Prime Minister Gordon Brown has given his tacit approval without officially endorsing Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority recent statements that the banking sector was "bloated and needs to be cut down to size." Brown, in a recent interview, did however pledge to take tough action to clamp down on excessive remuneration for bankers.

The prime minister explained that his policy for the future would be that remuneration and especially bonuses should be based on long term profits success not short-term speculative gains. Also those banks should have the framework installed that would allow them to recover bankers’ bonuses if performance and profits suffered in later years. He also suggested that regulators should be able to impose higher capital requirements on financial institutions.

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has strongly suggested to his counterparts in European governments to grant the International Monetary Fund (IMF) an increase in the funding previously pledged in order to provide increased support for the countries that have been hardest hit by the global financial crisis.

Four days before Darling is due to host a meeting in London for the Group of 20 financial ministers, Darling urged the 27 European Union nations to provide the IMF with $75 billion on top of the $100 billion previously committed.

Workers employed by the UK branch of Fujitsu Ltd. have decided to take strike action to oppose proposals made by the company to place a final-salary pension plan in mothballs as well as freeze pay, according to Unite trade union official representing the employees.

A spokesperson for Unite revealed that 87 percent of their members at the company voted for strike action, while 96 percent were also prepared to consider a less severe form of industrial action.

Fujitsu, Japan’s largest computer-services provider, employing 12,500 people in the UK, announced plans to cut as many as 1,200 jobs in the U.K. because of “lower than anticipated revenues

There was no action on the FTSE yesterday, due to the August bank holiday

Sterling made a minor recovery against the dollar, but continued to struggle against the Euro

• Pound/US dollar 1.628
• Pound/Euro 1.1351
• Pound/Japanese Yen 151.6273
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7232

On Wall Street, markets struggled largely due to uncertainty in the Chinese stock market, that fell by 5% on the day.. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 47.92 to close on 9496.28 while the NASDAQ Composite index dropped 19.71 points to close on 2,009.06

Entertainment giant Walt Disney announced that that they are to take over Marvel Entertainment and with it some of 5,000 Marvel characters, including Spider-Man and the X-Men.

In a shares and cash deal valued at £2.5 billion, Marvel shareholders will get $30 per share in cash plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share owned.

The boards of Disney and Marvel have both approved the deal, which now needs the backing of Marvel shareholders and competition authorities.

The annual rate of inflation for August in the Eurozone registered negative for the third consecutive month.

Prices in the 16-nation bloc have fallen by 0.2% in the past year, according to statistic issued by Eurostat , exacerbated by a record 0.7% fall in July.

Inflation in the eurozone has been dragged down by lower energy and food prices and by falling demand from both companies and households.

The Indian economy has grown by a remarkable 6.1% in the second three months of 2009, in comparison with the same period of last year, results that were marginally higher than predicted.

Although growth has slowed from last year, India’s economy is still expanding faster than most other countries.

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Tags: Alistair Darling, Banking, British Economy, British Pound, Dow Jones, Economy, Eurozone, Financial News, Financial Services Authority, FTSE, Fujitsu, Gordon Brown, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Lord Turner, Marvel Entertainment, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Recession, Spider-Man, UK government, Wall Street, Walt Disney, X-Men

Chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) Lord Turner revealed during a recent interview that in order to prevent excessive bonus payments he consider imposing a tax on banks.

The FSA chairman also stated that the financial services sector had "grown beyond a socially reasonable size". Lord Turner did hasten to add however that it was not the role of the FSA to set out any new government policy and that taxation was a matter for the Treasury.

In the past, the FSA have been the subject of criticism regarding their regulations on bonuses. Lord Turner is apparently concerned about the return to “business as usual” syndrome in the banking sector, suggesting that new taxes may be necessary to curb excessive profits and pay in the financial sector.

Meanwhile, newly recruited bankers at the Royal Bank of Scotland are liable to be feeling the pinch when pension time comes around. They are set to become the guinea pigs of a pension’s cutbacks scheme proposed by the U.K. bank. The scheme will be based on a lower-bonus, higher-base-salary recruitment environment in the City of London.

According to a recent poll, UK business leaders are more upbeat about the prospects of economic recovery than at any time since the recession began,

the survey of leading businessmen found that 38% see signs of recovery in their sector, up from 33% last month and the highest figure since the "green shoots" index was launched.

The bad news for hard pressed PM Gordon Brown was that the survey found only 18% of business leaders are confident in his ability, while 19% were impressed by Chancellor Alistair Darling’s efforts to date. Tory leader David Cameron got the thumbs up from 53% of the participants with shadow chancellor George Osborne polling 41%.

A group of distressed debt investors, which bought debt claims against the Yorkshire power station, have exercised an option to take control of one of Britain’s biggest coal-fired plants, at Eggborough, one of EDF Energy’s power stations which could eventually be sold on for up to £1 billion.

Japanese computer maker Fujitsu Ltd. said Wednesday it plans to axe 1,200 jobs in its British IT services unit because of lower than expected revenues.

Fujitsu, who employs around 12,500 workers in the UK, explained that the cuts were necessary to ensure the company remained competitive during the current downturn.

Following the 2005 restructuring of British Energy, creditors have the right to take ownership of the plant in March 2010 with the option only being exercisable till the end of this month.

Shares in the world’s largest advertising company WPP Plc fell 1.4 percent, to 512.5 pence after the company reported a 48 percent drop in first-half profit to £108.4 million blaming the pounds rise against the dollar and increased finance costs.

The FTSE 100 moved lower on Thursday following a weaker opening on Wall Street, falling 21.23 points to finish the day on 4,869.35, while the FTSE 250 continued to reverse, dropping a further 81.88 points to close on 8,701.33

As short-term UK government bond yields fell to record lows, Sterling dropped to a six-week low against the dollar and a 10-week low against the Euro.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6239
• Pound/Euro 1.1351
• Pound/Japanese Yen 151.8974
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7173

On Wall Street, markets continued to drift, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing up 23.5 points while the NASDAQ lost 3.55 points to close on 2,020.88.

Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has thrown her considerable (political) weight behind calls from French president Nicolas Sarkozy for tougher international curbs on bankers’ bonuses, in anticipation of next month’s G20 summit to be held in Pittsburgh, USA.

Ms Merkel, who said large bonuses encouraged excessive risk-taking, will meet Mr. Sarkozy to discuss the French plans, which Mr. Sarkozy presented to bankers on Tuesday. Plans that include deferring at least half of a year’s bonus and paying it over the three subsequent years, subject to performance criteria

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Tags: Alistair Darling, Banking, British Economy, British Energy, Currency, David Cameron, Economy, Employment, Financial News, Financial Services Authority, FSA, FTSE, Fujitsu, George Osborne, Gordon Brown, Lord Turner, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Nicolas Sarkozy, Recession, Royal Bank of Scotland, Stock Markets, UK Banks, UK business, UK Economy, UK Recession, Wall Street