Apple's iPhone and phones using Google's Android operating system.

Earlier this year, Nokia announced 7,000 job cuts worldwide - with 3,000 of the posts being transferred to consultancy group Accenture - as part of strategy to focus on smartphones.

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How to make sense of big data

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5 October 2011 Last updated at 23:08 GMT Each week we ask high-profile technology decision-makers three questions.

This week it is Keith Collins, chief technology officer (CTO) of SAS Institute.

The company describes itself as the world's leading business analytics software company. With about 12,000 staff and customers in 126 countries, the company has a turnover of $2.43bn (￡1.5bn). Founded in 1976 by Jim Goodnight, the firm prides itself for investing 24% of its revenue in research and development.

What's your biggest technology problem right now?

The biggest challenge is that the problems we are trying to solve have increased in complexity. Companies have more and more data, and more and more issues that they want to answer.

They have a flood of information from mobile devices, and all these data bring issues of large scale process optimisation and how to improve large scale forecasting.

Operational analytics allows people to fine tune their business. For example there is a big shift to trying to understand customers - in every industry. The products they buy, at which price. It's about customer satisfaction, whether it's for a mobile phone firm, an insurance company or ATM [cash] machines.

The analytics shows that consumers are more in charge than ever before.

We recently worked with a bank were customer satisfaction with ATMs was a huge issue, so we had to understand how to minimise the times when a machine runs out of cash, and project when the device fails.

Understanding the data made a huge impact on the customer satisfaction score and brought a $2m reduction in maintenance cost.

It's about bringing analytics to specific business problems. We had very good success with this in the retail space, and also help banks fighting credit card fraud.

Call centre optimisation is another example: How can you make sure you pay attention to your most important customers? When you are talking to a customer, do you know how they would prefer to get their information? And is there an opportunity to give them offers, to upsell?

There is an explosion in the understanding in the value of analytics. One problem is actually acquiring enough talent fast enough to deal with the demand.

So we are helping multiple colleges around the world to launch or improve and expand their analytics programmes.

What's the next big tech thing in your industry?

We are investing very heavily in top performance analytics and high performance computing.

Today there's just a small set of customers that demand that scale, but that's accelerating quickly. What we now call high performance computing, in three to five years it will be standard.

This will not always be a big company thing. There is a whole shift to being more consumer centric, and making customers mobile.

Almost any new company that is starting out today has a completely digital view of the market. New startups understand that they need analytics as part of their company's DNA.

And lots of small and medium-sized companies are looking for ready business analytics solutions that they can just plug in - whether it is in the cloud or a targeted application. We will see a shift where this software is directly plugged into a company's process and consumed through the cloud.

Even small companies can act big, because everything that works on Amazon's cloud service rivals anything that our largest customers have.

Adoption of these new models depends a bit on the age of a company's leadership. There is a new generation of entrepreneurs who gets it from the beginning. We also see mid-sized retailers changing their game.

Larger companies usually adapt when a new board comes in.

What's the biggest technology mistake you've ever made - either at work or in your own life?

I have a big problem here, picking the toughest one.

I once developed a whole set of brilliant technologies to near readiness, but had failed to tell the rest of the company about how it works.

So it's not just about having a vision, you need to plan the execution as well.

So I had this design technology for a data partition process to have the fastest data warehouse, but I didn't do a good job to educate our sales channel to take advantage of the opportunity.

Another one: I did not realise how fast the market for tablet computers would develop.

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Abramovich 'intimidated' oligarch

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3 October 2011 Last updated at 13:34 GMT Roman Abramovich is worth an estimated ￡10.3bn Roman Abramovich intimidated a fellow Russian oligarch into selling him shares in an oil company at a large discount, the High Court has heard.

Boris Berezovsky made the claims about the Chelsea football club owner with regards to Russian oil firm Sibneft.

He alleges breach of trust and breach of contract and is claiming more than ￡3.2bn in damages.

Mr Abramovich, who is worth an estimated ￡10.3bn, has denied the claims by his former business partner.

The Chelsea Football Club owner sold Sibneft to Russia's state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom in a multibillion-dollar deal in 2005.

Both men attended the first day of the trial, which is expected to last for more than two months.

They sat at either end of the packed courtroom.

Laurence Rabinowitz QC, who represents Mr Berezovsky, told Mrs Justice Gloster both men had worked together to acquire Sibneft and became friends.

He said the pair remained friends until Mr Berezovsky "fell out with those in power in the Kremlin and was forced to leave his home and create a new life abroad".

Mr Berezovsky is now exiled to the UK.

The barrister said his client had been "betrayed" after falling out with Russian political leaders and leaving Russia in 2000.

'Threats'

"It is our case that Mr Abramovich at that point demonstrated that he was a man to whom wealth and influence mattered more than friendship and loyalty and this has led him, finally, to go so far as to even deny that he and Mr Berezovsky were actually ever friends," he said.

Mr Rabinowitz went on: "Mr Berezovsky's case in relation to Sibneft is that Mr Abramovich intimidated him into selling his very substantial interest in Sibneft to Mr Abramovich himself at a very substantial under value and that he did so in effect by making threats.

"The threats being... that unless Mr Berezovsky... sold those interests to him, he, Mr Abramovich, would take steps with a view to the interest being effectively removed from them by those in the Kremlin, led by President Putin, who had come to regard Mr Berezovsky as his enemy."

The barrister claimed that Mr Abramovich had also threatened to "take steps with a view to preventing" the release from prison of a close friend of Mr Berezovsky.

Mr Rabinowitz said his client contended that as a result of "this intimidation", he was pressured into selling his Sibneft interest to Mr Abramovich for "very substantially less" than it was worth.

The case continues.

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Experts debate eurozone options

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2 October 2011 Last updated at 00:06 GMT A number of ideas are reportedly being discussed to tackle the eurozone debt crisis.

These include a 50% write-down of Greece's government debts, strengthening big European banks that could be hit by any defaults by highly indebted governments, and boosting the size of the eurozone bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

Here, eight economists discuss what they think will happen and what they think needs to happen in the eurozone.

Senior managing director of economics at FTI Consulting and former UK government adviser

Last week's events, with all the market volatility, were a serious wake-up call to all international institutions and to policymakers. I think they've understood it and institutions will be set up in such a way to ensure future crises should be averted.

I think we will see a haircut on Greek bonds, a recapitalisation programme for banks and an increase in the size of the bailout fund - but you need all these things, they need to be part of a package.

Even with that, in a year's time Europe will still be pretty weak because the long-term problems will still be there - low growth and unsustainable debt.

What we have seen for Greece will have to happen elsewhere. Haircuts are inevitable for other countries too.

They have to rethink how you achieve faster growth in Europe. If you don't get back to growth then the debt problems will remain.

The next thing that needs to be looked at seriously is issuing eurobonds. That may well be what we need in the longer term to lead us back to growth.

Director, Centre for European Policy Studies

We believe a market-based approach is needed to reduce Greece's debt.

The EFSF should offer holders of Greek debt an exchange into EFSF paper at the current market price. Banks would be forced in the context of the ongoing stress tests to write down holdings in their banking book and thus have an incentive to accept the offer.

More widely, we argue that the EFSF needs to be restructured.

You cannot just increase its size because if Italy or Spain were to step out as a guarantor, that would leave France, for instance, with a share of 40%, which it could not sustain and would lose its triple-A credit rating.

It cannot work as intended, but if it were re-registered as a bank, which would give it access to potentially unlimited ECB refinancing in case of emergency, the general breakdown in confidence could be stopped while leaving the management of public debt under the supervision of finance ministers.

Professorial research fellow, the European Institute of the London School of Economics. Currently researching EU economic policy, governance and policy co-ordination under European Monetary Union

The one obvious thing leaders should do would be to decide rapidly on a way of moving towards genuine eurobonds.

The Germans, manifestly, are very hostile to the idea, but it is a development that seems to have so many advantages that it ought to be pursued.

The trick will be to find a formula that deals with the "moral hazard" objections by introducing well-judged conditionality.

Economist at Open Europe, an independent think tank campaigning for reform of the EU

Greece obviously needs to restructure. It's looking at write-downs of 50% - that's a necessary step. It finally looks like the eurozone leaders are coming round to that.

But if it's not combined with recapitalising banks and other economic reforms it won't work.

In terms of the write-downs, banks will be able to absorb the hit because they should have been preparing for it for the last year. I think it would be necessary to use the EFSF to help recapitalise these banks and provide a backstop.

At the moment there's no clear pan-European mechanism for dealing with winding down a cross-border bank. I think we need a policy for what happens in this situation, a huge policy that needs to be detailed.

They also have to look at the different needs of the eurozone - for instance, interest rates in Germany would be very different to those in Greece. Those imbalances aren't going to go away.

Senior Economic Adviser, UBS Investment Bank

What I think the Europeans will choose to do is leverage the capital of the EFSF (currently 440bn euros) up by borrowing 5-10 times that from the market. They would then have the capacity to go and buy all of the sickly sovereign bonds that the banks are sitting on and swap them for bonds they themselves will issue.

I don't think it would be successful. In the short run it would probably be a bit of a tonic for bank stock prices and equity markets, but it doesn't do anything to solve the problem of the euro crisis at all.

I think you need a combination of three things.

These are: a restructuring template for Greece's debt with long gross periods - three years for the interest payment and 5-10 years for the principal repayment. That template might then have to be used for other countries.

Then, to stop Greek banks collapsing, you have to support the Greek banking system. And to stop banking contagion spreading to the likes of Italy and Spain, you need a banking recapitalisation programme.

And if the ECB said they were prepared to stand by and buy any amount of Spanish and Italian bonds, then we'd raise three cheers.

Anything that stops short of cleansing the European banking system will not be enough.

Chairman and chief economist, Lombard Street Research

The problem is that the Club Med countries - Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal - are not competitive. Even if they agree to writing down Greek debts and increasing the EFSF, that will only be successful in postponing the issue for a few more months. It won't stop debt going up.

For the euro to survive the only solution is for the Club Med countries to leave the single currency. I think Ireland could stay in the euro as, although it's banking system is a mess, it is cost competitive - exports make up most of its GDP - so it is possible to turn the economy round quite fast.

Former economist at Merrill Lynch/Bank of America, now chief economist at Berenberg Bank

The probability that we will get a significant write-down of Greek debt as part of an orderly programme, with an immediate recapitalisation of Greek banks, and with further European support for Greece, has risen substantially.

The key question in all this is nothing to do with Greece - but whether upon granting Greece debt relief we can protect Italy from the market panic and prevent contagion.

The risk Greece will default is now above 50%. But Greece is highly likely to stay in the euro come what may.

I would like to see the ECB commit to being the ultimate backstop - if things get really ugly the ECB should buy more government bonds.

Professor of economics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, specialises in monetary integration, monetary policy and financial crisis

Discussions about the EFSF are irrelevant. It shows policymakers haven't zeroed in on the crisis and what to do about it. The EFSF currently has 440bn euros. The amount we're talking about for Italy and Spain, as well as Greece, Portugal and Ireland could be 3.5 trillion euros.

I think that Greece will inevitably default, and I believe that Italy too will have to default, but I don't see a willingness in policymakers to accept that.

The ECB is the only institution that can stop the crisis. My solution is for the ECB to issue a partial guarantee on the existing public debts of eurozone governments, of say, up to 60% of GDP. It would allow governments to default but would create a backstop.

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BBC Wales workers' one-day strike

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30 September 2011 Last updated at 06:10 GMT Bectu is protesting against the loss of four BBC Wales editing jobs BBC Wales workers from the broadcasting union Bectu are staging a one-day strike on Friday.

The union is protesting against the loss of four editing jobs in the BBC's post-production news area.

"Every request made that our members be redeployed in new roles being created in the area of their expertise was refused," said a Bectu statement.

BBC Wales said it was disappointed about the strike and apologised for any disruption to services it might cause.

In a statement the broadcaster said it had a record of successfully redeploying as many staff as possible.

In July, members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) at BBC Wales took part in UK-wide industrial action protesting at compulsory redundancies due to cutbacks in funding.

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AUDIO: Germany 'committed to eurozone'

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Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel will today ask her country's politicians to sign off a plan to give more money to Europe's bail out fund.

Peter Altmaier, leader of the parliamentary group for the Christian Democrats, predicts the result and the long term consequences for Angela Merkel.

And Europe editor Gavin Hewitt previews a test of her power and authority.

Get in touch with Today via email , Twitter or Facebook or text us on 84844.

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Italy's credit rating is slashed

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5 October 2011 Last updated at 06:40 GMT The Italian Prime Minister said he had been expecting the announcement from Moody's The Italian government's credit rating has been slashed by Moody's from Aa2 to A2 with a negative outlook.

The ratings agency blamed a "material increase in long-term funding risks for the euro area", due to lost confidence in eurozone government debts.

Despite Rome's low current borrowing needs, and low private-sector debt levels in Italy, Moody's said market sentiment had turned against the euro.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the decision was expected.

"The Italian government is working with the maximum commitment to achieve its budget objectives," said Mr Berlusconi.

He said that a plan to balance the government's budget by 2013 had been approved by the European Commission.

Sell-off

The initial market reaction to the downgrade was muted.

The news broke half an hour after the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

But after-hours trading in stock market futures suggested that at least one percentage point of a late 4% market rally may have been wiped off.

Asian trading was mixed, with stocks initially surging after a report in the Financial Times that EU finance ministers were considering a plan to recapitalise European banks.

Continue reading the main story

The downgrading by Moody's of Italy's credit rating could not have come at a worse time for the eurozone”

End Quote Robert Peston Business editor, BBC News In Japan, stocks on the Nikkei index lost early gains to close down 0.86%. South Korea's main market lost 2.33%. Australian shares ended 1.40% higher.

Stock markets in Hong Kong and mainland China were closed for a holiday.

Oil prices were trading higher in Asia on hopes that efforts by European authorities to contain the eurozone crisis would prevent the world economy from slowing.

Brent crude for November delivery bounced back above $100 a barrel, rising $1.83 to $101.62.

Slow response

Analysts say Italy's downgrade is likely to be followed by similar cuts in the credit rating of Italy's banks, which would put severe pressure on their ability to borrow.

"This downgrade will make it even harder for Italy to borrow," says BBC business editor Robert Peston. "However, that is not the worst of it.

"If Italy is looking like a more risky place to lend, its banks... will find it harder and more expensive to borrow. The [eurozone] banking crisis will be exacerbated."

The rationale for Moody's downgrade will also be worrying for other eurozone governments, such as Spain, whose borrowing costs have also risen like Italy's as markets have lost confidence in their creditworthiness.

Moody's also raised warnings about Italy's growth outlook, citing structural economic problems in Italy, as well as the global economic slowdown.

Another problem noted by the rating agency was what it called political and economic "implementation risks".

"The question is, if [eurozone governments] will move fast enough... to really put in place a credible solution," says Robert Peston.

Continue reading the main story Use the dropdown for easy-to-understand explanations of key financial terms:AAA-rating GO The best credit rating that can be given to a borrower's debts, indicating that the risk of borrowing defaulting is miniscule.An expansion of the eurozone's bailout fund already approved by the euro's 17 governments in July - which is now seen by markets as inadequate - has still yet to be ratified by all the national parliaments.

The slow political response to the emerging crisis, necessitated by the European Union's institutional set-up, has been criticised by many commentators, including European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

In hock

However the key issue for Moody's was the change in the market's attitude towards eurozone government debts.

The Italian government has for several years earned more in tax revenues than it spends. However, the government also has a large outstanding debt - equivalent to nearly 120% of GDP.

The government relies heavily on the markets' willingness to relend these debts as they come due, and to lend it the cost of meeting its interest payments.

Moody's said that Italy could be further downgraded to "substantially lower rating levels" if a further deterioration in investor sentiment made it even harder for the country to raise cash from the markets.

Italy's cost of borrowing rose sharply over the summer on market fears that a slowdown in Italian growth could make existing debts unsustainable.

That prompted the European Central Bank to intervene by buying up Italy's debts - a controversial policy in Germany. But despite the ECB's action, Italian borrowing costs have begun to creep up again in recent weeks.

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Ask the experts: Eurozone crisis

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27 September 2011 Last updated at 22:54 GMT By Laurence Knight & Ian Pollock Business reporters, BBC News Our experts answer your eurozone crisis questions Last month, the BBC asked viewers what questions they had about their finances, particularly given fears about a renewed financial crisis and recession.

Here, BBC journalists Laurence Knight and Ian Pollock answer your questions about how the eurozone debt crisis might affect you.

Why, with the eurozone in crisis, is the pound still so weak against the euro? - Roy Waite, Carentoir, France

Put simply, the UK is in no better shape than the eurozone.

Both currency blocs (and the US for that matter) face the same economic malaise. Debts are too high, particularly household debts, so nobody wants to spend - not consumers, not businesses, not even governments.

That means interest rates in the UK and the eurozone are likely to remain very low for many years, making both currencies an unattractive place for investors to park their cash.

But thanks to the hawkish European Central Bank, eurozone interest rates have actually been somewhat higher than in the UK - and were even rising until recently - helping to push the euro's value up.

High interest rates and a strong euro have of course made things even harder for Greece and other heavily-indebted governments, and markets view their debts as very risky.

But the euro is also home to German government debt - considered an ultra-safe investment by markets.

Even if the more distressed eurozone governments defaulted on their debts, the consequences would be felt well beyond the eurozone's borders, much as the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 was felt outside the US.

And if these countries left the euro, the value of the remaining, more German-dominated euro might actually go up.

How prepared are we, the Bank of England, etc, for a Greek default? - Robert W Warne, Cardiff

Use the dropdown for easy-to-understand explanations of key financial terms:AAA-rating GO The best credit rating that can be given to a borrower's debts, indicating that the risk of borrowing defaulting is miniscule.

Bank of England governor Mervyn King revealed in response to MPs' questions in June that the Bank was working with the Treasury to draw up contingency plans for a Greek default.

He did not give any details of what those plans are, nor have any emerged since.

The direct exposure of UK banks to Greece is fairly limited, but - as with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers - a Greek default could have a number of knock-on effects that affect the UK far more severely.

For example, it could lead to the failure of one or more European banks because of their exposure to Greece, or to a general loss of confidence in global banks, in the euro or in the debts of other over-stretched eurozone governments.

The plan may consider actions such as:

emergency cash loans from the Bank of England to the UK banks, if there is a collapse of market confidence in theminterventions to support other short-term cash markets, such as commercial paper markets, which are used by companies to fund themselvesthe government injecting new loss-absorbing capital into the banks, if they suffer heavy losses because of the failure of a European bank or losses on other eurozone government debtsthe Bank publishing details of an audit currently under way of the UK banks' exposures to the eurozone, in order to reduce uncertainty and restore confidencemonetary stimulus - such as cutting rates to zero and buying up more UK government debt - in order to head off a broader economic downturnemergency tax cuts and/or spending increases by the government for the same purpose, with some of the resulting borrowing to be funded by the Bank of England's debt purchasescurrency interventions if the euro were to drop significantly against the pound.What would happen to euros in bank accounts in non-eurozone countries when/if the eurozone breaks up and turns into two or more different currencies? - Robert, Bath

You should check the terms of your bank account.

So long as the euro continues to exist - minus some members - your account should be unaffected.

If, for example, Greece left the euro, its government would probably pass a law overriding its existing euro contracts, as well as those of Greek banks, companies and individuals, redenominating them all into new drachmas.

Some legal experts have warned of a huge mess in these circumstances, with litigation brought by anyone who lost out on the conversion.

However, most financial contracts specify the law of a particular country as its "governing law". For a bank account in Athens or a Greek government bond, the governing law is Greece. So it would be hard for anyone to argue in court that these contracts should not be redenominated, if the Greek parliament says so.

But an account held in a non-eurozone country is likely to apply the law in that country, or the law of a popular jurisdiction such as England, New York or Germany. So it should be unaffected by a Greek redenomination law, unless your account is with a Greek bank.

If the euro ceased to exist altogether - with even Germany exiting - then what happens depends primarily on your account terms, assuming that they are not governed by the laws of one of the eurozone countries.

Your bank probably would have reserved the right to choose which national currency to use as a successor to the euro. Its choice would then be a commercial decision, based on how much it values its reputation and client relations over its own short-term financial gain.

Where does the European Central Bank get the money from to buy Spanish and Italian bonds? How much do they have available and what will they do if they use it all? - Peter Gray, Hitchin, Herts

Essentially the ECB, together with the "eurosystem" of 17 national central banks, can itself create the money that it uses to buy government debts.

There is therefore no theoretical limit to how much it can buy up.

When the ECB buys an Italian bond, it can pay for it by providing to the bond seller with a newly-created euro deposit at the seller's national central bank.

The seller can then use this deposit as "money" to buy other financial instruments, or it can redeem the deposit for newly-printed euro cash.

Practically, however, there are three limits on how much the ECB can do this.

The central bank's first priority is price stability. Creating new money is typically viewed as inflationary.

The ECB may try to reduce the impact of this money creation by borrowing the newly-created money back from the market, or by selling other assets it owns - German government bonds perhaps.

However, in the current heavily-depressed economy, many economists argue that money creation is not inflationary at all, at least in the medium-term, as banks are simply hoarding the money.

Secondly, the ECB may make losses on the bonds if Italy defaulted on its debts, or if it sold them back to the market at a lower price than it bought them.

The eurosystem has "capital" - money given to it by the eurozone governments when it was set up, plus profits it has made on its operations - of about 80bn euros that can absorb these losses.

But if the losses are too big, the ECB would need to be given new capital by the eurozone governments - something they are not legally obliged to do.

So the ECB may be concerned that any such bail-out could damage its cherished political independence.

Thirdly, the ECB is concerned not to distort markets too much, and in particular, not to discourage fiscal discipline by the Italian or Spanish governments by making it too easy for them to borrow.

I have three Spanish buy-to-let mortgages. I am saving sterling in the hope that the euro will collapse in value, to help pay off one of the mortgages. If a euro member leaves, is this likely to happen? If I default on the other two mortgages, can the bank take the one that I have just paid off? - Michael Sands, Northern Ireland

There are too many missing pieces of information to give you a sensible answer. Are the three properties in Spain or the UK? Is your lender in the UK or Spain? Were the loans in pounds or euros?

Whatever the facts, you appear to be in a hole, and as the former Labour Chancellor Denis Healey once said, in that situation, you should stop digging.

Let's assume the properties are in Spain and you borrowed euros from a UK lender to buy them.

Your suggested strategy is complex and hinges on several different things going your way, which they may not.

Firstly, devaluation of the euro. That might happen if one or more countries left the euro, but equally the euro might in fact strengthen if just the weakest countries such as Greece and the Irish Republic leave.

If Spain left the euro and, presumably, readopted the peseta as the national currency, you might think you would benefit from a probable devaluation of the newly adopted peseta.

But you might still be legally obliged to repay your debts in euros, regardless of the new local currency in Spain. And again, the euro might not devalue but appreciate if Spain left.

So, your guess that economic upheaval will inevitably reduce the value of your euro-denominated debts may not be accurate.

Your ambition to default on two mortgages after paying off just the third is also off beam.

Firstly, it is arguably dishonest.

Secondly, if you borrowed from a UK lender, then unless they were asleep when they lent you the money, they will have a charge over all three properties.

They will be able to chase you for any outstanding debts, once they have seized the two defaulted properties and sold them.

The same applies if you borrowed from a lender in Spain. If you still owe them money after they have seized your two mortgaged homes and sold them, they can still pursue you for the debt, there and here.

If your finances are too distressed, default may be inevitable. But it will not be an easy escape route from the debts you took on.

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Video: protesters March on Wall Street

Help 6 October 2011, last updated on: 10: 05 GMT

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Drivers 'cut petrol use by 15%'

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4 October 2011 Last updated at 23:18 GMT By Simon Gompertz Personal finance correspondent, BBC News The fall in petrol sales cost the Treasury nearly ￡1bn over the six months to June, the AA reckoned Drivers have cut their petrol consumption by more than 15% since the credit crunch and the recession.

The AA has calculated that petrol sales in the first six months of 2011 were 1.7bn litres less than in the same period three years ago.

The AA says the drop in petrol sales is a direct result of record fuel prices.

Many drivers are struggling to make ends meet in any case, so the high cost of petrol leaves them with no option but to try to use less.

And businesses have been cutting back as well.

The cut in fuel purchases, comparing the first six months of this year with pre-recession levels, is equivalent to 40,000 delivery rounds by fully-laden petrol tankers.

One result has been lower emissions of potentially damaging exhaust fumes.

Another, says the AA, is that the fall in sales has deprived the Treasury of nearly ￡1bn in fuel duty between January and June this year.

And while supermarkets have attracted drivers looking for bargain fuel, hundreds of other petrol stations have gone out of business.

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VIDEO: Build up a cash cushion, says Alvin Hall

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30 September 2011 Last updated at 10:22 GMT Help

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Cairn makes strike in Sri Lanka

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3 October 2011 Last updated at 08:42 GMT The discovery of natural gas is the first in Sri Lanka for decades Edinburgh explorer Cairn Energy has made its first gas strike in Sri Lanka through its Indian subsidiary.

The offshore well was the first to be drilled in the country for 30 years.

Cairn India made the discovery after drilling almost a mile down offshore in the Mannar Basin, Sri Lanka.

Simon Thomson, chief executive, Cairn Energy said: "Cairn is delighted with this frontier exploration discovery, the first well in Cairn India's three well drilling programme in Sri Lanka."

Cairn Energy is in the process of selling off 30% of its 52% stake in Cairn India to the Vedanta Resources and recently won shareholder and Indian government approval for the deal.

The company's focus has moved to Greenland since it announced it was reducing its stake in its Indian unit.

However, it has had a number of disappointments after turning up several dry wells.

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AUDIO: Greek government 'must stop fooling around'

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A senior German politician in Angela Merkel's coalition has said that Greece should leave the euro.

Former Greek finance minister, Stefanos Manos tells us why the Greek government should get tougher ahead of today's meeting of Europe's finance ministers.

Get in touch with Today via email , Twitter or Facebook or text us on 84844.

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China tech stocks dive on Nasdaq

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30 September 2011 Last updated at 01:19 GMT Continue reading the main story Chinese internet stocks have dived in New York trading after the US Justice Department said it was considering launching a fraud investigation.

The news was disclosed by Robert Khuzami, director of enforcement at the US financial services regulator.

Youku, which models itself on web video firm Youtube, was among the hardest hit, falling 18%.

Chinese search engine firm Baidu fell 9%, rival portal site Sohu lost 5.3%, and messaging firm Sina dipped 9.5%.

The fraud concerns have arisen after accounting irregularities emerged at a number of Chinese firms whose shares are traded in the US.

"There are parts of the Justice Department that are actively engaged in this area," said Mr Khuzami, when asked by the Reuters news agency whether criminal cases were being prepared.

He also confirmed that other federal prosecutors are involved in the investigation, but did not identify them, nor which Chinese companies and auditors are being looked into.

'A big issue'

The probe is the latest spotlight to fall on Chinese companies and their accounting practices.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu resigned as auditors for software firm Longtop earlier this year, after the accountancy firm claimed to have uncovered evidence of falsified financial records.

Questions have also been raised over the indirect way in which some Chinese firms obtained their US stock market listings.

Normally, a firm conducts a formal "initial public offering" on a stock exchange - something that is heavily regulated in the US and requires the detailed disclosure of a firm's finances to prospective investors.

However, many Chinese firms followed another route to market known as a "reverse merger".

This method involves the Chinese company being bought up by a smaller US firm that was already listed on a stock exchange, such as the Nasdaq, thereby minimising the company's disclosure requirement.

"Not having proper accounting and reliable audit review for publicly traded companies with operations in China is just not acceptable," said Mr Khuzami.

"We have to find a path to resolution of this issue. It is...a big issue for us."

A former investment banker who now works at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr Khuzami has built himself a reputation as someone who is happy to go after some of the biggest names in the financial industry.

He has also filed against Goldman Sachs for misleading investors.

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AUDIO: Autonomy due to decide on HP bid

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AppId is over the quota
3 October 2011 Last updated at 11:33 GMT Help

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Ericsson up on handset exit news

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6 October 2011 Last updated at 18:13 GMT Sony may merge its phone joint venture with its other mobile gaming business Shares in the Swedish telecoms firm Ericsson have risen on a report that Sony may soon buy it out of their mobile phone handsets joint venture.

The Wall Street Journal says Sony wants to integrate the division with its tablet computer and hand-held games machine businesses.

The report said the Japanese firm may pay its partner up to 1.25bn euros ($1.7bn, ￡1.1bn) for its 50% stake.

Ericsson's shares climbed close to 8% in US trading after the news broke.

'Struggling'

Despite Sony's reputation as a technology innovator, the joint venture has struggled to maintain market share.

Sony Ericsson accounted for 1.7% of all global mobile phone sales between April and June, according to a recent report by technology research firm Gartner.

That compared to a 3% share the previous year.

"The business has been struggling," said Mark McKechnie, a technology analyst at ThinkEquity.

"Sony's decision to use its brand with Ericsson's technology was a good idea, but it didn't work out. Now it wants more control to better compete against Apple and other [Google] Android devices."

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World pays tribute to Steve Jobs

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6 October 2011 Last updated at 03:12 GMT Consumers paid tribute to ''a man of great perspective''

Apple's corporate statement announcing the death of 56-year old co-founder Steve Jobs was brief: "We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve."

Many technology experts, industry peers and other admirers have been quick to add their own tributes.

"Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.

"By building one of the planet's most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity.

"By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun.

"The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."

"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being.

"Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor.

"Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

"For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honour. I will miss Steve immensely.

"Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives."

"All of us would be touched every day by products that he was the creative genius behind, so this is very sad news and my condolences go to his family and friends."

"Tonight, America lost a genius who will be remembered with Edison and Einstein, and whose ideas will shape the world for generations to come.

"Again and again over the last four decades, Steve Jobs saw the future and brought it to life long before most people could even see the horizon.

"In New York City's government, everyone from street construction inspectors to NYPD detectives have harnessed Apple's products to do their jobs more efficiently and intuitively."

Steve Jobs is credited with revolutionising the way people listen to music

"Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.

"His legacy will extend far beyond the products he created or the businesses he built. It will be the millions of people he inspired, the lives he changed, and the culture he defined.

"Steve was such an 'original,' with a thoroughly creative, imaginative mind that defined an era. Despite all he accomplished, it feels like he was just getting started."

"He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it."

"VISIONARIES are always called CRAZY in the beginning. A VISIONARY sees things that everybody else says is IMPOSSIBLE, sees a World that People can't invision (sic) - MAC, IPOD, IPAD, IPHONE, ITUNES and PIXAR. I have nothing but Love for Mr. Jobs and Apple, they have always given me and my films L-O-V-E."

"'Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose', as Steve Jobs said in 2005."

"Steve lived the California Dream every day of his life and he changed the world and inspired all of us."

"Thank you for revolutionising the way we listen to music. Your vision will not be forgotten."

Industry colleagues and rivals flocked to pay their compliments for and respect to Steve Jobs, including the founder of Twitter, Dick Costolo, AOL's founder, Steve Case, the chief executive of Time Warner, Jeff Bewkes, the chief executive of Dell, Michael Dell and the chairman of the New York Times, Arthur Sulzberger.

Other tributes (via Twitter) included praise for the way Steve Jobs changed the technological landscape:

"Thank you, Steve Jobs, for making technology a delight to use, instead of a necessary evil."

"The world pauses their iPods and rushes to their MacBooks and iPhones to confirm the news."

"3 Apples changed the World, 1st one seduced Eve, 2nd fell on Newton and the 3rd was offered to the World half bitten by Steve Jobs."

Apple fans were invited to share their thoughts, memories and condolences by sending messages to rememberingsteve@apple.com.

And social networking groups were calling for iPhone vigils in public parks across the United States.

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VIDEO: No guaranteed oil contract reward

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Aref Ali Nayed, Chief Operations Manager of Libya's Stabilisation Team, tells HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur that foreign support for the Libyan revolution should not be rewarded by oil contracts because support should have been motivated by humanity and not material gain.

You can watch the full interview on Wednesday 28 September at 03:30 GMT, 08:30 GMT, 15:30 GMT and 20:30 GMT. And on BBC News Channel at 0430 BST on Wednesday 28 September and 00:30 BST on Thursday 29 September.

Find out who is coming up on the programme by following us on Twitter.

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VIDEO: iPhone 5 'critical' for Apple

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4 October 2011 Last updated at 02:20 GMT Help

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Malaysia plans to raise retirement age

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AppId is over the quota
4 October 2011 Last updated at 16:13 GMT By Jennifer Pak BBC News, Kuala Lumpur Sivananthan Mariappan, 61, drives a taxi to make ends meet Sivananthan Mariappan had accumulated over $30,000 (￡20,000) in savings by the time he reached retirement at age 55.

But after he paid off a housing loan and credit card debt, he was left with nothing.

So for six years, he has been driving a taxi in order to make ends meet in the bustling capital of Kuala Lumpur.

"I can hardly save more [given] what I'm earning at the moment," he says.

Mr Sivananthan is one of many Malaysians who cannot afford to retire.

The government has a mandatory retirement savings scheme for all Malaysians working in the private sector.

However, officials say most people drain their funds within the first five years of retirement.

This problem is compounded by the fact that the cost of living is rising.

Malaysia's central bank expects the inflation rate to hover between 3% and 3.5% this year.

A draft that would make this law is expected to be tabled in parliament by the end of the year.

While this is not nearly as high as in neighbouring countries, wages have not kept up with inflation.

The government has also recently cut back on its subsidies programme for staples such as cooking oil, flour, sugar and petrol.

This makes it hard for Malaysians to sustain their lifestyles in retirement.

Retaining workers Continue reading the main story

Fifty-five is not the correct retirement age. The experience comes with that age”

End Quote Ramachenran Krishnan 56-year-old worker Unions have been pushing for the retirement age to be raised from 55 to 60 in the private sector.

Officials hope this would allow Malaysians more time to save up for their retirement.

The move is also expected to retain 500,000 people in the work force over a five-year period.

These are skilled workers that companies desperately need.

Naza group, which imports luxury cars, says they will benefit from the move as they have a tough time retaining young talent.

"The industry is very competitive," says the firm's joint group executive chairman, Nasarudin Nasimuddin.

y will jump around within the industry."

The company already retains its retired staff on a contract basis so that they can help train new members.

Ramachenran Krishnan, 56, is one of the retirees who was recruited into the Naza group.

"So whoever offers the best package or benefits, the

After leaving another automotive company, he now works a full eight-hour day as the manager of the parts division at a dealership that is the sole importer and distributor of Peugeot vehicles.

Mr Ramachenran says he has no intention of stopping.

"It is a pity that my previous company did not actually extend me when I could have contributed more," he says.

Tee May Yan, 19, is worried if the higher retirement age affects her job prospects

"Fifty-five is not the correct retirement age. The experience comes with that age."

But in this tough economic climate, efforts to raise the retirement age has worried some potential graduates, such as Tee May Yan.

"If people can work longer, it will affect our job prospects," the 19-year-old design student says.

"It may prevent us from moving up in the company."

Others are not so pessimistic.

"Employers may want experience, but they still need fresh new ideas from young people," says Nur Liyana Mohamunny, 20.

Increased life expectancy

Raising the retirement age would also put Malaysia on par with its regional neighbours, where the average retirement age is 60 and above.

However, the move may not do much to boost savings.

Malaysians are living longer, with an average life expectancy of 74.

Even with the extra time to prepare, many people may still not be able to save up enough to last them for an extra 15 to 20 years.

It is a dilemma that Mr Sivananthan faces.

At 61, he has spent decades working in the hotel and property sectors.

It is looked down upon to drive a taxi, he says, but without any savings he has little choice.

Mr Sivananthan may be healthy enough to work 14-hour days now, but he dreads the day when he is forced to stop.

The BBC's Jennifer Pak reports from Kuala Lumpur on why so many Malaysians find it hard to make ends meet after they've stopped working.

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VIDEO: Cargill chief executive on its success

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29 September 2011 Last updated at 08:43 GMT Help

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UK 'will resist' EU financial tax

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28 September 2011 Last updated at 22:30 GMT Jose Manuel Barroso: "We have to understand we are in a situation where we have to do things together"

Bank shares have fallen in London after the UK said it would "resist" a financial transaction tax on EU members proposed by the European Commission.

The tax would raise about 57bn euros ($78bn; ￡50bn) a year and would come into effect at the start of 2014.

At close, Royal Bank of Scotland was behind by 3.64%, Lloyds Banking Group by 2.4%, and Barclays by 1.22%.

London would be hardest hit by the tax as the majority of banking transactions in Europe come through the city.

'Tax on London?'

City of London officials have said that about 80% of the revenues of any Europe-wide financial tax would come from London.

Stuart Fraser of the City of London said the question that had to be asked was whether the proposal was "a tax on London".

The banking sector played a role in causing the economic crisis, the commission said

Mr Fraser also warned that such a tax could mean a lot of banking transaction being lost to outside of the EU, and that the cost of setting up the scheme could outstrip whatever monies it raised.

Under the proposals, the financial tax would be levied at a rate of 0.1% on all transactions between institutions when at least one party is based in the EU. Derivative contracts would be taxed at a rate of 0.01%.

The BBC's business editor Robert Peston said that while dealers and investors in financial products such as derivatives and bonds were not happy about the proposal, share dealers were more relaxed as the tax would cost less than the existing stamp duty, which the tax would replace.

Meanwhile, in Germany and France bank shares also fell at close, and the European Banking Federation called the tax a "nonsense".

Among the market losers were Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank in Germany, and Societe Generale and BNP Paribas in France.

'Contribution' Chancellor Merkel faces a crunch vote on the eurozone bailout fund

Despite the opposition Algirdas Semeta, EC commissioner for taxation, customs, anti-fraud and audit, said: "Our project is sound and workable. I have no doubt this tax can deliver what EU citizens expect - a fair contribution from the financial sector."

The EU executive also points out that financial services are "in the majority of cases exempt from paying VAT (due to difficulties in measuring the taxable base)".

Germany and France have been among countries pressing the European Commission to propose the tax on all financial investment systems, as they seek to show their citizens they are serious about recouping some of the costs of the banking crisis.

Austria, Belgium, Norway and Spain also support such a tax.

Earlier, Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso had said banks must "make a contribution" as Europe faced its "greatest challenge".

A transaction tax would need the approval of the UK in order to be implemented across the EU.

The commission said that if the UK vetoed the tax, it would look to implement it in the eurozone.

Referring to "the constraints of unanimity", Mr Barroso said "further changes to the Treaty of Lisbon" may be required in order to push through measures to stabilise Europe's economy.

'Additional revenue'

The commission said the tax was "to ensure that the financial sector makes a fair contribution at a time of fiscal consolidation in the member states".

It said financial firms had played a role in the current "economic crisis" and was "under-taxed" compared with other sectors.

The "significant additional revenue" raised would contribute to public finances, it added.

A spokesperson for the UK Treasury said it would "absolutely resist" any tax that was not introduced globally.

Continue reading the main story Use the dropdown for easy-to-understand explanations of key financial terms:AAA-rating GO The best credit rating that can be given to a borrower's debts, indicating that the risk of borrowing defaulting is miniscule."We would not do anything that is not in the UK's interests," he told the BBC.

The Treasury has said there are also a number of practical issues that need to be worked through.

And the financial secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban, said the transaction tax would be ineffectual unless it was a global agreement.

"If it's not done at a global level, it's not done as part of a comprehensive package, then people will find ways around it," he said.

"They'll move business out of Europe, somewhere else, they'll find different products that are outside the scope of this transaction tax, so I think there's a lot of detail to be looked at to get this right."

Earlier, in his annual State of the Union address in Strasbourg, Mr Barroso had called not only for the transaction tax but for eurozone members to issue debt collectively, through so-called eurobonds.

"Once the euro area is fully equipped with the instruments necessary to ensure both integration and discipline, the issuance of joint debt will be seen as a natural and advantageous step for all," he said.

Further austerity

Officials from the commission, along with those from the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, are due to begin reviewing Greece's attempts to reduce its debt levels on Thursday.

Greece's new property tax has proved particularly unpopular

They will then decide whether to release about 8bn euros from a 110bn bailout package agreed last summer, money the Greek government badly needs in order to pay its bills.

A key obstacle to the payment was removed on Tuesday when the Greek parliament passed a controversial new property tax bill that aims to boost revenues.

Eurozone members are in the process of ratifying proposals put forward in July, one of which would see private lenders writing off about 20% of their loans to Greece.

The proposals also included expanding the powers of the eurozone bailout fund. Finland approved the plan on Wednesday, while Germany will vote on it on Thursday.

With 330 seats in the 620-seat Bundestag, Chancellor Angela Merkel can afford no more than 19 rebels if she is to deliver the 311 seats required for a majority.

Greek write-off

There has been renewed optimism this week that eurozone leaders may finally be ready to take decisive action to tackle the debt crisis.

G20 leaders met over the weekend to discuss the best way forward, but EU officials stressed that no grand plan of action had been agreed.

A number of ideas were reportedly discussed, including a 50% write-down of Greece's government debts.

Other proposals included strengthening big European banks that could be hit by any defaults by highly indebted governments, and boosting the size of the eurozone bailout fund.

These helped to boost investor sentiment with stock markets rising sharply on Tuesday, although Asian and European markets were largely flat on Wednesday.

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Moshi Monsters suffer growing pains

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AppId is over the quota
21 September 2011 Last updated at 23:02 GMT Mind Candy, the company behind Moshi Monsters, has gone from a web company to an entertainment, toy, games and online media company Each week we ask high-profile technology decision-makers three questions.

Mind Candy's Toby Moore says growing as a company while keeping the same values is tricky

This week it is Toby Moore, chief technology officer (CTO) of Mind Candy.

Mind Candy is the online games developer and media company behind the 50m-strong online global kids community Moshi Monsters. The company has about 100 employees based in the heart of London's Silicon Roundabout and has projected upwards of $100m in total gross retail sales of all Moshi Monsters-related products in 2011.

What's your biggest technology problem right now?

At the moment it's around scaling the development teams, and all of the development processes, while trying to remain lean and agile and responsive as a company.

We've got so much ambition, and it's really essential that we remain focused on putting as many new features and products out as possible.

That's the biggest thing we're struggling with.

We're going from a one-product company to multiple products. The heart of our success has been being very agile and lean, so if we lose that then we risk damaging what's made us successful so far.

What's the next big tech thing in your industry?

I kind of struggled with this a little bit because we've gone from a web company to a games company, and now we've become a kind of toy, entertainment, games, online media company. We kind of span a number of industries at the moment.

I think really the next big thing is still just the industry disrupting every industry that hasn't already been disrupted.

It's amazing to us every time we move into a new area, and start working with companies in that area, how little they know about the internet and how much they could use deep analytics, deep insights and big data to understand their audience. It's very natural and native to us.

So I think the next big thing really is this continuance of the internet and big data and analytics disrupting all of the industries that have yet to be changed.

What's the biggest technology mistake you've ever made - either at work or in your own life?

The biggest mistake is actually around management of development staff.

Early on I tried to get a lot of the engineers, some of the best engineers we have, to move up into management roles. It didn't work at all basically.

They're the best developers and they love developing stuff so, in hindsight, why would you get your absolute best engineers and take them away from building games and make them manage?

At the time it seemed like a good idea as it's the kind of career path I've followed. In hindsight it was a massive mistake.

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Lecturers' pension action resumes

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6 October 2011 Last updated at 23:01 GMT The dispute could escalate to new strikes, the UCU said Lecturers at 67 UK universities are going to re-start a programme of industrial action from 10 October over changes to their pension scheme.

They will start a "work to contract" if the universities do not resume negotiations over the pension changes.

Substantial cuts to the benefits of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) were introduced on 1 October.

The University and College Union (UCU) said 40,000 members at the affected universities might eventually strike.

The union's general secretary, Sally Hunt, said the aim was to force the university employers to renegotiate some of the changes they have just brought in.

"There are key areas that we believe need to be looked at again," she said.

"Examples being accrual rates and another example being redundancy payments for those who are 50 and 55."

The dispute affects staff at the 67 traditional universities which were in existence before 1992, when the former polytechnics and higher education institutions were upgraded to university status.

'Sustained campaign'

The industrial action may be a precursor to more widespread action which has been threatened by unions with members in other parts of the public sector, such as local government, the civil service, NHS, schools, police and the fire service.

The government is trying to press ahead with substantial increases in staff pension contributions, to be followed by full-scale conversion of most of the schemes from their current final-salary basis to become less generous career average schemes.

The lecturers' industrial action will start with a "work to contract" which the UCU said would be the start of a "sustained campaign of industrial action".

Depending on local employment conditions, this might include union members working no more than their contracted hours, not covering other lecturers' classes, and refusing to carry out any additional duties or attend voluntary staff meetings.

"This will affect the universities in very different ways," said a spokesman for the employers body the UCEA (Universities and Colleges Employers Association).

"The changes would be considered moderate by many as they include the retention of a final salary pension for all existing USS members."

The UCU said if the employers refused to start negotiating again at a scheduled meeting later this month, the action might be escalated to a boycott of internal administration, student assessments and even rolling strikes.

Second campaign

The USS pension scheme has 137,000 contributing members at nearly 300 education institutions.

One-day strikes in March, at universities around the country, failed to deter the employers from pressing ahead with the bulk of their pension changes, which have been in train for three years.

So the UCU held a second industrial action ballot last month, which produced a 77% vote in favour on a 42% turnout - even higher than in the union's first ballot earlier this year.

The union said the some of its members would lose ￡100,000 of their pension income over their prospective retirement as a result of the changes.

It said the employers' private aim was to make huge savings by cutting their contribution rate from about 16% of staff salaries to just 10%.

This might be achieved, the UCU said, if the university employers were able, in a few years' time, to impose the career average scheme for new recruits on existing staff as well.

Big changes

The USS changes were brought in from 1 October in a separate process to the one the government has initiated for the other big public sector pension schemes.

The university pension changes were changes were:

A normal pension age of 65 came in for new entrants and for the future service of many existing members. The exceptions to this are those members who were in the scheme before 1 October - and who were also aged 55 or over at that date. They will be exempt from the normal reductions in their accrued pensions that will be imposed if they take their pensions before the age of 65. The normal USS pension age will rise in line with any increases in the state pension age, which is scheduled to rise to 66 by 2020. It is important to note that this will only affect pension built up after April 2020.The employee contribution rate for members of the final-salary section has gone up from 6.35% to 7.5%. Pension increases (for pensions in payment and deferred pensions) will now be inflation-proofed in line with increases in the consumer prices index (CPI) up to 5% a year. But for pensions earned after 1 October 2011, if inflation is more than 5% but less than 15%, the increase in pension will be 5% plus half of the increase above that level. And if inflation is more than 15%, there will be no extra pension increases - they will be capped at 10% a year.A career-average revalued earnings (CARE) benefits structure has been introduced for new entrants. The benefits are still be based upon a 1/80th accrual rate and cash lump sum of three times the pension.The contribution rate for members of the new CARE section is 6.5%. If the overall cost of the scheme rises above 23.5% of salaries, then "cost sharing" will be introduced. This means any further increases in contributions will be shared in the ratio 65:35 between employers and employees respectively.

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VIDEO: Workers in NY cuts protest

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FirstGroup sells German bus unit

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AppId is over the quota
30 September 2011 Last updated at 06:47 GMT FirstGroup is focusing on its core markets in the UK and US Rail and bus firm FirstGroup has announced the sale of its German bus operations for 5.5m euros (￡4.8m).

The Aberdeen-based transport company said it had sold FirstGroup Deutschland to Marwyn European Transport.

FirstGroup chief executive Tim O'Toole said the disposal marked "a further step in our programme of small asset and business disposals".

This was part of the group's strategy to focus on its core operations in the UK and North America, he added.

FirstGroup Deutschland operates about 130 buses in the Rhineland Pfalz region in south-west Germany.

On Thursday, FirstGroup said it expected like-for-like passenger revenue at its UK rail division to rise by 9% in the six months to 30 September, and revenue at its UK bus division to increase by 1.2%.

FirstGroup also operates school buses and the coach business Greyhound in the US.

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Barclay brothers buy Claridge's

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29 September 2011 Last updated at 21:39 GMT Claridge's is the latest luxury hotel to be owned by the Barclays The Barclay brothers have bought three of London's top hotels, including Claridge's, for 800m euros (￡695m).

They acquired Claridge's, the Connaught and Berkeley from the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), the Irish government agency created to manage the toxic property loans of its bust banks.

Nama said it had recovered 100% of the original value of the loans plus interest.

The Barclays already own the Ritz hotel in London.

The loans had originally been made to the Maybourne Hotel Group by two Irish banks to fund the acquisition of the hotels in 2005.

By buying the loans, the Barclays have acquired the hotels.

Nama took control of the bad property debt from Irish banks during the height of the financial crisis, and it is tasked with maximising the return to the Irish taxpayer over the long term.

The agency has said that it wants to dispose of 5bn euros of UK loans in 2011. Its annual report listed total UK assets of about ￡8.5bn.

Sir David Barclay and his brother Sir Frederick also own the Daily Telegraph and the Littlewoods retail group.

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UBS to take 'disciplinary action'

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5 October 2011 Last updated at 17:28 GMT UBS is considering shrinking down its investment bank, where the alleged incident took place UBS has said it is preparing to take "disciplinary action" against individuals deemed responsible for an alleged rogue trading incident.

It comes as the joint heads of the Swiss bank's equities division, in which the incident took place, quit.

Francois Gouws and Yassine Bouhara took "responsibility for the effective management of the equities business".

Equities trader Kweku Adoboli was last month arrested for allegedly losing $2.3bn (￡1.5bn) in unauthorised trades.

The two UBS executives to fall on their swords over the incident only took up their posts last year, with Mr Bouhara having been poached from rival Deutsche Bank.

Their exit follows the departure of UBS chief executive, Oswald Gruebel, last week.

They will be replaced by Mike Stewart, who was recruited from another rival firm, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in July.

"In addition, appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against other individuals in the equities business as a result of the incident," said the bank.

"UBS also expects to take disciplinary action against responsible staff in other functions."

UBS is also considering shrinking down its investment banking business - of which equities trading is a key part - in order to refocus it on purely serving the needs of its enormous network of wealthy individual clients.

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Games journey times 'may double'

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2 October 2011 Last updated at 17:00 GMT TfL has said Games Lanes will contribute to increased traffic in some areas of London Journey times on some of London's roads could more than double during the Olympics next year, Transport for London (TfL) has admitted.

The information was in a brief sent to businesses about the Games.

Commuters have been warned of huge delays as an extra 5.3 million visitors are expected in London for the event.

Transport Minister Theresa Villiers said she was confident about the preparations being carried out by TfL to cope with the extra demands.

In an interview with the BBC's Politics Show on Sunday she said: "TfL are focused on keeping London moving during what is going to be the largest event ever hosted in this country.

"It will mean some transport disruption and there will be pressure on the transport system but we will adapt to minimise disruption."

She said businesses were actively engaging with TfL but admitted there was more to do.

A TfL spokesman said: "We have been clear that at certain times and places the transport network will be much busier than usual, which is why we are already working with businesses to ensure they can keep on running and make the most of the great financial opportunities offered by the Games.

"While the transport network will be very busy, we are confident that we will keep London moving while delivering a hugely successful Games."

Commuters have already been warned there could be huge delays to get into large stations such as London Bridge because of the extra pressure on the transport network.

In April a London Assembly report claimed transport problems remained "one of the biggest risks" to the 2012 Olympics.

And in July TfL admitted the "Games Lanes" - dedicated lanes for Olympic athletes and VIPs - would put greater traffic demands on certain parts of the network during the Olympics.

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Video: sugar Lord remember Steve jobs

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Flat summer sales at Thomas Cook

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AppId is over the quota
29 September 2011 Last updated at 07:34 GMT Thomas Cook has issued three profit warnings over the past year in the face of tough trading conditions Thomas Cook has said bookings by its UK customers were "flat" during the summer holiday season, but that its full-year profits should be "broadly in line with market expectations".

In a trading statement, the travel company also said it was continuing to be affected by the political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa.

It said this had particularly affected its French business.

However, its sales in northern Europe, including Germany, were up strongly.

Its summer bookings for this region - which also includes the Scandinavian countries - were 13% higher than a year earlier.

Bookings in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Eastern Europe were down 1% from a year ago; and there was no change in the UK.

Boss departure

Thomas Cook's forward bookings for the 2011-12 winter season are currently mixed when compared with the same time last year.

They are down 7% in the UK, and 16% lower in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Eastern Europe, but up 6% in Germany and Scandinavia.

Thomas Cook said it was continuing efforts to boost its profitability.

The company also said it would not be making any dividend payments. It is instead focusing on paying down its debts of around ￡900m.

Former chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa left in August, followed just over a week later by the head of its UK retail division, Ian Derbyshire.

They departed the company after it had issued its third profit warning in a year.

Thomas Cook is now continuing with a strategic review of the business.

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Premier Foods in profit warning

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AppId is over the quota
7 October 2011 Last updated at 07:14 GMT Mr Kipling is one of the eight "power brands" the group is investing in Premier Foods, the owner of brands such as Hovis, Bisto and Mr Kipling, has warned its full-year trading profit will fall below expectations.

The UK's biggest food manufacturer had been looking at a profit of between ￡214m and ￡232m.

But the company said current trading was "disappointing" and "significantly behind our expectations".

Sales in the third quarter fell 3.6% on a year ago, while the group's market share declined by 1.9%.

The group said it was in "constructive dialogue" with banks on refinancing.

New chief executive Michael Clarke has outlined five key priorities for the business in the short term.

These are agreeing a refinancing plan, improving sales and marketing, reducing the size of Premier's portfolio, reducing costs, and investing in eight "power brands" that they feel have the best growth prospects.

The eight brands are Ambrosia, Batchelor's, Bisto, Hovis, Lloyd Grossman, Mr Kipling, Oxo and Sharwood's.

Mr Clarke, who had previously been president of Kraft Foods Europe, took the helm at Premier Foods on 1 September.

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Wembley 'to break even by 2015'

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AppId is over the quota
5 October 2011 Last updated at 11:15 GMT By Bill Wilson Business reporter, BBC News Wembley's income is boosted by other, non-sporting events Football Association chairman David Bernstein has said that English football's national stadium, Wembley, will financially break even by 2015, one year later than previously planned.

"Wembley is doing very well, it has been extremely profitable," he said.

Mr Bernstein added that the rebuilt stadium was showing an annual operating profit of between ￡40m and ￡50m.

He said he expected the stadium, built for ￡757m and opened in 2007, to start pumping cash into the game by 2015.

But he said that large interest charges and other continuing costs remained an issue.

The FA, which owns the stadium through its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Ltd, said earlier this year it envisaged Wembley breaking even in 2014.

But Mr Bernstein told delegates at the Leaders in Football event in London: "By 2015, Wembley should start putting money back into the game, instead of being subsidised by the game."

World-class venue

Preliminary financial figures for 2010 released earlier this month by the FA showed that it paid out ￡22m in net interest during the year, partly to service the loans taken out to build Wembley.

And last year, FA general secretary Alex Horne said the association had budgeted to subsidise Wembley by ￡20m a year in 2010 and 2011 and ￡12m a year in 2012 and 2013.

Wembley's business plan relies on concerts and other events to boost the bottom line, but the FA obviously also sees the stadium as a world-class football venue.

And Mr Bernstein said that this on-field goal had been greatly been helped by the successful staging of the Champions League final at Wembley in May between Barcelona and Manchester United.

"I think that is when the new stadium really came of age," he said.

He also said it was a great vote of confidence in the Wembley when Uefa decided to stage the Champions League final again at the stadium in 2015.

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VIDEO: Can the eurozone maintain the euro?

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AppId is over the quota
29 September 2011 Last updated at 21:40 GMT Help

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VIDEO: Eurozone crisis sparks fears for Dexia

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AppId is over the quota
4 October 2011 Last updated at 22:15 GMT Help

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Shares up on eurozone debt hopes

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AppId is over the quota
6 October 2011 Last updated at 09:47 GMT EC President Jose Manuel Barroso has fuelled expectations that Europe is preparing an action plan Stock markets have been boosted by expectations that European leaders are about to act to ease the debt crisis.

The main markets in London, Frankfurt and Paris were about 2% up, after Hong Kong closed 5.6% higher.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a television interview that there were plans for co-ordinated action to recapitalise banks.

More details of any action plan could come later at a European Central Bank press conference.

There have been a flurry of reports and comments in recent days that European authorities have negotiated plans to bolster banks and boost bailout funds.

On Thursday, Mr Barroso fuelled expectations further, telling Euronews TV that the EU executive was proposing "co-ordinated action" to the 27 European Union nations to bolster banks.

The intention was to "recapitalise banks and get rid of toxic assets they may have".

Continue reading the main story

You can see this as creeping progress towards putting adequate shock absorbers into the eurozone's financial system.”

End Quote Robert Peston Business editor, BBC News On Thursday afternoon, European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet will lead a media briefing, which will come after the bank announces its decision on European interest rates.

Then German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to hold talks in Berlin with Mr Trichet as well as the heads of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the OECD and G20.

On Wednesday, Mr Merkel said she was in favour of a co-ordinated recapitalisation of European banks if that was deemed necessary.

Expectations that there will be action to bolster banks and boost European bailout funds began on Monday, when Olli Rehn, European commissioner for economic affairs, said there was "an increasingly shared view that we need a concerted, co-ordinated approach".

In an interview with the Financial Times, he said there was "a sense of urgency among ministers and we need to move on".

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Survey finds 28p beer price gap

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AppId is over the quota
5 October 2011 Last updated at 23:08 GMT Even the cheapest pint of bitter in London costs more than ￡3, the survey says The cheapest pint of beer is 28p cheaper in pubs in the north of England compared with south-eastern hostelries, a survey suggests.

Some 650 pubs were asked for the cost of their cheapest pint of bitter by researchers for the Good Pub Guide.

They found that this pint cost ￡3.15 on average in the south-east of England and London, but ￡2.87 in Yorkshire and the North.

Campaigners say that overheads faced by pubs could explain the difference.

Rates and rents were often higher for London publicans and that could be reflected in the cost of a drink, said Tony Jerome, spokesman for the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra).

Brewers

The 30th edition of the Good Pub Guide, published on Thursday, found that prices had risen by 7% over the last year - and that the north-south price divide had been in evidence for some time.

However, it suggested that pubs brewing their own ale were often charging less than ￡2.50 a pint, with scarcely any increase over the last year. A recent Camra survey claimed West Yorkshire had more breweries producing more types of beer than any other county in the UK.

Figures from the British Beer and Pub Association's Statistical Handbook claimed that the price differential for a pint in London and in the North East in 2010 was even greater - at 84p.

One brewer warned that the price of a pint could continue to rise

Paul Maloney, national officer of the GMB union, said: "Since the Good Pub Guide was first published, the Beer Orders were introduced in 1989. The aim was to foster competition to increase consumer choice and bring down prices.

"The opposite of this aim has been achieved. The average price for a pint of lager in Britain has risen by 80p higher than justified by inflation and changes in taxes in pubs, as property companies replaced brewers as owners."

Rising costs

Brewer Shepherd Neame said on Wednesday that beer prices would continue to rise in the coming months.

The brewer, which produces real ales such as Spitfire and Bishops Finger, said cereals such as barley were up to 30% more expensive than a year ago, while the price of glass has also increased, pushing up the cost of beer bottles and pint jars.

However, changes to the tax system have made some drinks cheaper.

Since 1 October, all beers with an alcohol content of 2.8% abv and below are being taxed less, to the equivalent of around 35p on every pint when compared with a typical 4.2% cent beer.

The Good Pub Guide also suggested that steak-in-ale pie was the most popular pub food.

Editor Fiona Stapley said that many pubs were diversifying, such as offering breakfasts and coffee mornings, to get through tough economic conditions.

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Greek default now 'unavoidable'

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AppId is over the quota
29 September 2011 Last updated at 07:04 GMT Ernst & Young says the eurozone debt crisis shows no sign of abating A Greek default "now seems unavoidable", according to analysts at business services group Ernst & Young.

The firm's quarterly Eurozone Forecast also says that the chance of recession in the euro bloc has increased sharply.

Rising financial tensions and a near stalling of economic growth means "there is a real danger that events will overtake policymakers", it said.

The key question on Greece is when a "default will occur and how it will be managed".

The Ernst & Young (E&Y) report says: "Authorities have been slow in trying to tackle the problems facing Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

"It was hoped that the rescue package for Greece announced in July would bring to an end the long period of indecision and uncertainty."

But the report adds: "The eurozone sovereign-debt crisis shows no sign of abating."

As well as a Greek default, E&Y predicts there is a 35% chance of the eurozone economy slipping back into recession.

The report predicts that gross domestic product in the euro area may rise by 1.6% this year, instead of 2% forecast previously, before slowing to an "anaemic" 1.1% growth rate in 2012.

"The [European Central Bank] ECB should lower interest rates to below 1% should the eurozone fall back into recession," it said.

The ECB is "the only institution with some room for manoeuvre since governments cannot or do not want to relax fiscal policy".

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Alexon jobs saved as group sold

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AppId is over the quota
29 September 2011 Last updated at 13:49 GMT Continue reading the main story Women's clothing retailer Alexon has been sold to a private equity firm in a deal expected to secure the jobs of its 2,700 staff.

The struggling retailer said it had failed to find necessary funding and had appointed KPMG as administrators.

KPMG then sold the business to Sun Capital in a process known as a pre-pack administration.

Alexon, which owns a number of brands including Ann Harvey and Eastex, issued a profits warning earlier this month.

It said trading conditions had deteriorated and forecast that its performance this year would be "well below" expectations.

The group's stock market listing and trading in its shares were suspended on Thursday morning.

'Exciting acquisition'

Alexon had been looking to raise the money it needed to continue trading by looking for buyers for all of the company or one of more of its brands.

"Unfortunately these options have failed to reach a satisfactory conclusion in the time available," the company said in a statement.

"Following discussions with the group's lenders, it became clear that the group was unable to continue trading as a going concern."

Paul Daccus, of Sun European Partners, US-based Sun Capital's European arm, said it looked forward to helping Alexon "achieve sustainable growth".

"Alexon has strong brands which operate in a growing segment of the retail sector and this is an exciting acquisition," he added.

Alexon, which specialises in fashion for older women at mid-market prices, has 990 outlets across the UK and continental Europe.

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Tatas suffer India land setback

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AppId is over the quota
28 September 2011 Last updated at 08:09 GMT Tata Motors was forced to abandon its Nano plant in 2008 after violent protests by villagers A court in India has ruled that West Bengal's state government acted legally in reclaiming land where Tata Motors wanted to build its low-cost Nano car.

The 1,000-acre plot of land was acquired in 2006 by the state's former communist government and leased to the company for 99 years.

The new state government took back the land in June to return it to farmers.

Tata challenged the move in the high court in Calcutta and is expected to take its appeal to the Supreme Court.

The BBC's Rahul Tandon in Calcutta says that the case has been closely followed across India, which needs to free up land for industry if it wants to continue its economic growth.

But many farmers say that cannot happen at their expense, our correspondent says.

The high court ordered Tata Motors to remove all equipment from the factory at Singur, near Calcutta, within two months.

It ruled that the company was entitled to ask for compensation if any needed to be paid.

After months of violent protests, the company pulled out of West Bengal last year and shifted production to a new plant in the state of Gujarat.

In May, the Trinamul Congress party led by Mamata Banerjee trounced West Bengal's long-serving communist government on the promise that she would restore the land to the farmers.

In June, West Bengal passed a law that would allow its return to them.

The state government started handing back the land, a move which was challenged in the Supreme Court. It directed the government to suspend the return of land until the high court in Calcutta had ruled on the matter.

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