Friday Papers: IASB proposes accounting overhaul for insurers - other news

Financial Times

* IASB proposes accounting overhaul for insurers which investors say could reduce the insurance industry’s cost of capital and boost stock prices; the board has proposed a single accounting system for insurers, making their accounts comparable across more than 120 countries around the world.

* Santander on Thursday unveiled a slight year-on-year fall in first-half net profits; net profits for the six months to the end of June were €4.45bn, compared with €4.52bn a year before; net interest income was up nearly 15%, at €14.5bn; the bank set aside €4.9bn in provisions against non-performing loans.

* The FSA is broadening the scope of its remuneration code from 27 large banks to more than 2,500 financial services companies, including the UK branches of many overseas businesses.

* Germany on Thursday reported that seasonally-adjusted unemployment declined by 20,000 in July to 3.21m.

* IMF approves $15bn loan to Ukraine.

* Fed reports paper profit on Bear Stearns and AIG bail-outs.

* Citigroup agreed to pay $75m to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it failed to disclose to investors more than $40bn in exposure to subprime mortgages.

* The S&P 500 index closed lower by 0.4 per cent as traders look toward a potentially grim GDP report on Friday; the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.4%, while Germany’s Dax index fell a further 0.7 per cent; Nikkei 225 was 0.6 per cent softer, while the Hang Seng index was flat; Chinese shares were down 0.1 per cent.

The Daily Telegraph