Zurich and Hong Kong favourite destinations for City workers- papers

City finance professionals are so worried about the future that nearly 30% are planning to leave London, according to a survey by jobs website eFinancialCareers.

The FT reports many have taken tangible steps towards moving, such as sending their CVs to overseas companies, and in some cases discussing internal transfers with their employers.

Their most desirable destinations are Zurich and New York, followed by Singapore, Geneva and Hong Kong. Full story...

Profits at Nationwide Building Society fell by two thirds last year as its contribution to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) spiralled, The Guardian reports.

Announcing the society's results today, chief executive Grahame Beale warned that profits at the mutual would continue to slide for the next two years.

Beale described the contribution to the FSCS - which guarantees £50,000 of savings in collapsed institutions - as "illogical and unfair" as it knocked £241m off profits for the year ended 4 April.

The profits of £212m were also hit by £107m of costs incurred by "restructuring and resizing" building societies Portman, Cheshire and Derbyshire, which have been taken over by Nationwide in the last two years. Full story...

Britain's millionaires' row has nearly halved in size due to the slump in property and share prices, says The Guardian.

The number of millionaires in the UK has fallen from 489,000 at the peak of the economic boom in 2007 to 242,000, reducing the elite club to 2003 levels.

Soaring property prices stoked a boom in the British rich list but the collapse in the housing market has suddenly reduced the net worth of thousands of former property millionaires. Full story...

Hopes that the very worst of the recession may now be past have been supported by news that activity in the services sector which dominates Britain's economy is starting to stabilise, The Telegraph reports.

The sector, encompassing everything from accountancy and finance to hotels and travel, is still in deep recession, according to the CBI's latest quarterly survey, published today. However, sentiment is starting to improve, and business activity may have troughed. Full story...