UK

The UK's unemployment rate showed a surprise fall from 8.3% to 8.2% in the first quarter, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Offloading the taxpayer stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group could take years, the Treasury select committee was told yesterday.

Dan Nickols, Old Mutual Asset Managers' (OMAM) top performing small-cap manager, has reshaped his £468m UK Select Smaller Companies fund to gain greater exposure high quality cyclical firms.

Former Barclays chief John Varley is no longer in the running for the top job at the Bank of England, Investment Week understands.

FATCA

Four major fund houses have joined forces with technology provider IFDS to white-label enhanced online propositions for their existing direct customers ahead of RDR.

UK

INVESTMENT TRUSTS

Former Monetary Policy Committee member Andrew Sentance does not expect the Bank of England to unveil more QE tomorrow, and said this is the right course of action to avoid triggering higher inflation.

The Queen has unveiled 19 new pieces of legislation in her annual speech to open Parliament, focusing on boosting the UK economy with a raft of business-friendly measures.