FSA shuts record number of rogue advisers - papers

The City watchdog has banned a record number of firms that sell mortgages, pensions, investments and insurance.

As the economic crisis deepened and regulators clamped down on rogue businesses, the number of financial firms forbidden to practise by the Financial Services Authority rose by more than 50 per cent in the past year.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, The Times discovered that 107 firms were banned, of which one third were mortgage advisers. Many were guilty of mortgage fraud and had shown no compunction in inflating their own incomes and those of their clients. In one instance, a mortgage broker had duped a lender into giving one customer a home loan more than eight times their income. Full story...

The conduct of executives at Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS in the run-up to the banks' rescue by the government is to be scrutinised by a Financial Services Authority investigation, according to The Guardian.

The City watchdog is recruiting accountancy firms to assist with the formal inquiry, which will examine the events leading up to the banks' rescue last autumn. The investigation is expected to launch within weeks and will examine the role of executives and board directors, as well as reviewing the banks' internal controls. Full story…

Workers who took out insurance against losing their job in the recession have been told they will get lower pay-outs in a trend that could affect millions of people, The Independent reports.

One of the most respected insurers, the Post Office, has raised premiums and cut cover for mortgage protection customers who took out policies during the boom when they were less likely to be sacked.

Other companies are also cutting their exposure to the downturn by taking advantage of a contractual clause which allows them to alter terms at 30 days' notice. Full story…

The credit crunch has certainly been kind to a former banker at Standard Chartered, who pocketed £16m last year to become the best-paid employee of a British bank, says The Independent.

Karam Butalia, the global head of private equity at Standard Chartered, collected the tidy sum after leaving the bank early last year. His package is four times larger than that received last year by Peter Sands, the chief executive of the same bank. Full story…

Goldman Sachs confirmed plans to raise $5bn (£3.4bn) from investors last night as it posted a return to profit in the first quarter of 2009, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The global investment bank, choosing to kick-off the much-awaited US bank earnings season a day early, made a higher-than-expected profit of $1.81bn in the three months to the end of March. The result marks a return to profit for the bank, after making its first quarterly loss since going public in 1999 during the fourth quarter of 2008. Full story…