The UK economy shrank by 0.3% in the first quarter, the final official reading has confirmed.

Barclays has been slapped with the largest-ever fine by the FSA and a huge penalty by the US authorities after it breached rules regarding LIBOR.

Hargreaves Lansdown is confident its business model has the flexibility to cope with the ban on platform rebates proposed today by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The ban on rebates from fund managers to platform providers is to cost platform operators up to £10m a year, the FSA has said.

The FTSE 100 fell alongside other major markets across Europe today, after the Federal Reserve cut its growth forecast for the US economy.

UK inflation will not be allowed to fall back to its 2% target because Mervyn King and his colleagues are keen to prevent a disinflationary spiral, according to leading fund managers.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted five to four to maintain quantitative easing (QE) at £325bn this month, overruling the governor and three colleagues who called for further expansion.

M&G has expanded its multi-asset range of funds with the addition of a defensive portfolio, as part of a wider move to rebrand the range.

Henderson Global Investors' bond fund manager John Pattullo said the current crisis in Spain will result in Spanish bank bondholders taking severe haircuts, after a similar scenario in Ireland last year.

The International Monetary Fund has amassed a $456bn crisis fund to help save the eurozone from the financial storm currently besieging it.