Banking group Lloyds TSB was today fined £1

Banking group Lloyds TSB was today fined £1.9 million and ordered to pay compensation of £98 million for the mis-selling of a high-risk precipice bond. He wants an exit from music,” one source familiar with the situation told Reuters’ news agency yesterday.An EMI-Warner deal would see the exit of Warner Music’s chief Roger Ames, who would not want to work with EMI’s head of recorded music, Alain Levy, industry observers say. Attending its first Opec meeting since the US invasion, Iraq pledged to remain a full member of Opec, despite whatever influence Washington might bring to bear.. BMG has reached out to Sony Music executives to explore a possible merger after failing to pin down a deal with its rival Warner Music. He also described the 900,000 barrel reduction as a “first move”.The recent fall in oil prices, which rose above $30 a barrel during the war in Iraq, coupled with the prospect of increased production by non-Opec members such as Russia swamping the market are thought to have swayed Opec’s hand.There is also the prospect of increased output from Iraq.

Arval, meanwhile, calculated that even without any Opec-inspired increase in petrol prices, a company with a fleet of 100 petrol-powered cars would be looking at a £150,000 increase in its fuel bill.Opec ministers meeting in Vienna announced output from 10 of its members ­ excluding Iraq ­ would be limited to 24.5 million barrels a day from 1 November.Iran’s oil minister defended the move on the grounds that had it not acted now then the world could have been flooded with as many as 2.5 million barrels a day of surplus supply by the first quarter of next year. “I don’t think it’s a major negative given the improving economic outlook, but on the margin when you have higher oil prices, it could crimp consumer spending,” said Rich Nash, the chief market strategist of the US broker Victory Capital Management.Paul Robson, an international economist with Bank One Corp in London, said: “If oil prices continue to move higher then interest rates in the G7 may need to be higher than they otherwise would be, which is not good for recovery prospects.”The Freight Transport Association said that the post-Budget duty increase alone would add £500 to the cost of operating a heavy goods vehicle in the UK. With next week’s fuel duty increase in the pipeline and the threat of higher crude prices, analysts warned that petrol could soon cost 15p more a gallon than it did in mid-July.”This is very much a triple whammy for the motorist and even a quadruple whammy if you happen to drive a diesel-powered vehicle,” said the RAC Foundation’s traffic and road safety manager Kevin Delaney.In the City, oil stocks rose with BP ending the day 3.75p higher at 422.75p and Shell gaining 4.25p to 386p. Petrol prices are set to soar again after the oil-producing cartel Opec yesterday announced a surprise cut in output, triggering a sharp increase in the cost of a barrel of crude.

A reporter and photographer from the Daily Mirror “doorstepped” M Varin on his way home to Belgravia on Tuesday and challenged him over the £3,000 it is costing to rent the house when steel workers paid £300 a week are facing the axe.M Varin said a break-up of Corus back into its constituent British and Dutch parts was “absolutely not on the agenda” but he admitted it will “not be an easy trick” to return the loss-making UK operations to profit.Pre-tax losses fell from £234m to £89m for the six months to the end of June with a £127m loss in the UK steel division being offset by a £76m profit from Corus’s Dutch steel plants and a £15m contribution from the aluminium division.M Varin said the “medium to long-term” aim was to dispose of the aluminium business.. He has also promised at least £200m of annual cost savings – partly achieved by some outsourcing to India – although there will be 600 new staff in branches and call centres this year to improve customer service.. The new chief executive of Corus, the ailing Anglo-Dutch steel maker, warned yesterday that its recovery could take three years to achieve. The new-look branches will mostly include a glass front, tinted in one of the four new Abbey colours. Staff will be trained to use informal language when talking to customers and have been issued with new scripts urging them to use “cash” instead of “funds” and “get” instead of “withdraw”. “Banking” will become “sorting out your money”.Mr Arnold said: “We want happier customers.

We don’t need millions of new customers, we already have 18 million. But by the middle of next year we would expect this to have a positive impact on revenue”.A stronger brand would give Abbey more “pricing power”, he added. “Today Abbey is competing too much on price alone.”Mr Arnold, who joined Abbey last October, has earmarked the company’s troubled non-retail divisions for closure or sale. Abbey will spend £11m by the end of the year to change signs and stationery to the new design. But the heavy expenditure begins next April when the company starts a massive refurbishment programme that Mr Arnold said was desperately needed. “In the late Eighties, Abbey was terrific, stylish, contemporary, innovative.