Wednesday Papers: Savers lose £12bn a year in interest - money news

Financial Times

* Savers are missing out on up to £12 billion a year in interest - an average of about £300 per person - by holding their cash in low-rate accounts, according to research by Which?.

* A tax-free “Junior Isa” for parents to save for their child’s future has been given the go-ahead by the government, following its scrapping of Child Trust Funds in the summer.

* Steve Webb, the pensions minister, is expected to announce on Wednesday plans to enrol millions of employees into a pension automatically for the first time, including those working for the smallest employers.

* US Treasury bonds were sold with negative interest rates this week for the first time ever; investors flocked to the bonds as they offer insurance against higher inflation within the next five years.

* UBS, one of the banks hardest hit by the financial crisis, is lobbying Swiss regulators to scrap a $1 million cap on cash bonuses paid to its top bankers, amid complaints it has strained some executives’ personal finances.

* Julian Messent, former chief executive of PWS International, was jailed for 21 months for making almost $2 million in illicit payments to Costa Rican officials from 1999 to 2002.

* Yields on 10-year gilts was up 12.3 basis points to 3.05%, its highest since late September, as investors reassessed their gloomy views on the UK economy following better than expected third-quarter growth and S&P upgrade.

* Tough rules for hedge funds and private equity funds were agreed in Brussels on Tuesday; the package must still be approved by the full European Parliament and EU member states.

* Macquarie Group has shaken up its infrastructure investment business by cutting more than a 10th of its staff, curtailing the life of its latest European fund and granting investors a discount on fees.

* Bart Chilton, commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has alleged fraud in silver trading more than two years after investigators began a probe into the market.

* UniCredit has shaken up its senior management for the second time in as many months as the Italian bank seeks to regain its footing after the dramatic ousting of its former chief executive Alessandro Profumo.