Plans to raise state pension age not radical enough - papers

The state pension age should be raised to 70, the author of an influential report into the future of pensions suggested yesterday, according to The Telegraph.

Lord Turner admitted his reoprt, which helped shape the Government's pensins policy, should have been more radical.

He said the age when people get a state pension should be raised more quickly.

At the time of his report four years ago, arguments were made to raise the pension age to 70 by as early as 2030, he told the BBC.

The state pension age for men and women will rise to 66 in 2024, to 67 in 2034 and 68 in 2044, with each rise being phased in over two years.  Full story...

Alistair Darling has warned that bankers who return to excessive risk-taking will be "brought back to Earth", reports The Telegraph.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer indicated that next week's banking reform White Paper will include new powers for the Bank of England and Financial Services Authority to prevent a repeat of last autumn's crisis.

Amid signs of the return of the bonus culture in the City of London, he warned that it would be "disastrous" if bankers got the idea that they could go back to their old ways.  Full story...

A London-based oil broker was today under investigation after a rogue trader lost the firm $10m following a series of unauthorised trades believed to have caused a spike in global crude prices, according to The Guardian.

The trader left the firm on Tuesday following the discovery of contracts that helped push trading volumes to almost double the current daily output of Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter.

PVM Oil Futures confirmed that it was forced to pay $10m to honour unauthorised trades by the broker, who for legal reasons could not be named. It said: "PVM can confirm that it was the victim of unauthorised trading on Tuesday 30 June.

"As a result of a series of unauthorised trades, substantial volumes of futures contracts were held by PVM. When this was discovered, the positions were closed in an orderly fashion. PVM suffered a loss totalling a little under $10 million."  Full story...