Peter Sands, the chief executive of Standard Chartered, has flown to New York in a last ditch bid to secure a settlement and avoid a public showdown with US regulators over Iranian money laundering charges. The bank boss decided to intervene personally after a weekend of intense negotiations failed to persuade Benjamin Lawsky of New York State Department of Financial Services to water-down his ferocious attack on Standard Chartered. Ms Sands set off to America even though Mr Lawsky continued to leave the bank in limbo over the format of Wednesday’s hearing and which executive he wants to appear. The Telegraph
Investors in Facebook, still reeling from the social network’s disastrous stock market debut, are braced for further losses as the ban on early backers selling their shares begins to lift this week. In a staggered process which begins on Thursday and peaks in November, about 1.9bn shares – four times the current publicly traded number – will begin to be released from “lockup”. Facebook’s high-profile owners, from Microsoft and Goldman Sachs to U2 frontman Bono’s venture capital fund Elevation Partners, will be free to sell the billions’ worth of securities they held back from the initial public offering in May. The Guardian
G4S’s failure to provide enough Olympic security guards has taught ministers that private firms are unsuited to providing many public services, the Defence Secretary has admitted. In an interview with The Independent, Philip Hammond said the G4S saga had caused him to rethink his scepticism towards the public sector – and made him appreciate there were some things that only state organisations like the Army could be relied upon to do. Says The Independent
Ministers are preparing to unveil a new package of measures to stimulate the flagging house-building sector next month, in an attempt to help drag Britain out of recession. The plan has been drawn up by Oliver Letwin, the prime minister’s head of policy, along with Grant Shapps, housing minister, and Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury. It comes amid an unprecedented drive to stimulate housebuilding. Downing Street and the Treasury have instructed officials to come up with initiatives which could boost building by using the government’s balance sheet, rather than by putting money upfront. Financial Times
Hotel operators across Europe are being forced to cut room rates to attract guests as the eurozone crisis hits corporate budgets. According to a biannual survey by Hogg Robinson Group, one of the world’s biggest business travel companies, average room rates fell in several leading cities in the first half of this year, with Barcelona down 22 per cent and Munich down 15 per cent. Other eurozone cities under pressure included Dublin and Madrid, where the price of a room fell by 6 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively. Hotels in several destinations reported rates no better than flat. The Times
Inflation fell further in July, easing the pressure on household budgets, official figures are expected to show on Tuesday morning. The Office for National Statistics is forecast to say at 9.30am that annual inflation fell to 2.3pc in July from 2.4pc in June, driven lower by food and petrol prices. The Telegraph
Senior executives of pan-European defence group EADS were alerted five years ago about questionable payments made by one of its subsidiaries in Saudi Arabia to an account in the Cayman Islands that is now the subject of a criminal probe by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office. Reports the Financial Times
