Northern Rock's period of public ownership should generate a profit of up to £11 billion for the taxpayer over the next 10 to 15 years, the body responsible for the Government's bank investments said today.

Ravi Sinha, the former boss of private-equity giant JC Flowers in the UK, has been fined £2.86m and banned from working in any kind of financial services business for life.

The deal

Newcastle have secured a new two-year shirt sponsorship deal with Virgin Money.

Surely, if we learnt anything from the "loans for peerages" story, which this newspaper helped to break six years ago, it was that party funding should be kept away from the honours system. Yet the New Year Honours list tries again to push that water back uphill.

Lloyds Banking Group today named the Co-operative as its preferred choice to buy the 632 branches it is selling under European competition rules.

Lloyds is in the final stages of reviewing offers from NBNK and the Co-Op for around 630 of its branches. The part-nationalised bank is expected to hold a board meeting on Thursday to discuss a final decision over the branch sell-off, which has been code-named Project Verde.

It's like handing over the World Cup final to the bloke who referees pub football

Virgin boss urges action to get young people into work and create growth

Virgin Money faces an uphill struggle to make a meaningful impact on British banking, despite buying Northern Rock for a knockdown £747m and earmarking a possible flotation for as soon as 2014, City analysts warned yesterday.

Although avid and admiring students of the New Labour project, David Cameron and George Osborne are not having the same success in projecting an equivalent for their party. Increasingly they seem overwhelmed by events, the scale of which would test much more experienced politicians than the youthful duo who are still finding their way at the very top.

Fledgling bank's market share will be small even after buying state-owned lender, analysts warn

It's not hard to run a bank on ethical principles, the boss of Triodos UK tells Sean Farrell

A mortgage price war has been building in the past few weeks as lenders slash the cost of borrowing in a frenzied attempt to attract business. Yesterday Northern Rock cut up to 0.9 per cent off its fixed rate mortgages. Today it is the turn of the Coventry building society as it launches a market-leading 3.49 per cent five-year fixed rate.