Saturday Papers: Provident plays down impact of welfare cuts - money news

Financial Times

* Peter Crook, Provident's chief executive, estimates that ‘less than 1%’ of the households Provident Financial lends to would be hit by the £500 a week cap on government benefits.

* Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers launches a $250 million fund aimed at start-ups looking to profit from social networking, with a handful of established internet companies included as investors

* Shares in Betfair rose 19 per cent in their first day of conditional trading as investors put their money on further growth at the world’s biggest betting exchange.

* Indian tax authorities have ordered Vodafone to pay Rs112.18 billion ($2.53 billion) in back taxes for its $11bn acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa’s stake in a domestic mobile operator that it completed three years ago.

* An Italian tribunal has nullified derivatives contracts sold to a local authority by UniCredit and ordered the bank to pay back €650,000, in a decision with potentially widespread implications for the investment banking industry.

* Proceeds from the initial public offering of AIA, the largest in Hong Kong, could enable AIG to repay the whole $20 billion loan it received from the New York Federal Reserve.

* Bank creditors to Cattles, the subprime lender that is undergoing a restructuring after the discovery of accounting errors, have offered to relinquish a portion of their claim on the company’s assets.

* Arbuthnot, the banking group, said the already weak investment banking conditions got significantly worse in the third quarter, triggering a 5% fall in its share price on Thursday.

* The new restriction on pension tax relief for high earners is expected to prompt wealthy individuals to seek alternative ways to save money for retirement.

* Kent Reliance building society is urging its 180,000 savers and borrowers to give the go-ahead for a tie-up with JC Flowers, the US private equity firm, which could lead to demutualisation-style windfalls and dividend payments after about five years.

* Lawyers, architects and accountants are expected to be targeted in a crackdown on tax evasion among professionals, with “amnesties” on undisclosed earnings likely to be launched in the next few months.