China Pledges Economic And Business Reform

China has pledged more reforms to loosen the communist authorities' grip on the world's second-largest economy, raising hopes of greater benefit for its foreign trading partners.

The ruling party issued a document detailing economic reforms following a key meeting, known as the Third Plenum, which ended earlier this week.

The plans include requiring state firms to pay larger dividends to the government, and allowing private companies a bigger role in the economy, according to the document issued by the official Xinhua news agency.

The government will require 30% of earnings from "state capital" to be paid back to the public coffers and used for social security by 2020, it said.

China's 113 major state-owned enterprises (SOEs) directly under the central government typically pay 5 to 20% of their profits to the government in dividends - the part of a company's earnings distributed to shareholders.

"This will have an effect on facilitating a better competitive environment," ANZ Banking Group economist Liu Ligang said, adding it would make cash-rich SOEs allocate funds more rationally.

China moved to shut down or merge loss-making state firms in the late 1990s, leaving a smaller number, but with immense power over large sectors of the economy.

Further reforms have been made difficult by opposition from the state sector, which has been enriched by close ties to the government and lack of competition.

In acknowledgement of private firms, China will allow private capital to take equity stakes in state-funded projects, Xinhua said, but gave no proportion.

China will also allow the set-up of smaller banks and financial institutions using private funds, the document said. The country currently has just a handful of private banks.

In the financial sphere, China will push forward liberalisation of its interest rates and free convertibility of its yuan currency, the document said.

China currently sets deposit rates by administrative order, but the central bank began allowing banks to decide their own lending rates in July in a long-awaited move.

Beijing has repeatedly said it would push forward convertibility of the yuan - allowing the currency to be freely bought and sold, and with it the movement of funds into and out of China.

The government keeps a tight grip on the capital account - investment and financial transactions, rather than those related to trade - over worries that unpredictable inflows or outflows could harm the economy and reduce the party's control over it.

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Former RSA Boss Makes Haste For TSB Chair

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Andy Haste, the former boss of RSA Insurance, is being lined up to take the helm of TSB as it prepares for a rebirth as an independent bank on Britain's high streets.

Sky News can reveal that Mr Haste has emerged as the preferred candidate to become chairman of TSB ahead of a planned flotation on the London Stock Exchange next year.

Mr Haste, who stepped down from RSA in 2011, has not yet formally agreed to take the role, and the approval of the Prudential Regulation Authority, the UK banking watchdog, would also be required.

That consent is unlikely to be withheld, however. Mr Haste is highly regarded from his time at RSA, where he steered the company from the brink of collapse, although it has endured a rockier period since his departure with two profit warnings in the last 10 days alone.

His appointment as TSB's chairman would give a boost to the prospects of a successful flotation of what will be the UK's seventh-largest lender.

Lloyds Banking Group, which is 33%-owned by taxpayers, has to sell TSB under the orders of the European Commission in return for the state aid it received when it was bailed out in 2008.

Lloyds had planned to sell the 632 branches to the Co-operative Group, a plan which was abandoned because of the financial crisis at the mutual.

TSB was relaunched in September and has pledged to restore local banking services to British communities.

The bank has a 4.3% share of the current account market and under the stewardship of Paul Pester, chief executive, wants to increase that to at least 6%.

It will also make a series of commitments next year about executive pay and transparency of lending decisions as it tries to distinguish itself from its high street rivals, many of whom remain tainted by mis-selling scandals which pre-date the financial crisis.

Mr Haste has taken on a portfolio of jobs since leaving RSA, including the deputy chairmanship of Lloyd's of London and an ad hoc role with Advent International, the private equity firm.

Taking on the TSB role would reunite him at least temporarily with George Culmer, the Lloyds Banking Group finance director, who joined the lender from RSA.

Among the other candidates interviewed for the TSB chairmanship was Dennis Holt, a former Lloyds TSB executive.

Lloyds has lined up Citi and JP Morgan, the investment banks, to work on the TSB flotation, which is pencilled in for the middle of 2014.

Lloyds declined to comment, while Mr Haste could not be reached for comment.

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£11bn Olympics Benefit Target Met

A four-year target of raising £11bn worth of economic benefit from the London Olympics has been met in 12 months, the Government has said.

The country has benefited from new foreign investment, additional sales and firms winning contracts since last summer's events, according to a report.

The total includes £130m of contracts won by UK companies for next year's soccer World Cup in Brazil, and the next Olympic Games, in Rio in 2016

Trade and Investment Minister Lord Green said: "The delivery of London 2012 on time and on budget led to hosting nations turning to the UK to help deliver their own events with supply opportunities running into the billions.

"UK Trade & Investment has played a key role in helping British companies maximise these opportunities and the result is a £11.06bn boost to the UK economy from the Games, reaching our four-year target in just over a year."

Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport Maria Miller said: "Last year's Games put the UK in the global spotlight and showed the rest of the world that this country is open for business.

"The economic legacy of last year's Olympic and Paralympic Games is sometimes neglected but these figures show that the financial investment made into London 2012 has already been recouped."

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Barclays Bank 'To Axe 1,700 Branch Jobs'

Barclays is to slash 1,700 jobs from across its branch network, saying fewer staff are needed because more people are banking online.

The number of cashiers, personal bankers and managers employed by the bank is expected to be cut throughout 2014.

The trade union Unite described the decision as a "colossal mistake" and said it was challenging Barclays' claims that the way customers access their banking services is changing rapidly.

Dominic Hook, the union's national officer, said: "These employees deliver high levels of service that customers of the bank benefit from.

"Such a massive reduction will be very detrimental to the bank and will also be hugely challenging for the staff remaining."

Mr Hook said the union would be "pressing Barclays to reconsider" its proposal.

He said the bank had agreed to demands for a voluntary redundancy register, as well as training grants for anyone leaving Barclays and compensation for employees who reduce their working hours.

"The union will also be seeking firm assurances that there will be no compulsory redundancies following the completion of the voluntary exercise," Mr Hook said.

A spokesman for Barclays, which has more than 1,700 UK branches and employs about 140,000 people worldwide, said it was investing in new technology and improving customer service.

"This means training staff so they can provide that expert support but also reducing staffing levels in our branches where there is over capacity," he said.

"As a result of technological changes, we will be able to provide better service for our customers with fewer staff in our branches.

"Today we have outlined a voluntary redundancy scheme for those colleagues who are interested.

"We are committed to working with our impacted colleagues so that they are fully consulted and have access to the support and services they require."

Earlier this month, Barclays announced it was opening a number of seven-days-a-week branches in Asda supermarkets around the country.

On Wednesday, it announced its head of compliance Sir Hector Sants had resigned after he was placed on sick leave for stress and exhaustion.

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Spain To Make Clean Exit From Bank Bailout

Spain's decision to make a clean exit from its bank bailout has been welcomed by Eurogroup, which is made up of finance ministers from euro-using countries.

It said it showed the effectiveness of steps to deal with excessive government debt.

Earlier, it was announced that Ireland's aid programme will end in December. Spain's wraps up in January.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs Eurogroup, said: "These economies are back on the road to recovery."

In 2012 Spain tapped €41bn (£34.5bn) from the eurozone countries' bailout fund to recapitalise banks that faltered after a property boom collapsed.

EU Economy and Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn told a news conference that the Spanish financial market had stabilised, liquidity of banks had improved and deposits were rising.

He said the key now lay in the restructuring of Spain's local savings banks.

But the Eurogroup said Madrid still had work to do.

"We call on the Spanish authorities to rigorously continue the reform momentum to address any remaining challenges regarding the economic and fiscal situation, including the high unemployment rate and the vulnerabilities stemming from the still high private and external debt," the group said in a statement after talks in Brussels.

Greece, Portugal and Cyprus remain on bailout support as a result of  troubles with too much debt.

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Nationwide Sees Half-Year Profit Up 155%

The Nationwide has reported a 155% leap in half-year underlying profits, citing more lending and a rush of new customers coming to it from high street rivals.

Nationwide is Britain's biggest customer-owned lender and the the third biggest mortgage lender.

Dissatisfaction with the so-called big four high street banks has helped drive new customers to the Nationwide.

The building society said it made an underlying profit of £332m in the six months to the end of September, up from £130m the year before.

The lender's performance has been boosted an improvement in its net interest margin - the difference between the rate it offers to savers and the rate it charges borrowers.

"The first six months of the financial year have seen Nationwide build on the momentum generated in 2012-13, with strong business volumes driving an excellent financial performance," chief executive Graham Beale said.

As a building society the Nationwide seeks to serve its members' interest while generating profit to expand its business.

It says profit is then utilised to offer higher rates for savers and lower rates for borrowers.

More follows...

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Bank: UK Recovery Has Finally Taken Hold

Interest Rates To Rise As Handcuffs Come Off?

Updated: 6:14pm UK, Wednesday 13 November 2013

Let's start with the good news. The economy is recovering more convincingly than at any point since the financial crisis of 2008.

And while this is hardly new news (the figures have been pointing that way for a while), the Bank of England seemed to confirm it today as it raised its growth forecast for both this year and next year.

If its predictions are borne out, next year the economy will expand by 2.8% - the highest rate since 2007.

In fact, this isn't the end of the good news. Inflation is lower than expected; unemployment is also falling faster.

Almost any metric you care to look at suggests that this is turning into a benign and pretty solid recovery. Let's leave aside for the moment the question of why it's taken so long, and why that growth is uncomfortably reliant on consumer debt.

The big question, however, is what the Bank of England does next. Not only are interest rates down at 0.5% - the lowest level on record - the Bank's new Governor, Mark Carney, committed earlier this year not to raise them until unemployment dropped beneath 7%.

Forward guidance, as the bank calls it, is best regarded as a set of self-imposed handcuffs. Until the jobless rates drops beneath that magic number seven, the handcuffs stay on and rates don't go up.

And what we learned from the bank's Inflation Report today is that the handcuffs are likely to come off a lot sooner than had been expected.

Back in August, the bank didn't expect the unemployment rate to drop beneath 7% until at least the end of 2016.

Today it revealed it now believes unemployment will drop beneath this level at the end of 2014. That's a pretty big adjustment.

There are a few obvious implications. One is that the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee will be free to start voting on higher interest rates before the next election.

But taking the handcuffs off doesn't necessarily imply the captive will actually move his hands. Rates won't necessarily rise the moment forward guidance comes to an end.

Indeed, today the Governor signalled that markets, which currently expect the bank to start lifting rates in early 2015 and to bring them up to 1.7% by the end of 2016, may be getting ahead of themselves. However, if not before the next election, rate rises are likely shortly afterwards.

With the end of forward guidance (eg the handcuff period) already on the horizon, some have construed this as evidence of the policy's failure.

After all, it only kicked in three months ago. What, they ask, was the point of it in the first place?

The bank's answer is that forward guidance has helped cement the economic recovery and that recovery has come along sooner than expected, so that it's right forward guidance will come to an end (well, in late 2014/early 2015).

To use a rather odd analogy, consider the male honeybee. It dies as soon as it fertilises the queen bee, but its death allows the rest of the colony to survive.

In the same way, forward guidance, having stimulated economic recovery, will inevitably need to expire for the rest of the economy to recover. It is, in economic terms, the supreme sacrifice.

Economists are likely to argue about the wisdom or otherwise of the policy for some time. What matters for most of us is that growth is returning to the UK and that interest rates are likely to rise a touch sooner than expected.

One final noteworthy aspect of today's Inflation Report press conference was the amount of time the Governor spent answering questions about the housing market.

There is growing concern about a bubble (or at the very least some regional bubbles) emerging in UK property prices.

Mr Carney is clearly sensitive to this - we shall have to wait until the next meeting of the Bank's Financial Policy Committee to see whether he's willing to take action on it.

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British Gas Owner To Warn On Domestic Margins

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The owner of British Gas will warn on Thursday of stuttering margins in its residential gas and electricity supply business as the row over energy profits rages on.

Sky News has learned that Centrica is expected to say in a third-quarter trading update that British Gas' domestic supply margins are likely to come in significantly below 5% for the full year.

The news is likely to fuel the debate about energy company profits amid accusations by ministers that the 'Big Six' suppliers treat customers as "cash cows".

Centrica's announcement is unlikely to constitute a full-blown profit warning, with City analysts forecasting a broad spread of outcomes for the full year.

However, insiders said that Centrica was likely to "massage expectations" for the full year because of rising costs outside the company's control, with some downward revisions to forecasts the likely outcome of its guidance.

Analysts have pencilled in an average projection of adjusted operating profit of £2.95bn for the full financial year.

In line with its usual practice, Centrica will not provide detailed quarterly revenue or profit numbers in Thursday's announcement.

It is, however, expected to highlight challenging market conditions across many of its businesses, reflecting anxieties that have sent its shares into a prolonged decline in recent weeks.

"The company is braced for the shares to take another hammering after the trading update," said a City source close to Centrica.

In a note to clients, analysts at Credit Suisse said last week that they had concerns about weaker margins in its business energy supply operations and lower profitability in its upstream oil and gas production unit.

British Gas announced last month that it would raise gas and electricity prices by an average of 9.2% from November 23, becoming the third of the six firms that dominate the industry to do so.

Only German-owned Eon among the six companies has not yet announced a price hike.

The escalating conflagration about energy prices has cost Sam Laidlaw, the Centrica chief executive, an annual bonus potentially worth up to £2m.

Mr Laidlaw said at last week's annual CBI conference that he would waive the payout because of the political climate, although he will still be in line for a multimillion pound long-term share award for this year.

The Centrica boss has pledged that any reduction by ministers in the green levies that constitute a large chunk of consumers' bills would result in immediate price cuts.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, is expected to use next month's Autumn Statement to remove some of the environmental tariffs affecting energy costs although the exact mechanism for doing so is unclear.

On Tuesday, Ed Davey, the Energy Secretary, warned at an industry conference that companies were treating customers as "cash cows" and said they risked being compared to the venality of banks before the financial crisis.

The criticism prompted a furious response from the industry. SSE announced on Thursday that it made an operating loss of £115m for the half-year to September at its energy retailing business.

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Airbus Firm EADS Sees Profit Up 45% In Q3

Airbus parent company EADS has seen its profit increased by 45% in the third quarter, driven by strong commercial aircraft demand.

But the European jet maker warned that its free cash flow, a measure of cash generated by a business, would be negative this year.

EADS estimated the negative figure for 2013 at 1.5bn euros (£1.25bn) because of investment into lifting production and development of programmes such as the A350 long-range wide body.

The A350 is due to enter service in the second half of 2014.

Previously, the company had said its free cash flow would break even this year, compared to positive 1.5bn euros last year.

In a statement EADS said net profit for the July-September quarter rose to 436m euros (£366m), up from 301m euros (£252m) a year earlier.

More follows...

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Energy Bills: Households Face 17 Years Of Hikes

Households are facing another 17 years of inflation-busting increases in energy and water bills, a spending watchdog has warned.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said consumers are being forced to pay more to stump up the cost of renewing Britain's ageing infrastructure.

It said the Government had little idea of the impact the continued price hikes would have on households or whether they would they would even be affordable.

Its findings will intensify the political debate raging over energy bills, with the Government under pressure to act after Labour promised a 20-month price freeze if they came to office.

The Treasury estimates that at least two-thirds of the £310bn of planned infrastructure investment over the next decade and beyond will come from private companies paid for, ultimately, by consumers through their utility bills.

The NAO said that such high levels of planned investment meant that the increases in charges for energy and water were now expected to continue to outstrip inflation until 2030.

It expressed particular concern about the plight of the low income households where energy and water bills accounted for 15% of spending in 2011 - almost double the overall average of 8% - while their incomes had fallen by 11% in real terms since 2002.

The head of the NAO, Amyas Morse, said that ministers needed to know at what point the continuing price rises would become too much for consumers to bear.

"Government and regulators do not know the overall impact of planned infrastructure on future consumer utility bills, or whether households, especially those on low incomes, will be able to afford to pay them," he said.

"It seems critical to know 'how much is too much', based on reliable information."

Margaret Hodge, the chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said ministers needed to work with the industry to ensure bills did not become "unmanageable" for consumers.

"I have serious concerns that government is taking decisions on infrastructure, banking on hard-pressed consumers to foot the bill, without knowing whether households will be able to afford to pay."

A Government spokesman said: "Decades of underinvestment have left the UK struggling with insufficient energy infrastructure, but we are committed to fixing the failures of previous governments, and to making the difficult decisions that will allow us to have the infrastructure we need."

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