HSBC chief attacks 'strange' bank bonus tax - papers

The head of Britain's biggest bank, HSBC, has criticised the Government's handling of the economy and called for austerity to get the country back on track.

The backlash against bankers by politicians and the media had been inappropriately severe and was leading to an exodus of talent from Britain to more lenient countries, such as Switzerland, Mike Geoghegan, chief executive of HSBC, said.

Geoghegan attacked Labour and signalled that a change of Government might be necessary. Read more

THOUSANDS of homeowners will pay £1,500 extra a year for their mortgage after a leading building society increased its standard variable rate, reports the Daily Mail.

Skipton Building Society will raise its SVR from 3.5% to 4.95%, despite the Bank of England keeping the base rate on hold since March last year.

The shock rise will leave many of its 125,000 borrowers scrabbling to find an extra £122 a month to meet repayments on a typical £150,000 loan. Read more

KRAFT'S largest shareholder, Warren Buffett, condemned the company's proposed £11.9bn takeover of Cadbury as a "bad deal" yesterday, saying he felt "poor" as a result, reports The Independent.

The billionaire investor, whose Berkshire Hathaway group holds 9.4% of Kraft has been consistently critical throughout Kraft's courting of Cadbury. Read more