Wednesday Papers: RBS fined £5.6m over sanctions slip - other news

Financial Times

* FSA slaps £5.6m fine on RBS for failing to ensure that funds were not transferred to terrorist groups or other people facing Treasury sanctions.

* Lenders to Connaught, including Barclays and RBS, have started selling their debt claims against the social housing maintenance company in a sign of growing concern about its future; lenders on Monday night sold their entire exposure of £19m for about 37% of face value.

* The risky loan portfolio that has been branded Northern Rock’s “bad” bank jumped back into profit in the first half of the year.

* Accusations made by a new Chinese credit agency that its western counterparts caused the financial crisis were rejected by the head of McGraw-Hill Companies, which owns Standard & Poor’s.

* Japan trading houses review deep-sea risks.

* Irish ‘bad bank’ takes on €21bn in assets.

* Capital & Counties reported strong growth in the value of key assets such as Covent Garden in its maiden interim results; the value of Covent Garden increased 7.3 per cent to £592m.

* The French government took steps to tighten its grip on partly state-owned companies to ensure they maintain factories and jobs in France.

* German industry is stepping up a campaign to introduce a points system to attract skilled migrant workers.

* The dollar has fallen to multi-month lows against the world’s major currencies as investors bet that evidence of a faltering US recovery will lead to further monetary easing by the Federal Reserve.

* China has moved to liberalise its gold market further, increasing the number of banks allowed to trade bullion internationally.