Royal Bank of Scotland, 70 per cent taxpayer owned, has begun to act in that manner by announcing that they will be halving some of their draconian fees for customers who find themselves overdrawn.

From the beginning of October, fees for paying an item will be cut in half to £15 a day while see the fee for returning a cheque, direct debit or standing order cut to £5 from £38.

Brian Hartzer, new chief executive of RBS’s retail bank, is believed to be behind this refreshing change in attitude from the bank.

Signs of rampant chauvinism in the UK financial sector abound with reports that female employees are not getting their fair share on pay and bonus packages, with a considerable number receiving around 80 percent less in performance-related pay than their male counterparts, according to a recent report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

According to the inquiry female employees in the financial sector earned an average of £2,875 in performance-related pay per year, compared to an average of £14,554 for men, making a gender pay gap of 80 percent,.

The finance sector has long been known as showing the highest overall gender pay gaps in the UK economy, with women working full-time jobs earning 55 percent less than men, compared to a pay gap of 28 percent for the general economy.

Results from a recent survey shows that the British consumer is still feeling the pressure of the recession, the survey suggest that in spite of official data to the contrary, UK households remain cautious about spending.

The survey held on behalf of the British Retail Consortium has shown that strong demand for consumer goods that was seen earlier in the summer flagged during August, with only food sales increasing

Overall, total sales rose 2.2 per cent in August from July, down from rises of 3.6 and 3.2 per cent in the two previous months.

T-Mobile and Orange plan to merge their UK businesses, creating a mobile phone giant with a client base of 28.4 million customers.

If completed, a deal between Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and Orange owner France Telecom would see a firm with sales of £8.2 billion. (9.4 billion Euro)

The new company will be the UK’s largest provider of mobile phone services, with about 37% of the UK market.

Spokespeople for both Orange and T-Mobile said that the deal would "bring substantial benefits to UK customers", and promised expanded network coverage, better network quality and improved customer services.

However, it is likely that competition authorities in the UK and EU will probe the deal which is due to be signed in November.

Recession-hit customers flocking to discount clothing chain Primark helped its parent Associated British Foods lift its profit forecasts on Monday.

ABF said it expected Primark to achieve an annual like-for-like sales rise of seven percent in the second half of Primark’s financial year to September 12.

Primark’s momentum is in stark contrast to retailers in the middle price range market, who have reported declines in sales for the first half of this year.

Primark’s sales had been boosted not only by consumers being more price conscious during the recession, but also by good weather and a more fundamental shift shopping at discount retailers.

Shares in Yell, the directories group struggling under a £3.8 billion debt burden, continued on its amazing recovery on Tuesday shares in the company rose a further 21.5 per cent to 65 pence, making their gains in the past month 113 per cent.

There was a little less excitement around the FTSE 100 index as the news from Cadbury began to calm down. The index rose by 14.16 points to close on 4947.34. Meanwhile the FTSE 250 continued to climb on Tuesday, up 98.87 points to close on 9,035.33.

The pound recovered against the dollar, yet continued to fall against the Euro.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6494
• Pound/Euro 1.1382
• Pound/Japanese Yen 152.2926
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.727

Figures released by the US Federal Reserve have shown that showed consumer debt has been reduced by a record amount in July. Reasons given ranged from rising job losses and uncertainty about the stability of the economic recovery.

Consumer credit fell by $21.6 billion (£13.1 billion) from the previous month June, considerably more than analysts expected. Debt reduction in June was also considerable, $15.5 billion from $10.3 billion in May.

Trading on Wall Street returned briskly to life after the Labour Day holiday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average looked refreshed up 56.07 points to 9497.34 while the NASDAQ Composite also climbed 18.99 points to close on 2037.77.

Due to concerns over its reserve status, the US dollar slumped to its lowest level in almost a year on Tuesday. The feeling amongst analysts was that the dollar was suffering from data suggesting the global economy was recovering.

The dollar index, which tracks its progress against a basket of six leading currencies, fell to a low of 77.093, its weakest level since September 2008.

For the first time in six months, the price of gold, which has risen 13.6% in value this year, has reached and passed the $1,000 an ounce marker. In early morning trading in London, spot bullion traded as high as $1,005, up one per cent on the day. It is the third time since March 2008 that gold has moved above the key level.

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Tags: Associated British Foods, Banking, Brian Hartzer, British Economy, British Pound, British Retail Consortium, Cadbury, Credit Crunch, Currency, Dow Jones, Economy, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Financial News, FTSE, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Orange, Primark, RBS, Recession, Royal Bank of Scotland, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, T-Mobile, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, US Federal Reserve, Wall Street, Yell