Banks 'wildly out of touch with real world'

Businesses hailed the Chancellor's "confidence boosting" Budget but retailers warned of more woe on the high street with nothing to mitigate the forthcoming sharp rise in business rates.

Several familiar themes were trotted out; but inflation, a growing concern, hardly got a mention at all, and the medium-term outlook on debt and growth remains poor

Outlook Royal London has quietly become a force almost without anyone noticing it. The mutual life insurer has gobbled up the Co-op's life insurance and fund management business, the latest in a series of acquisitions.

Outlook Just like the Office for National Statistics to spoil things for George Osborne before he stands up at the despatch box to deliver what will probably be yet another gloomy Budget.

Outlook It's not often that shares in Arm Holdings finish the day in negative territory, although the fall is understandable enough. Its chief executive Warren East caught more than a few people on the hop by announcing his resignation.

Commission slams Chancellor for his inadequate stance on protecting depositers

StanChart sailed through the crisis but that doesn’t mean it will always find it easy