What the other papers say this morning
FINANCIAL TIMES
RBS tips UK back into bonus debate
George Osborne is braced for a new political backlash over bank bonuses, as state-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland prepares to pay as much as £250m to staff at an investment banking division heavily implicated in the Libor-rigging scandal. The chancellor’s discomfort has been amplified by the fact that the bonus round comes just as RBS prepares to settle with US and UK regulators over the Libor scandal with a fine expected to top £500m. The taxpayer will effectively be paying RBS investment bankers about £250m in bonuses, while simultaneously footing the bill for the bank’s abuse of Libor over a number of years up to 2010.
Burgundy capital sells prized wines
The city of Dijon has just sold off half of its prized municipal wine cellar to help fund local social spending – including a bottle of 1999 Burgundy knocked down at auction for €4,800 (£4,112.74) to a Chinese buyer. In total, the capital of the Burgundy region raised €151,620 from the “historic sale” of 3,500 bottles that were part of a collection built up since the 1960s, it announced in a statement yesterday.
THE TIMES
Green Deal opens with warning
The government-appointed body running the Green Deal can handle fewer than 200 applications a week. The lack of resources behind the Green Deal Finance Company is threatening the programme’s target to insulate 14m homes by 2020.
1m letters to taxman left unanswered
One million letters to the taxman were left unanswered last year, the head of HM Revenue and Customs said yesterday.
The Daily Telegraph
Minister says France is bankrupt
France’s labour minister sent the country into a state of shock yesterday after he described the nation as “totally bankrupt”.
UK will pay by mobile phone in 2013
Mobile phones could hit the mainstream as a method of making payments in Britain next year, the boss of Vodafone has claimed – finally helping the UK to catch up with much of the rest of the world.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Goldman raising $1bn from ICBC sale
Goldman Sachs is raising around $1bn (£637m) from the sale of shares in China’s biggest lender, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said yesterday, in what could be the biggest share sale in Asia, excluding Japan, so far this year.
US Treasury fails to rein in pay
The US Treasury failed to rein in pay at companies that received federal bailout funds, a watchdog said yesterday.