TV Licence Dodgers May Not Be Prosecuted

TV licence dodgers may no longer face prosecution in the courts under new plans being considered by the Government.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling says "serious work" on the plan is under way, with more than 100 cross-party MPs in support.

"The Culture Secretary (Maria Miller) and I both agree that this is a really interesting idea, particularly given the pressure on our courts system," Mr Grayling told The Daily Telegraph.

"Our departments will be doing some serious work on the proposal."

Efforts to change the law are being spearheaded by Tory MP Andrew Bridgen.

He said that for some cash-strapped families, the current law was "criminalising them for being poor".

"It is outrageous that so many people are brought into the criminal justice system through this means. I believe that non-payment should be treated in the way that parking tickets are," Mr Bridgen told the newspaper.

"It is absurd that the courts are being clogged up by such a minor offence."

Offenders currently face a £1,000 fine and a criminal record, as well as possible time in jail if fines are not paid.

Some 180,000 people faced magistrates last year after being accused of not paying the £145.50 fee, accounting for in excess of one in 10 of all criminal prosecutions.

Of those, 155,000 people were convicted and fined.

The proposed changes could see dodging payment of the TV licence become a civil matter, with a fine set by the Government.

A BBC spokesman said: "Legislation is a matter for the Government. However, changing the law could lead to higher evasion. Just a 1% increase in evasion would lead to the loss of around £35m, the equivalent of around 10 BBC Local Radio stations."

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China Solar Panel Firm 'In Bond Default'

China has suffered what has been called its first corporate bond default, as the government tries to make its financial system more market-orientated.

A Shanghai-based manufacturer of solar panels paid only part of the 90 million yuan (£9m) in interest due on Friday for bonds issued in 2012.

Chaori Solar Energy Science and Technology had earlier warned it would struggle to make the payment.

According to two bondholders hit by the default, only 3% of the due amount was paid.

The solar industry has been heavily criticised in the past for levels of state subsidies.

Competitor nations including the United States, and Germany - Europe's largest solar user - have been vociferous critics of Chinese state support in the sector.

Manufacturers in the US and Germany have struggled as cheaper Chinese panels flooded their markets.

Beijing has previously bailed out troubled companies in an attempt to maintain confidence in its credit markets.

However the ruling Communist Party has promised to make the domestic market more productive and competitive.

Chinese citizens have complained that bailouts have not encouraged a need for risk aversion by big businesses.

Legal representatives for the bondholders hit by the default said they would pursue the money owed.

Lawyer Gan Guolong said: "The default today is already an established fact. We will definitely help recover bondholders' interests through relevant legal action."

A commentary published by the official Xinhua news agency hinted that government policy over defaults was hardening.

"The episode should help reduce the moral hazard caused by the widespread assumption that an almighty government will always bail out underwater investments with taxpayers' money," Xinhua said.

"That, after all, is the market playing its own decisive role."

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US Jobs Up As Part-Time Work Hits New Record

The number of new jobs in the United States accelerated in February, as the number of part-time workers in the month reached an all-time high.

The rise of 175,000 jobs helped ease fears of an economic slowdown.

The dollar rose sharply on the news and the Federal Reserve is now expected to continue tapering its quantitative easing stimulus package.

The US Labor Department said the 35% job jump comes on the back of 129,000 new positions in January.

The unemployment rate, however, rose 0.1% to 6.7%. The previous figure was at a five-year low.

"This bodes well for the economy since there were massive head winds," Adam Sarhan, chief executive at Sarhan Capital in New York, said.

"This report plays perfectly into the Fed's script of tapering."

US shares opened higher on the data. The British pound dropped at first against the dollar before recovering.

The dollar also hit a six-week high against the yen.

Analysts had expected harsher figures as snow and ice hampered economic activity across swathes of the US.

Economists had expected non-farm payroll numbers rising by only 149,000 jobs.

Revised figures for December and January were also released, showing 25,000 more jobs being created in that period than previously thought.

Last month's weather did impact average working hours, with February being the lowest level since January 2011.

Economists now expect a reversal once the weather improves.

A smaller survey of households, from which the unemployment rate is derived, showed that 6.9 million people with jobs reported they were working part-time.

That was the highest reading for February since the series started in 1978.

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Coastal Areas Bid For £64m Storm Relief Fund

By Becky Johnson, North of England Correspondent

Coastal communities affected by flooding will be able to bid for a share of a £64m fund.

The Government has said projects to strengthen flood defences will be prioritised.

The fund was originally set up to ensure investment was made in seaside towns and villages, reduce unemployment and create apprenticeships and job opportunities for young people.

During the series of winter storms many coastal communities with already fragile economies have taken a battering both physically and financially.

In Aberystwyth, in west Wales, where the Victorian promenade was badly damaged as high tides and high winds combined to create the worst storms in living memory, the race is on to repair the seafront in time for the start of the tourist season at Easter.

The damaged rail line at Dawlish, in Exeter

Richard Griffiths who owns the Richmond Hotel on the seafront, describes how the waves broke over the promenade and through a sea wall before pummelling the front of his hotel.

He told Sky News investment in stronger defences will be essential to prevent future storms causing similar damage because tourism is a major source of income in the town.

"It's vital for the local economy that Aberystwyth is up and running. It is key to the whole area," he said.

The Government has announced that in England £17m is being allocated to flood hit areas including Great Yarmouth, Weymouth, Devon and North Tyneside.

New projects to help boost tourism across the UK include £170,000 to develop the Arran Coastal Way in Scotland, £270,000 to develop Northern Ireland's first lobster hatchery and £100,000 is being spent on a new water sports centre in Colwyn Bay in Wales.

Residents battle floodwater in Tirley, Gloucestershire

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, said: "The Coastal Communities Fund allows us to help communities across the UK to rebuild and regenerate their local economy, with projects this year supporting nearly 4,000 jobs and 1,000 training places.

"This is even more important given the extreme weather and I'm very pleased we're giving £17m of the fund to projects in areas hit by floods.

"Additionally, we have invested £5m from the fund's reserve into the government's programme for flood recovery."

But one expert has told Sky News that if, as he expects, we will see more frequent storms on the scale of those seen over the winter some communities may not withstand the damage.

Dr Stephen Tooth is a geography lecturer at Aberystwyth University. He has studied erosion and says it will be impossible to protect all coastal areas. 

He told Sky News: "There are some very difficult social and political decisions to be made here as to what we value and wish to defend. It's certainly not the case that you can protect everywhere. 

"Tough decisions are going to have to be made at various levels as to where the investment is going to be to protect our coastline, but I think there is tacit acknowledgement that we can't defend everywhere and to some extent, some sections of coastline are going to have to be allowed to erode."

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Curtain To Fall On Barclays' 120-Year Audit

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Barclays is to end its 120-year audit relationship with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and appoint one of its main rivals in the latest shake-up at the embattled bank.

Sky News can reveal that Barclays, which faces a bruising showdown with investors at next month's annual meeting over its £2.4bn bonus pot, will launch a tendering process for its lucrative audit contract as soon as next year.

The move was disclosed in Barclays' annual report, published earlier this week, but has not previously been reported.

In the document, the bank said that its audit committee had considered an immediate review process but had decided to delay it because of "the degree of change impacting the business, including the finance function... and the additional strain that both an audit tender and a change of audit firm would involve".

Barclays had said a year ago that it would consider re-tendering the contract, which commands fees of tens of millions of pounds each year, but had not indicated that it would sever ties with PwC.

PricewaterhouseCoopers could lose audit contracts with Lloyds and Barclays

The decision not to invite PwC to re-bid for one of the longest-running audit contracts in British business comes amid a welter of UK and European Union legislation aimed at injecting fresh competition into the audit market.

Under proposals which are expected to be finalised this year, UK competition authorities will force major companies to put their audit business out to tender at least once a decade, while Brussels will make them change supplier every 20 years.

Explaining its decision, the bank said that it was more than ten years since its audit contract was last put out to tender, and that the lead audit partner at PwC will relinquish that role after this year.

It said: "The Competition Commission's transitional guidance is not yet available, but is likely to mandate a tender slightly later than this.

"In addition the European Union's proposed transitional rules would require Barclays to replace PwC within six years of the regulation coming into force.

"Weighing up all these factors, and with the committee chairman having recently spoken to a number of key investors, the committee has recommended to the board that, depending on the final rules from the Competition Commission and the European Union, a tender of the external audit should start in 2015 or 2016 with respect to the 2017 or 2018 audit and that PwC should not be invited to tender."

PwC and its predecessor firms have audited Barclays since 1896 but it will not lack for major UK banking clients, since it also picked up the prized HSBC contract last year.

It also audits Lloyds Banking Group, but faces the prospect of losing that business too, after Lloyds said in its annual report published on Wednesday that it would conduct a review later this year for the first time since 1995.

Lloyds Banking Group said: "The (audit) committee considers each year whether to put the external audit to tender.

"With the current audit partner required to rotate off the audit after the 2015 audit, the committee is considering whether to conduct a tender in the second half of 2014, with a view to appointing a new audit firm, or reappointing PwC, with effect from 1 January 2016, subject to shareholder approval at the AGM in 2015.

"A final decision will be made during the year, after consideration of the requirements of proposed EU legislation that may restrict the period for which PwC could be reappointed before a mandatory change of auditor is required."

The change at Barclays is likely to provide the biggest talking-point among City bean-counters, however.

Barclays' former finance director, Chris Lucas, who stepped down last year, was previously the PwC partner responsible for auditing the bank.

His move was cited after the banking crisis as evidence of a cosy cabal in the accountancy profession, which was criticised for failing to identify the massive black holes which emerged on the balance sheets of major banks in 2008 and 2009.

Mr Lucas was replaced by Tushar Morzaria, a former JP Morgan executive, who is said to be determined to carry out an overhaul of Barclays' finance function.

The accounting watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council, said in December that it had closed an investigation into PwC's auditing of Barclays' investment bank's handling of client money between December 2001 and December 2009.

However, Barclays remains mired in other legal and regulatory probes, including one encompassing the Serious Fraud Office, Financial Conduct Authority and US authorities over its fundraisings in 2009 which enabled it to remain out of taxpayers' hands.

PwC is not suspected of any impropriety over those capital-raisings.

The market for auditing Britain's biggest companies is fiercely contested among Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC, with a second tier of firms such as Grant Thornton struggling to make inroads into the market share of their bigger rivals.

Critics of the market reforms have predicted that they will simply lead to a "pass-the-parcel" of audit contracts without improving oversight or competition.

One insider said that Barclays' decision to move its audit work away from PwC was more about signalling the desire of Antony Jenkins, chief executive, to reform the bank than a commentary on the quality of PwC's work.

Mr Jenkins faces a tough few weeks ahead, with some investors considering delivering a withering verdict on Barclays' remuneration report after a slide in annual profits.

BG Group, Unilever and Vodafone are among the other FTSE-100 companies to shift their audit work since the announcement of the proposed new rules.

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Birmingham City Owner Carson Yeung Jailed

Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung has been sentenced to six years in jail for money laundering.

Judge Douglas Yau handed down the sentence in a Hong Kong court after convicting the 54-year-old of five charges linked to the laundering of $93m (£55.6m).

Lawyers for the former hairdresser earlier said they were expecting a "significant" jail sentence - he faced up to seven years' imprisonment.

Lead defence lawyer Graham Harris told the judge that Yeung, who built a business empire that included hair salons, fertiliser and property, "came from rags to riches, and he's likely to return to rags".             

Pleading for a light sentence, Mr Harris said there had been "no subterfuge" in Yeung's dealings, as the accounts in question were held in his own name and his father's.

Yeung was a generous philanthropist and head of a young family, with two children aged under three as well as a 19-year-old son, the lawyer said.

The businessman was little known in Britain, before his emergence in English football - Yeung took control of Birmingham City in 2009 in an £81m takeover from David Sullivan and David Gold, now the co-owners of West Ham. 

Throughout the trial, Yeung and the prosecution painted differing pictures of how the tycoon amassed his fortune.

The prosecution said the millions of pounds that passed through the five accounts came from "unknown parties without any apparent reason".

Yeung insisted he had accumulated his money through share trading, upmarket hair salons, business ventures in mainland China and investing in casinos in Macau.

He also said he made up to £2.3m from gambling in Macau, adding that he gambled as if he were "running a business".

It emerged during the trial that his business dealings included transactions with alleged triad boss Cheung Chi-tai, who has links to the Macau casino industry.

Sentencing Yeung on Monday, Yau said any "right-thinking" person would conclude that transactions between the pair were "proceeds of an indictable offence".

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RBS: 80-Plus Millionaires Despite £8.2bn Loss

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

More than 80 employees of the state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) received pay deals worth more than £1m last year despite its £8.2bn loss, Sky News has learnt.

The figure, which is expected to be confirmed later this week, may further stoke the continuing row over bankers' pay following RBS's recent confirmation that it awarded more than £550m in bonuses last year.

The roughly 85 staff who were paid more than £1m represents a fall of more than 10% on the 2012 total of 95 employees.

It is also far lower than the 481 Barclays workers whose remuneration broke through the £1m threshold, a 10% increase despite a sharp decline in profits.

RBS is expected to confirm the number of millionaires in its ranks alongside a series of separate disclosures to the London Stock Exchange detailing deferred share payouts to some top executives.

Those announcements are unlikely to be contentious compared with previous years because RBS's remuneration committee has decided that the awards should only vest to a modest extent after the bank's weak performance, an insider said.

Britain's big banks have run into another conflagration over pay in recent weeks, with only HSBC and Standard Chartered avoiding criticism from investors.

Lloyds, which is also part-owned by taxpayers, said on Wednesday that it had increased the number of millionaires on its books from 25 in 2012 to 27 last year.

It also confirmed Sky News' revelation that it would hand Antonio Horta-Osorio, its chief executive, a fixed share allowance worth £900,000 on top of his £1m basic salary.

But it was Barclays which received the fiercest condemnation from shareholders, particularly after Antony Jenkins, its chief executive, said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph that he had had to pay higher bonuses to avoid its investment bank falling into "a death spiral".

RBS declined to comment.

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Building Homes On Flood Plains 'To Be Blocked'

By Frazer Maude, Sky News Reporter

Developers could be blocked from building homes on flood plains under a shake-up of planning law due to be revealed today.

Planning minister Nick Boles is expected to announce changes that will mean councils are no longer forced to take other local authorities' housing allocations if it conflicts with national policy.

That would mean less pressure to build on flood plains for planners, who have long been expected to help town halls meet house-building targets.

Many hope the new guidelines will also ensure experts' advice plays a greater role in the planning process.

Among the areas worst-hit by recent flooding was Longford, near Gloucester, where David Cameron told residents in February that expert advice was always followed during the planning process.

Environment Agency figures given to Sky News show that is not always the case.

In 2012-13, applications for 560 residential properties across England and Wales were approved in areas of flood risk, against the agency's advice.

A total of 570 new homes are planned, to be built near land in Longford that has been underwater for the past few weeks.

The scheme was vehemently opposed by local residents and initially rejected, before being approved on appeal in 2008.

Longford Parish Council chairman Pete Gough told Sky News: "We thought it was a lot of nonsense, really.

An aerial shot taken over Longford in February

"We thought the Secretary of State would have intervened, and said there's lots of places you can build without building on the flood plains, or near the flood plains. It just seems so daft."

One of the main concerns of residents is not that the new properties will flood, but that by replacing fields with concrete it will create problems for other homes.

John Patterson's home in Longford flooded in 2007, and only avoided a similar fate this year by a few inches.

He told Sky News: "The water has to go somewhere. You'll get extra run off from the houses, and all the roads and infrastructure that goes with them. It's illogical, just illogical."

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson is also expected to make an announcement today about the recent flooding.

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Cable: Teachers Know Nothing Of World Of Work

Vince Cable has been criticised after saying teachers know "absolutely nothing about the world of work".

The Business Secretary was speaking to 600 representatives of the manufacturing industry when he made the comment.

"There has been an argument in Government about how to get the right careers advice in schools and successive governments have frankly messed this up," he said.

"We haven't got this right. But the underlying problem is of course that most teachers, particularly in the secondary sector, are graduates.

"They know how universities work, they know what you have to do to get an A-level, they know about UCAS forms - but they know absolutely nothing about the world of work."

NUT general secretary Christine Blower labelled the Lib Dem MP's remark "insulting".

"This is a crass remark, which is insulting to teachers who are workers in their own right," he said.

"As the Government's own study - published just last week - shows, teachers work an extraordinary number of hours and show real dedication to 'the world of work'.

"Indeed, the teaching profession mirrors society and many of our teachers come from diverse backgrounds with different life experiences.

"They are a resource to the young people they teach, not a hindrance."

It is not the first time Mr Cable has prompted controversy with comments not intended for wider public consumption.

In 2010, he was stripped of his role overseeing media competition after he was caught on tape saying he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch.

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Flood Aid Drives Civil Engineering Record

The legacy of the worst winter storms for 250 years damaged the recovery in house-building but helped the civil engineering industry record its strongest month since April 1997.

The construction of homes grew at its slowest pace for four months in February, according to the Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the sector, where at figure above 50 denotes growth.

The PMI slipped to 62.6 from 64.6 in January - hurt by heavy rain, strong winds and floods which affected house-building particularly.

The railways line at Dawlish was washed away

The survey's findings correspond with an earlier warning from Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, who said the economy might suffer a temporary hit because of the adverse conditions.

By contrast, civil engineering activity saw its strongest month since April 1997, the study found, helped by higher spending by local authorities which, in some cases, was in response to the rain as diggers were called in to protect homes and businesses from rising waters.

Attempts to keep water levels back aided civil engineers

Job creation was at its highest in three months as 59% of construction companies expected a rise in output over the year, compared with only 10% predicting a fall.

Britain's construction industry has been recovering since last year thanks to a combination of record low interest rates, government programmes to encourage people to buy new homes and falling unemployment.

The sector, which accounts for about 7% of gross domestic product (GDP), has been facing strong demand to build more properties to boost housing supply.

A shortage of new homes amid high demand for properties has been cited as the core reason for property prices rising to, what some critics claim are, unsustainable levels.

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Standard Chartered To Slash Chief's Bonus

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Standard Chartered, the emerging markets bank, will reveal on Wednesday that it is slashing its bonus pool and its boss's payout as it bids to stave off the kind of row with investors that has hit rivals such as Barclays.

Sky News has learnt that Standard Chartered will announce alongside its annual results that it is paying roughly $1.2bn (£720m) in bonuses for 2013, down from $1.4bn (£840m) the year before.

The percentage fall in bonuses is substantially higher than the decline in the bank's profits for the year, reflecting its desire to demonstrate pay restraint, a source close to Standard Chartered's board said on Tuesday.

Peter Sands, the bank's chief executive, will see his bonus cut by a bigger margin than the reduction in the overall pool, according to a source.

StanChart is Liverpool's shirt sponsor

His £2m payout for 2012 had been reduced to not much more than £1m to reflect "a challenging year" for the bank, which sponsors Premier League side Liverpool, they added.

While a comparison with Barclays is unlikely to be explicitly drawn by Standard Chartered, the source said Mr Sands and Sir John Peace, its chairman, were keen to avoid the publicity over pay which had damaged its UK-based rival.

Last month, Barclays increased its bonus pool for 2013 to £2.4bn despite a slump in profits, a move which has sparked fury from a number of leading City investors.

Standard Chartered has been a darling of the stock market for many years, with its presence in Africa, Asia and Latin America underpinning a decade-long unbroken run of record profits.

That performance will come to an end on Wednesday when it is expected by City analysts to report a fall in earnings of about 6% to just over $7bn (£4.2bn).

The bank's shares have suffered recently as a consequence of City speculation about a dividend cut and rights issue, as well as broader concerns about the volatility of emerging market economies.

Standard Chartered plans to use Wednesday's results announcement to address speculation about its capital position, an insider said.

The bank is understood to be frustrated about what it perceives to be a lack of explicit guidance from the Prudential Regulation Authority, the UK banking regulator, about its future capital requirements.

Standard Chartered, which is in the process of selling a number of assets in markets such as Lebanon and South Korea, declined to comment.

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Lloyds Commits To Credit Unions Amid Pay Row

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group will make a series of pledges on Wednesday aimed at combating financial exclusion, even as the industry runs headlong into another pay row.

Sky News understands that Lloyds will announce as part of its annual report that it will contribute an additional £1m annually to supporting credit unions, an increasingly popular form of alternative finance.

The commitment to credit unions, which the Government hopes will reduce the reliance on payday lenders of millions of Britons, will be one of dozens made by Lloyds under the slogan 'Helping Britain Prosper', launched by the bank's chief executive last month.

Sources said that Antonio Horta-Osorio would also promise to provide at least one in four so-called basic bank accounts, in line with its share of the broader current account market.

Other commitments would include employing a specific number of apprentices as Lloyds positions itself for a full return to private sector ownership later this year, they added.

Last month, the bank, which is 33%-owned by taxpayers, said it would employ women in 40% of its top 5,000 jobs within six years, while increasing net lending to small businesses and a host of other stakeholder-friendly measures.

Although the scale of some of the commitments is modest in the context of Lloyds' size, the bank hopes that they will convince politicians and the public that it is serious about changing its image.

The publication of Lloyds' annual report will include its remuneration report, which will show that the number of employees paid more than £1m in 2013 rose from 25 staff the year before.

The most toxic publicity, however, is likely to be reserved for Barclays, which also plans to release its annual report on Wednesday.

Barclays will say that it also increased substantially the number of millionaires on its payroll in 2013, as well as setting out the details of substantial pay hikes for Antony Jenkins, chief executive, and other senior risk-takers.

Lloyds and Barclays declined to comment.

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Debt Collection Giant Slashes Borrowing Costs

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The buoyant state of the City's financing markets will be underlined this week by a transaction involving one of Britain's leading debt collection agencies.

Sky News understands that Lowell Group, which is owned by the private equity firm TDR Capital, is to unveil a deal that will slash the cost of its own borrowings.

Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, the Wall Street investment banks hired to work on the deal, are understood to be planning to sell a new bond to investors with a yield of approximately 6%.

That will compare with Lowell's existing arrangements, which pay interest of more than 10%, underlining the more benign state of debt markets since the company's most recent bond issue towards the end of 2010.

A source close to the company said information sent to prospective bond investors would say that the proceeds - expected to be in the region of £100m - would be used for "general corporate purposes".

This is likely to involve pursuing further acquisitions of consumer debt portfolios although it could also give TDR the flexibility to pay itself a small dividend if such purchases did not prove to be attractive, they said.

Lowell, which was acquired by TDR in September 2011, says it is "committed to taking a fair, sensitive and ethical approach to debt recovery, and is in full compliance with UK Government guidelines and industry trade and regulatory bodies".

On Thursday, the Financial Conduct Authority set out its final rules for regulating the consumer credit industry amid criticism about the behaviour of some debt collection agencies.

Lowell's divisions include Red Debt Collection Services, a specialist debt recovery department which focuses on telecoms accounts and so-called escalated accounts - or those which relate to persistent non-payers.

A source close to the group said that Lowell could decide to pursue a stock market listing towards the end of this year or the beginning of 2015.

When it does examine a listing, sources close to Lowell believe it is likely to be valued at more than £1bn based on the rating attributed to rival Arrow Global, which floated last year and now has a market capitalisation of just over £450m.

"It is a higher-quality business than Arrow so it should command a premium to Arrow's rating if it goes public," an analyst said on Sunday.

The debt collection sector has also seen a substantial amount of other corporate activity.

Earlier this month, Cabot Credit Management, which is jointly-owned by the US debt recovery group Encore and New York-based buyout firm JC Flowers, bought Marlin Financial and its £2bn-worth of loans for £295m including debt.

TDR declined to comment.

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Virgin Money Backs Doubling Of Bank Bonuses

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Sir Richard Branson's banking arm will this week become the latest of Britain's high street lenders to say that it is supporting the payment of higher bonuses under new European rules.

Sky News has learnt that Virgin Money is to reveal alongside its full-year results that its shareholders have approved a request from its board to award up to 200% of the salaries of top executives as bonuses.

The disclosure, which goes beyond that required of the privately-owned Virgin Money, will come as the company says on Tuesday that it returned to profit for the first time since acquiring Northern Rock from the Government in 2011.

The bonuses decision, which reflects a 100% bonus-to-pay ratio cap without shareholder approval, was more of a formality for Virgin Money than listed rivals, which must put the move to their annual meetings this year.

People close to Virgin Money said that its results statement would provide detailed data akin to that of one of the major high street banks, each of which has announced its 2013 results during the last month.

Virgin Money's board has decided to do so in order to furnish potential investors with more information about the business as it prepares for an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in the medium term, one said.

A flotation is unlikely before next year at the earliest, they added.

The bank's results will show a strong performance in 2013 following the integration of Northern Rock, whose collapse in 2007 sparked Britain's financial crisis.

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Virgin Money's chief executive, is expected to say that its savings book saw strong growth, reflecting its policy of offering customers the same rate across all channels and shunning teaser rates.

Last week, Royal Bank of Scotland said it was following suit in an attempt to win back the trust of consumers.

Mrs Gadhia's total pay package of about £950,000 in 2012 is understood to have risen to roughly £1.1m last year, an insider said.

Her base salary of £550,000 is likely to rise modestly in 2014, reflecting the Virgin Money board's  keenness to retain her as Virgin Money prepares for an assault on the UK current account market.

Its plans are being drawn up against a backdrop of growing political hostility to the dominance of the country's five major high street lenders.

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, will ask competition regulators to recommend a legal market share cap for banks if he wins the next general election, which he argues would pave the way for the likes of Virgin Money to mount a more effective challenge.

Virgin Money recently began trialling a current account among the bank's staff, with early indications understood to have been positive.

The planned public launch of the product later this year could mark a potentially-significant phase in efforts to bolster competition in the market.

More than 80% of accounts are supplied by the five biggest lenders: the state-backed Lloyds Banking Group, owner of HBOS, and RBS, which owns NatWest; Barclays, HSBC and Santander UK.

Once the staff trial has been completed, Virgin Money will target consumers who are underserved by the major lenders, offering a basic account with no fees or charges and free access to the UK ATM network of cash machines.

It is also likely to say this week that it expects to be aided by the new seven-day switching system for current account providers which came into effect last autumn.

Virgin Money, which sponsors the London Marathon, now has more than 4m customers, having established a significant market share in loans, insurance and savings.

A Virgin Money spokesman declined to comment on Sunday.

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Birmingham Owner Guilty Of Money Laundering

The owner of Birmigham City Football Club, Carson Yeung, has been convicted of money laundering charges in his native Hong Kong.

The 54-year old barber-turned-businessman had resigned from the parent company that owns the Championship side last month ahead of the verdict at the Hong Kong District Court.

He was found guilty of charges relating to his handling of $93m (£56m), described as criminal proceeds by prosecutors, using five bank accounts between January 2001 and December 2007.

Yeung had denied any wrongdoing.

Delivering his judgment, District Court Judge Douglas Yau said Yeung had lied about how he made his money and exaggerated the amount of profit generated by his hair salon business.

"I find the defendant not a witness of truth. I find that he is someone who is prepared to, and did try to, lie whenever he saw the need to do so."

Yeung, who was dressed in a dark suit and striped tie,  will be sentenced on Friday morning.

The trial revealed the flamboyant businessman's close ties to Macau's casino world, both as an investor and gambler, and how that facilitated business investments that helped him amass his wealth.

The charges were unrelated to Birmingham, which he bought in 2009 for £81.5m.

The club won the 2011 League Cup, ending 48 years without a major trophy, but despite the victory was relegated from the Premier League the same year.

Following Yeung's resignation from parent company Birmingham International Holdings last month, the company sold a 12% share in its UK subsidiary to a little-known Chinese advertising firm.

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Mt Gox Bitcoin Exchange Files For Bankruptcy

One of the world's largest bitcoin exchanges has filed for bankruptcy protection as it admitted hackers may have stolen all of its digital currency.

Mt Gox has revealed 850,000 bitcoins worth about $480m (£286m) are unaccounted for following cyber attacks and said it has 127,000 creditors.

Chief executive Mark Karpeles blamed a weakness in the exchange's computer system for the massive loss, which included 750,000 users' bitcoins and 100,000 of its own.

Debts at the company of £38m dwarf its total assets of £22.5m.

Mr Karpeles gave a grovelling apology in Japanese for the company's collapse, bowing in contrition and wearing a suit instead of his customary T-shirt at a news conference.

"I am sorry for the troubles I have caused all the people," he said.

However, he predicted the currency would continue to grow, claiming the industry is "healthy".

Angry investors are demanding answers over what happened to their bitcoins

Angry investors are demanding answers over what happened to their holdings of cash and bitcoins on the Tokyo-based exchange.

The collapse of the company has shaken the virtual currency world and heaped renewed regulatory attention on the bitcoin.

Created in 2009 as a way to make transactions across borders without third parties such as banks, supporters previously claimed security encryption made the currency immune to theft or counterfeiting.

Mt Gox took down its website on Tuesday after freezing withdrawals earlier this month in the wake of a series of technical difficulties.

Mr Karpeles said the company wanted to file a criminal complaint against what he said was a hacking attack but had no actual means of doing so.

It came as the Japanese finance minister said the collapse of the virtual currency was inevitable and Vietnam banned its use overnight.

Despite the problems facing the currency, the world's first bitcoin retail store has opened in Hong Kong.

However, Ken Lo, the CEO of ANXBTC, the exchange behind the store, said he believes an actual store will help break down some of the barriers to people adopting the virtual currency.

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Floods Fund: £2m To Support Tourism Firms

Tourism businesses affected by the recent flooding are to get a £2m boost from the Government.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller says the money will fund experts who will visit affected areas and offer practical advice to tourism firms such as how to access business support measures.

The advice sessions will be hosted by VisitEngland and run throughout March.

The fund comes on top of  the £10m set aside by Prime Minister David Cameron last month to help flood-hit businesses generally.

Ms Miller said: "We want to help all those tourism businesses that have been affected by the horrendous floods get back on their feet as quickly as possible.

"Experts will be put on the ground to help small businesses with practical advice and communications while a bespoke Easter marketing will bring people back to the areas hit."

Welcoming the funding, VisitEngland chief executive James Berresford said: "Our message to customers is 'Business as usual'.

"Despite many areas having been affected by bad weather and some travel disruption, the tourism infrastructure is largely unaffected."

VisitBritain chief executive Sandie Dawe said: "International tourism is worth around £1.5bn to the economies of south west England and Wales.

"We are already getting out the message that it is a great time to travel to Britain and will be intensifying that activity over the coming months."

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:: Watch Sky News' special programme 'Battered Britain: From The Air' about the effect of the recent storms on the UK's landscape on Sunday, March 2, at 4pm.

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EU Pay Cap Triggers Pay Rise For Lloyds Boss

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group is being lined up for a salary increase that could see his fixed pay almost double as it tackles new remuneration rules imposed by Brussels.

Sky News has learnt that Lloyds, which is 33%-owned by taxpayers, is likely to announce next week that it has decided to follow other big UK banks in awarding "allowances" to its most senior risk-taking staff.

Lloyds' board remuneration committee is understood to have met in the last few days to agree the move.

The decision still requires the formal approval of UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the Treasury agency which manages the taxpayer's stake in Lloyds.

If it gets UKFI's backing, the details will be announced as part of Lloyds' annual report, which is expected to be published on Wednesday.

From one perspective, UKFI's backing would not be surprising since George Osborne, the. Chancellor, has already mounted a legal challenge to the European Union rules.

Under the Brussels scheme, which affects pay deals awarded from this year onwards, banks can hand out bonuses worth up to 100% of an employee's salary without the consent of shareholders.

However, they must seek investors' consent to award up to double that sum in variable pay, which even at that upper limit is much less than many bankers have typically been paid.

The rules have prompted major banks operating in Europe - including Barclays, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Morgan Stanley - to devise new monthly or quarterly payments which count towards an employee's basic salary for the purposes of calculating their annual bonus entitlements.

Stuart Gulliver, HSBC's chief executive, used the bank's annual results last Monday to attack the rules, pointing to the overwhelming backing its shareholders had given to its existing pay schemes.

Lloyds is understood to have identified approximately 50 executives who will be eligible for the role-based payments, which will be awarded in shares that recipients will have to hold onto for a lengthy period.

Much of the focus is likely to be on the allowance handed to Antonio Horta-Osorio, Lloyds' chief executive, who receives an annual salary of £1.061m.

Insiders said that while the plans had not yet been finalised, Mr Horta-Osorio was likely to receive an allowance of up to another £1m, which would mean that with the approval of Lloyds' shareholders, he could theoretically receive annual bonuses worth up to roughly £4m.

News of the bank's plans comes just a fortnight after Mr Horta-Osorio was awarded a £1.7m bonus for 2013 as an acknowledgement for his work in improving Lloyds' performance during the last year.

The payment will not vest until conditions relating to the share price or a further sale of the taxpayer's stake, and if they are met, he would not receive the bonus until 2019.

Sky News has also learnt that Lloyds' remuneration committee has decided to award Mr Horta-Osorio up to half of a deferred share award made in 2011 when he joined the lender from Santander UK.

That payout is likely to be worth in the region of £2m.

A Lloyds spokesman said that final decisions had still to be taken.

More contentious will be the decisions on pay made by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), the other big state-backed lender.

Ross McEwan, its chief executive, said on Thursday that RBS needed to be able to pay "fairly" otherwise he would not be able to retain key staff.

Analysts and investors interpreted the remark as a signal that he also wants to make additional payments, although he insisted that RBS was still consulting with shareholders.

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