Thursday Papers - Business lashes out at trading tax plans - money and other news

Financial Times

* A European Union proposal to impose a tax on financial transactions has been attacked by financial and business groups as an assault on the City of London and companies seeking to protect themselves against market uncertainty.

* The UK plans to introduce US-style corporate plea bargains that could result in fines totalling hundreds of millions of pounds for individual companies, Solicitor General says.

* The US regulator is investigating Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse and other financial institutions for their handling of problem mortgage loans.

* Global banking regulators have said that they will press ahead with plans for capital surcharges on the largest and most interconnected global banks starting in 2016.

* Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has warned Greece that a €109 billion rescue package, approved in July, may have to be reviewed if Athens fails to meet deficit reduction targets agreed with the EU and the IMF.

* Pfizer is facing a threat to its top-selling smoking cessation drug Champix from the Bulgarian company that has long marketed the low-cost off-patent medicine from which it was derived.

* An internal review at Eurasian Natural Resources Corp, launched after of a corporate governance debacle that saw two directors ousted at the mining company’s annual meeting, has left the management and board almost unchanged.

* Barclays received more complaints than any other financial institution in the first half of 2011, with 251,563 disputes.

* Repsol’s board of directors has rebuked Pemex and Sacyr Vallehermoso for teaming up to oust the Spanish oil groups’ chairman in a blow to the aims of the two rebel shareholders.