Aegon 'in the sights' of Resolution's Cowdery - papers

Aegon UK, the Edinburgh-based life and pensions business, is thought to be in the sights of Clive Cowdery, who heads the Resolution acquisitions vehicle.

Market sources were unaware of any direct approaches but there was talk last week of him taking a closer look at the Netherlands-owned business, according to the Scotsman.

He has already snapped up Friends Provident and made his intentions clear last year when he said he was looking for another big acquisition. He has been linked in the past with moves on Scottish Widows and Legal & General.

With Aegon's business proving patchy and some observers questioning its long-term strategy, industry sources are asking whether the company's bosses in The Hague would offload the British wing, which has around two million customers and employs more than 4,900 staff.  Full story...

SAVERS have been told to expect further headaches and delays this ISA season because banks and building societies have failed to upgrade the "archaic" system of ISA transfers.

Millions of people are expected to take advantage of competitive new cash ISA deals on the market in the coming weeks by transferring their existing tax-free balance to a new account.

But Britain's biggest ISA providers, including Barclays, HSBC, Nationwide Building Society and Northern Rock, still send cheques by post to transfer a customer's tax-free money from one account to the other, according to the Times.

In 2008, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) told providers to consider upgrading to electronic transfers, which would be quicker and more secure, after a storm of complaints about the length of time that savers were waiting to switch between accounts. Full story...

THE eurozone should consider creating an institution similar to the International Monetary Fund to avoid another Greek crisis, Germany's finance minister has said.

"We shouldn't rule anything out, including the creation of a European Monetary Fund (EMF)," Wolfgang Schaeuble, the country's finance minster, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. The suggestion by Mr Schaeuble comes after the creation of an IMF-style institution for the eurozone was put forward last month by a couple of economists.

Under that plan, the EMF would limit the disruption caused by the default of euorzone member by giving investors new debt backed by the EMF in place of the old bonds, the Telegraph says.

The head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Khan, said of the idea that it's "perfectly reasonable for Europeans to try to build an institution they need." Full story...