Business Diary: Ogston's gong is well deserved

Our congratulations to Hamish Ogston, the founder of CPP Group, one of the few businessfigures to be rewarded in the New Year Honours list today – he's getting a CBE for services to business in Yorkshire. Ogston is living proof that you don't need aconventional CV to make it in business – he joined the Norwegian merchant navy aged just 17 and, once he'd finished seeing the world, founded a string of businesses. With ventures such as the Guinness World of Records in the Trocadero Centre in London to his name, CPP, an insurancebusiness, is actually one of his least interesting operations, even if it has been very successful.

Banking on a big loss in Boston

Is Royal Bank of Scotlandkicking itself over a property deal in Boston that went sour last year? When Broadway Partners, the owner of the John Hancock skyscraper, couldn't keep up with its loan repayments, RBS flogged tens ofmillions of dollars of lending to the company for 30c in thedollar. The buyers, property companies Normandy and Five Mile Capital, then picked up the building itself. A year later, it has just managed to sell the thing at a $300m profit.

Murdoch ruins Ofcom's Christmas

Spare a thought for Ed Richards, the boss of Ofcom, whose Christmas was ruined by an urgent deadline. He has until today to file his report on whether Rupert Murdoch's News Corp's bid for full control of Sky should be referred to the Competition Commission, and managed just two days off over the festive season. Will Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, take his recommendations as seriously as Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, would have had he not been stripped of the responsibility for the matter?

A rare Standard Chartered error?

As the year draws to a close, the good folk of Standard Chartered will be reflecting on another 12 months of top work, steering clear of the problems that continue to affect much of the banking sector. Still, there is just one blemish on their spotless record. Is the bank regretting its sponsorship of Liverpool Football Club? It can hardly have expected the team to end the year losing to the Premier League's bottom-placed club.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk