UK inspection team visits the Cayman Island in the search for transparency.

Signs that Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s mission to clear up the Global Tax Havens is gaining impetus was the visit of a UK inspection team to the mother of all tax havens, the Cayman Islands. The team led by Michael Foot, who as former managing director of the UK’s Financial Services Authority knows a little about the prevention of tax evasion, expected to focus on regulatory transparency, tax issues and international cooperation. The team is expected to report their findings to Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling as well Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Some good news for UK airport operator BAA is that Britain’s competition watchdog is expected to reverse its decision to force BAA to sell their Edinburgh airport.
Reports have it that the Competition Commission may instead grant the BAA, the choice of selling Edinburgh or neighbouring Glasgow airport,

The regulator had suggested BAA, part of Spanish builder Grupo Ferrovial, would be given no choice but to sell Edinburgh along with the southeast England based, Stansted and Gatwick airports. The Competition Commission’s decision to insist that the BAA sell of three of their airports is to prevent what they see as their monopoly hold over all of the UKs major airports.
The commission is expected to make a formal announcement later in the week.

On the FTSE, National Grid shares rose by five per cent to 581½p after recent gossip about a possible rights issue proved to be without basis.

Because the major bulk of National Grid’s revenues are regulated, financial analysts have long ascertained that the group can easily cope with its £23billion of debt, alongside an annual borrowing requirement running at £2.5billion.

High street retailing giants, Marks and Spencer also showed improvement, ahead 5.4 per cent (up 13 pence to 259) on the back of speculation that M&S will beat its earnings forecast for 2008. M&S will announce their year-end trading results on March 31.

Insurance companies continued to perform limply with Brit Insurance sliding 5.3 per cent (10 pence to 185) on reports that the company had put plans for a £150million cash call on hold.

Another good day for shares in London. The FTSE 100 index rose an encouraging by 2.94% or 110.31 points to 3,863.99 while the FTSE 250 was more restrained finishing Monday’s session up 1.75 per cent, (107.77 points at 6,270.31).

Sterling rose slightly against the dollar and fell against the Euro whilst holding its own against the Japanese Yen and the Swiss Franc:

Pound/US dollar 1.4079

Pound/Euro 1.0839

Pound/Japanese Yen 138. 78

Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6698

Wall Street shares returned a mixed days trading on Monday.

The Dow Jones Average dropped a mere seven points to close on 7216.97 The NASDAQ fared slightly worse falling 27.48 points to 1404.02.

President Obama was especially outspoken when interviewed on Monday on the subject of the $165million of bonuses paid by AIG, to some of its key executives. Obama’s comments came after Larry Summers, Obama’s top economic adviser, announced that AIG’s behaviour was “outrageous, but despite their displeasure the administration’s ability to force a bonus-cut was limited. Their remarks were no doubt founded on a report published by AIG on Sunday naming a list of derivatives contracts showing that European banks benefited from the US government’s recent $160bn-plus rescue operation.

• Weigh In #4 -- One Month and 34 Pounds Lost After 1 month on the Jumpstart Medicine medically assisted weightless...
• Deficit Panel Targets You You may have forgotten that there is a federal "fiscal...
• How To Save Money Traveling in the UK If you're planning a trip to England, Scotland, Wales or...

Tags: Banking, British Economy, Economics, Finance, Financial News, Money Management, Money Markets