Monday Papers: IIF warns against capital surcharges - other news

Financial Times

* The Institute of International Finance, made up of the largest global banks, warned on Sunday that attempts to impose capital surcharges on so-called “systemically important financial institutions” would force them to cut lending and hurt the real economy.

* Currency traders may push the yen higher to test the Bank of Japan’s willingness to again intervene after the IMF talks on exchange rate failed.

* Walmart will outline this week its plans to enter US urban markets, amid reports that it is pursuing store sites as small as 5,000 sq ft on the streets of New York, Chicago, San Diego and Los Angeles.

* People in China and the Middle East are the busiest and most enthusiastic internet users, a study of the world’s online habits has revealed.

* Google has tested cars that can drive themselves without human intervention across thousands of miles of public roads.

* Lakshmi Mittal has called for Beijing to reduce its restrictions on inward investments to help damp hostility to efforts by Chinese companies to take stakes in businesses in countries such as the US.

* Malaysia’s $112 billion Employee Provident Fund has awarded $1.54 billion real estate mandate to ING Real Estate and Deutsche Bank’s Rreef to be used for investments in properties in Europe, particularly in the UK.

The Times

* The economy will stall in the first quarter before contracting by up to 0.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2011, BDO said in its latest forecasts.

* Kurt Geiger, the private equity-owned business, which runs the Harrods shoe section, has marched to a 17% increase in turnover and a 21% increase in earnings.

* Polo Ralph Lauren is to open its first British store based around its preppy-style Rugby brand.