What the other papers say this morning – 10 October 2013
FINANCIAL TIMES
Outsourced contractors face blacklist
Ministers will be able to blacklist contractors who provide substandard services for the first time under rules set to be ratified by the European Union within weeks. The government has been pressing for the measures in the wake of G4S’s failure to provide security guards at the Olympics and a series of other scandals. But, while ministers have drawn up a “high risk” list of contractors with poor records, they have so far been prevented by EU law from imposing a firm block on companies. For the first time, the government will be able explicitly to exclude suppliers from the bidding process for any “significant or persistent deficiencies”.
UK looks at whistleblower bounty
Whistleblowers in the UK who uncover economic crime would be paid for information under US-style proposals put forward by the government, potentially leading to a surge of white-collar informants seeking big payouts.
India to internationalise rupee
India is making a big move to internationalise its currency through a deal with the World Bank to launch the first offshore rupee bond programme.
The International Finance Corporation will vastly boost the size of the offshore rupee market by selling $1bn (£630m) of bonds to international investors. The launch of the programme shows that India is trying to find ways to attract foreign capital after the rupee plunged this summer.
THE TIMES
Independence pension overhaul
Alex Salmond’s independence plan risks forcing UK companies into expensive overhauls of their pensions because the Scottish financial schemes they use could become illegal, The Times has learnt. Legal experts have issued a warning over the implications of independence for pensions.
Money saving site ends tick-box ruse
Moneysupermarket, Britain’s biggest price comparison website, has scrapped a controversial feature after being accused of misleading consumers and preventing them from getting the best deal. The website automatically refined consumers’ searches to exclude banks that were not paying it fees, but failed to tell consumers.
The Daily Telegraph
Britain risks pre-election blackouts
Alistair Buchanan, who stepped down in June after 10 years as chief executive of Ofgem, the energy regulator, said the closure of ageing power plants, uncertainties over wind power, dwindling gas stocks and the failure to build new generating capacity had left Britain extremely vulnerable to power cuts.
ANA chief backs third runway
The chief executive of Asia’s largest airline said yesterday that the airport should be allowed to build a third runway.Shinichiro Ito, president and chief executive of All Nippon Airways (ANA), said that if capacity was increased then air links between the UK and Japan would be improved.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Former Detroit mayor sentenced
A former Detroit mayor will be sentenced today for orchestrating wide-ranging corruption. Kwame Kilpatrick “is not the main culprit of the city’s historic bankruptcy,” federal prosecutors wrote in court papers earlier this month. “But his corrupt administration exacerbated the crisis.”
China shadow banking at 40pc GDP
As the fastest-growing part of China’s financial sector, shadow banking is no longer the sideshow it was five years ago. The sector grew from almost nothing a few years ago to the equivalent of 40 per cent of at the end of 2012, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences say.