Friday round-up: Buffett, banks, tax evasion

It's our round-up of Friday's national finance news...

*Some of the titles require or may require subscription (denoted with 's').

Telegraph

Warren Buffett's $5bn (£3.1bn) lifeline for Bank of America has earned the Sage of Omaha a paper profit of $280m in just 24 hours. MORE...

Proposals to ringfence large parts of the operations of UK-based banks could reduce their pre-tax profits by as much as 15% within three years, according to Morgan Stanley. MORE...

Times (s)

Spain is expected to follow France's example and raise taxes on the rich to cut its deficit and ease pressure from the markets. Elena Salgado, the Finance Minister, hinted that the Socialist Government would announce measures at a Cabinet meeting today to raise the fiscal pressure on the wealthiest. MORE...

Independent

Peter Marks, the chief executive of the Co-operative Group, the operator of grocery stores and financial services, says the UK consumer spending environment is the worst for more than 40 years, as the group posted a slump in first-half profits. MORE...

Almost two-thirds of Britons believe the UK is heading for another recession, according to an opinion poll that will cause alarm at the Treasury. MORE...

Financial Times (s)

Ministers were forced to defend the government's agreement to tax individuals with money stashed in secret Swiss bank accounts without disclosing their identities amid criticism that the move was a light sentence for evasion. MORE...