US risks first default in history - today's papers

Warnings from the White House, an RBS share sale, fake mortgages and PPI winners - our round-up of today's national newspapers.

America risks sending the world's financial system into chaos if it fails to increase its legal borrowing limits, President Barack Obama has warned.

As the US nears its $14.3trn debt ceiling, which Congress needs to increase in weeks to prevent the government defaulting on its borrowings for the first time in history, Obama told CBS: "We could have a worse recession than we already had, a worse financial crisis than we already had." MORE

The British government could see returns on the taxpayer bail-out of British banks as early as H1 2012, after senior figures close to the process revealed plans for a £5bn share sale for the RBS.

The sale to institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East and Far East would be the first of a staged process of selling the Government's 83% stake in the bank. MORE

Criminals are taking out mortgages on property they do not own, leaving the real owners thousands of pounds in debt.

The Land Registry has paid out more than £26m since 2006 compensating victims of a recurring property fraud.  MORE

Claims management companies are booming in the wake of the PPI scandal after high street banks abandoned their appeal against a High Court ruling.

The climbdown by the BBA led to estimates the cost to the banks could top £9bn. Lloyds alone estimated its share of the bill would be £3.2bn. MORE