UK strikes deal to end Liechtenstein tax havens - papers

The UK Government is expected to announce a deal today with Liechtenstein, the tiny Alpine principality, to effectively end secrecy for Britons who hold accounts in the tax haven.

According to The Times, HMRC has agreed with Liechtenstein to start exchanging information. Up to 5,000 British investors have an estimated £3 billion stashed away in secret accounts in the country. Full story...

The sovereign debt of Latvia and Estonia have been downgraded as the brutal slump plays havoc with public finances and tests commitment to euro currency pegs across the Baltic states, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Standard & Poor's, the credit-rating agency, cut Latvia's rating to "BB" and warned that its economy will contract by a further 16pc this year. The public debt will vault from 19pc of GDP last year to 80pc by 2011. "This very fast increase in debt is unprecedented," said Moritz Kraemer, S&P's head of sovereign ratings. Full story...

Lord Myners has suggested that investors should be able to buy and sell their voting rights in companies in what is the Treasury Minister's latest attempt to shape the reform of corporate governance practice, says The Times.

Lord Myners - a former investment banker - said that the Government must examine every option in its attempts to encourage shareholder engagement with companies. "Some shareholders who never vote could sell their voting rights to others who do want to vote," he told Financial News. Full story...

Victims of Bernard Madoff's record-breaking fraud are hopeful of a major breakthrough in the case, with the disgraced Wall Street grandee's closest lieutenant expected to plead guilty today to playing role in the $65bn (£39bn) scam, the Independent reports.

Court papers suggest that Frank DiPascali has been helping prosecutors in an attempt to lessen his own sentence. Observers believe he could be the key to unravelling exactly how many other people were in on Madoff's fraud. Full story...