The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) have called for a radical overhaul of the state pension system.

The NAPF, a leading pension’s body wants the next government to introduce a new ‘Foundation Pension’ that would combine the Basic State Pension and the Second State Pension and would entitle all Britons to a state retirement pot of £8,000 a year. If accepted the NAPF proposals would boost pensioners’ incomes initially by £25 a week and would later rise in line with average UK earnings. In addition, around two million UK pensioners would no longer be required to request means-tested benefits.

Consumer Focus, a UK consumer watchdog is set to complain to government regulators about the fact that individual savings accounts holders are missing out on £3 billion a year in interest because of inefficient practices by providers.

The organization are to complain to the Office of Fair Trading stating that savers were being unfairly treated by banks and building societies by the practice of “bait pricing”, meaning offering attractive headline rates on cash Individual Savings Accounts (Isas) only to see the interest rates dropping dramatically drop a short time later.

Consumer Focus have also pointed out that account holders often face unnecessary and costly delays when transferring accounts, as well as a lack of clarity on interest rates. In certain cases arbitrary rules were imposed by cash Isa providers forbidding transfers into more attractive accounts.

According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), growth in UK household incomes has decreased rapidly during three terms of the Labour government. The ONS report shows that while growth to disposable income increased by 13 percent per person between 1997 and 2001, after these figures were adjusted to meet inflation, true incomes rose by just 1.2 percent between 2005 and 2008. And when the credit bubble was at its peak, between 2006 and 2007, incomes barely increased. During Labour’s second term in government from 2001-05, Growth in pay, benefits, pensions and dividends after tax fell to seven percent

The UK government’s car scrappage scheme, has officially come to an end, with at least 330,000 cars have been sold.

After the scheme was introduced a year ago to help the recession-hit motor industry cope with falling sales, a fifth of cars sold in the UK were part of the scheme which may have created around 4,000 new jobs with manufacturers and suppliers were supported by the scheme.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson stated his pleasure that the scrappage scheme has delivered the results aimed for. Estimates that the 330,000 figure could still rise as a number of cars purchased through the scheme are yet be registered, meaning that figure could rise to 400,000.

Clothing retailer Matalan have announced the completion of £525 million capital rising which will replace its existing debt package. Matalan was withdrawn from the market in March after private equity groups failed to meet the £1.5 billion valuation set by Matalan. The successful refinancing means a £250 million dividend for Matalan’s founder John Hargreaves.

Music Company EMI continue to make waves, with the news that they may be taken over by its bankers. The move comes after EMI failed to meet the terms of their covenants after failing to clinch a deal with Universal to sell them their distribution rights in the United States. The debt stems from a £4.2 billion pound buyout in 2007, leaving Terra Firma the private equity firm, that owns EMI holding a £3 billion debt to Citigroup. Terra Firma is now faced with the prospect of approaching their investors in an attempt to raise £20 million pounds by June 12 or face the prospect of Citigroup seizing control of EMI.

The news that manufacturing growth in the UK has risen at its fastest pace since 1994, saw Sterling making a long overdue rise. The pound climbed 0.5 per cent to $1.5274 and gained 0.4 per cent versus the euro to close on 1.1257.

The benchmark FTSE 100 was also up as the market closed for the Easter weekend. It rose 65 points to 5,744.89, making for a 5 per cent rise during the first three months of the year, and its best start to the year since 2006

A report from the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM’s) as shown that the US manufacturing sector expanded in March at its fastest rate for six years.

The highly rated ISM’s purchasing managers index rose by 3.1 points to 59.6 points in March. Any figure of 50 or above represents growth, and last month was the eighth in succession that US manufacturers have increased their output.

The news of USA’s continued growth, which was at its fastest for 15 years in March comes after China and European nations also announced higher factory output.

As Wall Street wrapped up for the long Easter weekend, the Dow Jones Index was still on the rise up 70.44 points to 10927.07. The NASDAQ was less conservative, rising just 4.62 points to close on 2402.58

The number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance fell for the first time fell last week, matching the lowest level since August 2008. According to government data released today by the US Labor Department, there were 439,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended March 27, down 6,000 from an upwardly revised 445,000 the previous week.

Toyota’s US sales have reportedly bounced back as substantial discounts helped to win back customers who had been shaken by the firm’s mass safety recalls. Sales in the US for the Japanese carmaker jumped by 40.7 %in March compared with a year earlier, and after a slump of 8.7% in February.

Ford and General Motors also saw their sales rise last month, up 39.8% and 20.6% respectively, while Chrysler saw its sales fall 8.3%.

In Japan a key survey of local manufacturers has indicated that confidence is continuing to return to businesses, with the Bank of Japan’s Tankan index showing that business confidence had improved for the fourth straight quarter. The news came as Toyota saw a 50% increase in domestic car sales last month, belying some of the safety problems that have been reported in the last few weeks.

Oil moved forward from the $83-a-barrel level that has proved its undoing on many occasions over recent weeks, climbing 1.3 per cent to $84.82, the highest point since October 2008.

Gold also joined the rush, rising 1.3 per cent to close on $1,126 an ounce

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Tags: Bank, Banking, Basic State Pension, British Economy, Chrysler, Citigroup, Consumer Focus, Credit Crunch, Dow Jones, EMI, Employment, Financial News, Ford, Foundation Pension, FTSE, General Motors, Gold, Individual Savings Accounts, Institute for Supply Management, Lord Mandelson, Matalan, Money, Money Management, NAPF, NASDAQ, National Association of Pension Funds, Office of Fair Trading, Office of National Statistics, pension system, Recession, Second State Pension, Stocks and shares, Tankan, Terra Firma, Toyota, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, Wall Street

The top five UK banks have unanimously accepted the bankers’ pay reforms agreed at the G20 conference held in Pittsburgh earlier in the month.

Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, and Standard Chartered have all agreed to comply with the Financial Services Authority Rule on remuneration, due to come into force on 1 January 2010. The rule will entail the banks making enhancements to current remuneration requirements surrounding disclosure, deferral, and also the controversial bonus "clawback" regulation.

The City is looking into the revival of some of its traditional methods of doing business by setting up a regulatory committee which will vet the appointment of directors to Britain’s banks. Expected to be involved in the committee are such leading to the process, experienced bankers such as Sir Brian Pitman, the former chief executive of Lloyds, and Sir Peter Middleton, a former Barclays chairman, have been lined up by the Financial Services Authority to serve on the committee. The Financial Services Authority, who are in charge of the process, aim to have the new panel in operation by the end of the year. Instigation of the system follows a recommendation included in the recently published Walker review on banking procedures.,

Royal Bank of Scotland are expected today announce that they have completed the appointment of two non-executives to the board. They are expected to recruited Philip Scott, outgoing finance director at insurer Aviva, and Penny Hughes, who formerly was employed by Coca-Cola.

The fourth quarter began like a damp squib with the FTSE 100 losing 86.09 points to close on 5,047.89.

Meanwhile the FTSE 250 dropped below the 9,000 points barrier dropping 107.81 to 8,956.47.

The pound fell below the $1.60 mark on Thursday’s trading as well as against all the leading currencies.

• Pound/US dollar 1.5877
• Pound/Euro 1.10921
• Pound/Japanese Yen 141.9619
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6513

The US stock market had a bad yesterday on the release of manufacturing output data that were weaker than had been expected. Experts had predicted that the purchasing managers index, from the Institute for Supply Management would actually rise in September to 54, but they actually fell, albeit slightly to 52.6 in September after Augusts’ index was on 52.9.

The news caused the Dow Jones index to drop by 2%, its biggest day fall since 2 July, closing 203 points lower at 9,509. The NASDAQ index fared little better, falling 65 points to 2,057

There were some long faces at the three major US car manufacturers who suffered a decrease in sales in September, a hangover from the winding up of the "cash for clunkers" scrappage scheme.

General Motors reported a drop in sales of 45% from the corresponding month of last year. Chrysler did equally badly, while Ford had a drop in sales of just 5% from September 2008.

The United States’ largest cable TV provider, Comcast, is reportedly in talks to acquire a majority stake-holding NBC Universal, the television and film company. NBC Universal owners of the NBC television network, Universal Pictures, cable networks CNBC as well as the Universal Studios theme parks are currently owned by General Electric (GE) and France’s Vivendi. GE has an 80 percent holding and Vivendi the rest. Reliable sources have it that under the new arrangement Comcast will buy 51% of the company, leaving GE with the remaining 49%.

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