Saturday Papers: US finalises sweeping overhaul of financial regulation - other news

Financial Times

* The US Congress finalised a sweeping overhaul of financial regulation yesterday that would
impose a $19bn (£12.6bn) levy on Wall Street and force banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to retreat from lucrative businesses.

* The S&P 500 index in New York is up 0.3 per cent as financial reform agreement fuels risk taking; the FTSE 100 in London was down 0.8 per cent, yet again held back by a heavy fall in BP shares; the FTSE Asia-Pacific index is down 1.5 per cent, badly hurt by a 1.9 per cent slide by Tokyo’s Nikkei 225.

* A turf war has begun between regulators over chancellor George Osborne’s shake-up of City policing after he left open the question of which watchdog would prosecute insider dealing cases.

* Financier Nat Rothschild seeks to raise £600m by listing a “cash shell” in London to fund acquisitions in mining.

* Social housing group Connaught issued a profit warning that wiped out almost a third of its market capitalisation.

* Peter Orszag, President Barack Obama’s budget director, resigned this week partly in frustration over his lack of success in persuading the administration to tackle the fiscal deficit more aggressively, according to sources.

* Christian Candy has won his High Court battle against a property company backed by Qatar over the withdrawal of plans for a scheme at Chelsea barracks.

* State laws must ensure that Mexican gulf oil spill victims are not treated unfairly, says Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer chosen by the US and BP to administer a $20bn claims fund.

* A US Supreme Court ruling threatens a hedge fund action against Porsche claiming more than $2bn in damages after the VW saga.

* Regulators told Goldman Sachs to pay $21m to settle claims the bank should have known that Bayou Management, a clearing brokerage client, was defrauding investors.

* China revised its exchange rate policy last week, but the modest appreciation in the currency during the first week of trading has raised questions about Beijing’s real intentions.