Industry

Alistair Darling's pre-Budget report today is apparently the only thing that can prevent Britain from losing her historic and cherished AAA credit rating.

Sales at Resolution, owner of Friends Provident, have fallen 28% so far this year.

Sales of UK life and pensions have slumped across the board as consumers limit insurance and savings to focus dwindling disposable incomes on debt.

The Employees Retirement System of the City of New Orleans (NOERS) has sued Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) alleging Berkshire's planned acquisition of BNSF discriminated other investors.

The FSA has fined UBS £8m - the third largest fine it has ever imposed - for allowing four employees unauthorised access to at least 39 customers' accounts.

Investors should have increasing confidence in a UK economic recovery as the housing market shows strong signs of bottoming, Richard Woolnough believes.

Iceland has agreed to pay €3.8bn to compensate Britain and the Netherlands for money paid to 400,000 savers whose deposits were lost when Icesave collapsed in October last year.

John Flint has been appointed as chief executive of HSBC Global Asset Management.

Jupiter has appointed Mark Ingram as regional sales manager, marking the final change in the recent reorganisation of its sales team.

Investment Week Conjecture