Mark Leftly: Peace should pipe down and not mislead us

Outlook In a week when the press has been under such scrutiny it's good to see that there is still a punishment for lying to the media. Standard Chartered chairman Sir John Peace issued a humiliating apology for claiming that the bank had no "wilful" intention to breach United States sanctions at a press conference on 5 March.

He said the statement was "at best inaccurate" – so, just plain wrong then, contradicting Standard Chartered's previous admission that it had broken the rules, which cost the bank $667m (£441m). Misleading the financial press is too commonly described as "spin", a word that actually disguises a multitude of lies.

I'm not being puritanical about this profession: there are reporters who would surely have phone hacked if only they knew how. But there are an awful lot of lies in the City and this apology should be a salient reminder to tell the truth, it's the easiest thing to remember.