Leading City investors are plotting to force Prudential chairman Harvey McGrath out before the beleaguered insurer's half-year results on 12 August, according to reports.

The head of the UK's new fiscal watchdog will step down in the summer when his three-month contract expires, a spokesman for the Treasury said last night.

A Serious Fraud Office (SFO) case against two alleged fraudsters has collapsed after a jury failed to agree on a verdict at the retrial.

Financial advisers may receive a reduced FSCS levy next year after the Court of Appeal ruled the compensation scheme is entitled to some of the £150m assets of failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander (KSF).

Investors aged 50 to 55 who transfer their pension to another provider will not be hit with an unauthorised payments tax, HMRC says.

The Government has launched a website allowing employers to nominate which regulations should be scrapped to make running a business easier.

Advisers may have to fork out up to £175 every year to cover the cost of renewing the FSA's proposed Statement of Professional Standing (SPS) certificate.

The FTSE 100 index opened slightly up this morning, in a fragile recovery from yesterday's mammoth losses which saw it hurtle south of the 5,000 mark.

The Office for National Statistics will postpone its next release of data on economic growth, in an highly unusual move for the official statistician.

The amount raised by companies from equity capital markets during the first half of the year was the lowest in five years.