Thursday Papers: Supertax on bankers failed, says Darling - other news

Financial Times

* Alistair Darling admitted yesterday that the UK’s controversial supertax on bankers’ bonuses had failed to change the industry’s behaviour as “imaginative” financiers devised ways to avoid it.

* SABMiller is working with other FTSE 100 companies on a system to change how the City understands “consensus estimates” for financial performance.

* A surprise bounce in manufacturing in the US and China in August cheered investors after a bleak run of US data; the FTSE All-World was up 2.7% yesterday; there were gains of more than 2% in Europe and the US.

* Santander has emerged as the bank with the highest proportion of customer complaints in the UK.

* Global meat prices have hit a 20-year high as robust demand from emerging countries has coincided with a drop in production by exporters such as the US and Australia.

* European companies look set for a victory in their efforts to persuade regulators not to force them to use clearing houses for over-the-counter derivatives trades.

* A high-level meeting in Brussels today could pave the way for an overhaul of the way financial institutions and markets are supervised in the 27-country bloc.

The Daily Telegraph

* The State Street Investor Confidence Index fell 4.4 points on a global basis, to 92.1 from 96.5.

* British property prices fell by 0.9% in August as the housing market continued to show signs of weakening, according to Nationwide's latest survey.

* Jules Kroll, veteran sleuth, starts rival to rating agencies.