Saturday Papers: Business cash holdings pick up - money news

Financial Times

* Businesses’ holdings of liquid assets are growing at close to their fastest pace since before the recession, in a hopeful sign for future investment; private non-financial companies’ holdings of M4 “broad” money rose by an annualised 10.3% in the third quarter, after falling by an annualised 0.5% in the previous quarter.

* * The UK Accounting Standards Board on Friday unveiled new reformed accounting rules to be implemented from the summer of 2013; for medium-sized and larger private companies, the ASB aims to introduce a new standard called FRSME that would be more in line with IFRS than its predecessor; affected businesses would have to bear an estimated transition cost of about £80 million.

* UK taxpayers with unpaid tax on Swiss bank accounts could start moving their assets into other jurisdictions following a groundbreaking deal to exchange tax information with Switzerland.

* The focus of investors scouting about for value in the precious metals market has shifted to palladium, platinum and silver, as gold now trades at record levels.

* Franklin Resources, manager of the Franklin and Templeton mutual funds, reported a 61% rise in full-year net profits on Thursday, helped by record investor inflows in its fourth quarter.

* A tax-free “Junior Isa” – an individual savings account for parents to invest for their child’s future – is set to be launched later next year to replace the recently scrapped Child Trust Fund scheme.

* A research by the consumer group Which? found that almost half of the UK’s 1,200 savings accounts pay 0.5% or less on a £5,000 balance, with a quarter paying paying 0.1% or less – or £1 interest a year on £1,000.

* Gary Hoffman, who took over as chief executive of Northern Rock two years ago to steer the nationalised bank back to health, may resign from his post as early as next week.

* JJB Sports has been fined £455,000 by the Financial Services Authority following an investigation into the group’s compliance with disclosure rules.

* Sir Martin Sorrell hinted that WPP, the advertising and communications group he heads, would accelerate its dividend increase next year after reporting its best trading for a decade.

* Hundreds of South Korea’s small and midsized exporters have threatened to boycott a number of significant foreign-owned banks after they suffered heavy losses from currency derivative investments.