Women Retire With Half The Pension Pot Men Get

By Poppy Trowbridge, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

A new report has revealed the scope of the gender disparity in pension savings and income.

Funding retirement remains a significant challenge for many women.

According to the annual State of Retirement report by LV=, women who have occupational or private pensions reach retirement with pots worth on average £107,000.

This is almost half that of men who, on average, retire with a fund worth £201,000.

Nearly a quarter of women approaching retirement are set to rely solely on the state pension, which is currently a maximum of £113.10 per week.

Vanessa Owen, head of product at LV=, told Sky News: "It's actually less about how much people are saving, but the percentage of their income actually means pounds, shillings and pence are less."

She says the current gap is largely down to the fact many more women stayed at home to raise children without returning to work 30 or 40 years ago.

This means that as they reach retirement age now, they have less put away.

Ms Owen said more women now chose to return to work, and do so sooner, meaning when this generation retire, there may be less of a disparity.

The report also shows 4.3 million retirees have some form of debt, either in the form of a mortgage or on credit cards.

However, research from Prudential also shows the pension gender gap is shrinking and is now at its narrowest since 2009.

This year's female retirees have the highest average expected annual retirement income ever recorded by the insurer and are nearly 17% better off than those who planned to retire last year.

Prudential suggests women planning to retire this year have, on average, an expected retirement income of £14,300 compared with £19,100 for men.

Vince Smith-Hughes, a retirement income expert at Prudential, said: "There are a number of steps that both men and women can take to further improve their retirement income prospects, including maintaining pension contributions during career breaks and if possible, making voluntary National Insurance contributions upon returning to work."

This April, the Government's pension reforms come into effect, giving retirees greater freedom as to how they take an income from their savings and how much can be drawn in a lump sum.

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Canadians Asked To Stop 'Spocking' Bank Notes

Canadians have been asked to stop drawing Leonard Nimoy-inspired Mr Spock pictures on their $5 bank notes.

For years, fans of the famous Star Trek character have been scribbling on the face of former PM Wilfrid Laurier - Canada's first Francophone prime minister - on $5 banknotes.

This gathered pace last week with the death of the actor.

Canada's central bank said earlier in the week that it was not illegal to add Spock's pointy Vulcan ears, sharp eyebrows and signature bowl haircut to the notes.

However, it did encourage citizens to stop their scribbling.

Video: 'He Was Incredible'

Bank spokeswoman Josianne Menard said in an email: "There are important reasons why it should not be done." 

She went on to explain the bank believed it was "inappropriate" to deface the banknote because it was a "Canadian symbol and source of national pride".

The acceleration of the trend followed the actor's death on Friday with social media users posting their own versions of Laurier's Vulcan makeover in honour of their hero.

"Spock your $5 bills for Leonard Nimoy," the Canadian Design Resource tweeted on its posting while Simon Williams tweeted: "I've had a beat up Canadian 5 buried in my wallet for years, finally found a use for it!"

Images of the altered bills were circulated widely online and attracted international media attention.

Video: Tributes For Leonard Nimoy

Calgary artist Tom Bagley, who posted his own Spock-Laurier hybrid on Facebook and Flickr after Nimoy's death, said the original idea came about as an old bar trick to impress a waitress and he did not see anything wrong with it.

"I always thought it was OK as long as the numbers were intact - it still counted as money," he said.

"That's what I heard. Because stuff happens like, say, you spill spaghetti sauce all over it or something like that."

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Barclays Grows Profits But Shrinks Bonus Pool

Barclays has announced a 12% rise in underlying annual profits to £5.5bn and confirmed a cut to bonuses as it continues to count the cost of past conduct.

The profit figure, which beat City forecasts, was achieved as the bank continued to cut operating costs - by £1.8bn or 10% during 2014 alone.

However, on a statutory basis, pre-tax profits fell 21% to £2.3bn as it booked an additional £750m charge in the final quarter to cover alleged involvement in the foreign exchange rate-rigging scandal.

The latest provision took its total exposure to the affair so far to £1.25bn while it also added £200m to provide for the compensation programme for customers mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI).

The bank's bonus pool fell 22% to £1.86bn.

Chief executive Antony Jenkins will take home £1.1m of that sum after deciding to take his first annual award since taking the job in 2012.

His total pay package for 2014 came to £5.5m and he told Sky News the bonus award was justified because "we've made very good progress and the bonus is a recognition of that and I've decided to accept it on this occasion".

"Barclays today is a stronger business, with better prospects, than at any time since the financial crisis," he said in the results statement.

"While our work in transforming the bank is not yet complete, our performance in 2014 gives us confidence that we are on the right track."

The bank's cost base fell as it axed 14,000 jobs and closed a net 72 branches.

Barclays has closed a quarter of its branches since the financial crisis.

The bank's share price fell more than 2% when the FTSE 100 opened - reflecting investor concern on historical conduct.

Barclays did not enter into the settlements last November which saw six banks fined £2.6bn collectively over forex rigging by global regulators including the UK's Financial Conduct Authority.

It said it was seeking a "more general co-ordinated settlement" - with other authorities in the US still investigating the scandal.

Barclays has warned the probes could result in "substantial monetary penalties".

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Taxpayers To Meet £30m Bill For UK Coal Staff

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Taxpayers are poised to fund a multimillion pound bill to help workers at two of the UK's remaining deep coal mines as part of preparations for their closure, ministers are expected to disclose this week.

Sky News understands that the Government will propose amendments to the Small Business Bill to facilitate so-called concessionary coal payments to hundreds of UK Coal workers.

The commitment to the payments, which could be made on Wednesday, would come just weeks after ministers reiterated earlier rejections of a trade union plea for £300m of state aid to keep the sites open.

A source with knowledge of the latest plan said that if it proceeded, concessionary coal payments to workers at UK Coal collieries would be made in July and December.

They said the aggregate sum involved was unclear but added that between £28m and £30m was "a sensible estimate".

The development, which was the subject of talks in Whitehall on Tuesday, followed a pledge by George Osborne in 2013 to guarantee free coal deliveries or a substitute cash sum under a scheme dating back to the 1980s.

The UK coal mining industry has been in long-term decline, accelerated by falling prices on international markets.

Under a deal struck with UK Coal last September, the Government agreed a £4m loan on commercial terms to ensure the managed closure of deep mines at Kellingly in North Yorkshire and Thoresby in Nottinghamshire.

More than £15m was received from suppliers, customers and other stakeholders to prolong the sites' operations alongside the Government loan.

The mines' closures, which are due to take place later this year, are expected to cost up to 1,300 jobs.

A separate £8m loan to prevent the insolvency of Hatfield colliery in South Yorkshire was agreed in January.

A putative attempt by employees and the National Union of Mineworkers to buy UK Coal was aborted last year.

On Tuesday, the Pension Protection Fund said it had agreed to sell its stake in Harworth Estates, UK Coal's former property arm, in a deal worth £150m.

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said in August that the mines had "no long-term future unless very large amounts of taxpayers' money are involved".

"The state aid case remains unaffordable, particularly given the fall in the price of coal," a source said.

A Government spokesman said: "The Government is working closely with UK Coal to keep these two coal mines open.

"We will make sure UK Coal miners receive the security they are entitled to through concessionary payments."

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US Govt Put Apple Users At Risk Of Hacking

Millions of Apple and Android users have been vulnerable to hackers for years because of a security flaw caused by the US government, researchers say.

The vulnerability - known as 'FREAK attack' - has been blamed on a government policy abandoned more than a decade ago which forced US software makers to use weaker security encryption in software sold overseas.

A group of nine researchers discovered that they can still trick browsers on Mac computers and Android phones and tablets into using the weaker encryption, which can then be cracked within a few hours.

It leaves users vulnerable to digital eavesdropping when they type sensitive information into websites.

Around a third of websites which use encryption currently leave users open to hacking as a result of the flaw - including Whitehouse.gov and FBI.gov.

The weaker encryption used a 512-bit code, which was once seen as advanced but has been crackable since 1999.

Cracking the code would take a skilled code breaker around seven hours, while cracking the more advanced 1024-bit code would take a team of hackers at least a year.

Both Apple and Google say they have developed fixes to deal with the problem.

There is no evidence so far that any hackers have exploited the weakness which is now being repaired.

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Amazon 'Free Trial' Advert Banned By Watchdog

A regulator has banned a direct mailing advert offering a "free trial" of Amazon's Prime delivery service, ruling it misled consumers on subscription fees.

The decision by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) followed complaints a card offering a "30-day free trial" was not sufficiently clear that a paid subscription would start automatically if not cancelled during the trial period.

They also said the ad for the instant video element of Prime did not state the cost of the subscription.

The letter read: "Dear (recipient's name), I'm sending you this letter because I want you to know that you are eligible for a free trial of Amazon Prime ... Start your 30-day free trial today and watch as much as you want ... That's all there is to it ..."

Small text at the bottom of the letter said: "Paid subscription starts automatically after free trial unless cancelled."

Amazon Europe said the ad repeatedly said the "free" element of the trial was time-limited and, on all but one of the occasions on which the word "free" was used, it was preceded by "30-day".

The company also pointed out it was common practice for free trials for services to convert to a paid subscription unless cancelled, and that consumers would understand and expect that they had to cancel within the free period if they did not want to start a paid subscription.

The ASA decided a paid subscription starting automatically at the end of the trial was a commitment and a significant condition of the "free" offer, and should therefore be made clear to consumers.

It said: "We did not consider that it was sufficient to include the information about the automatic paid subscription in the small print of the ad only and therefore did not consider that that information was sufficiently prominent to make clear the extent of the commitment consumers must make to take advantage of the offer.

"We concluded the ad was likely to mislead."

The ASA said the ad was also misleading for not saying that a subscription to Amazon Prime cost £79 a year or that the charge for Amazon Prime Instant Video was £5.99 a month.

It ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form.

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ScottishPower Sales Ban For Complaint Failure

ScottishPower has been handed a 12-day sales ban for failing to meet targets on handling customer complaints.

The industry regulator said the company, a member of the so-called 'big six' energy suppliers, had agreed to temporarily stop proactive selling from today as punishment for a series of failures.

Ofgem found the supplier had failed to remove a backlog of outstanding Energy Ombudsman decisions by a November deadline.

It said: "Customers were experiencing long call waiting times, receiving late bills and the firm was not implementing Ombudsman decisions.

"ScottishPower ... signed up to three Ofgem targets to improve customer service within three months or suspend proactive sales activities until the targets were met.

"It has failed to reach the target to remove the backlog for acting on Ombudsman decisions for individual complaints by the end of November."

Ofgem said ScottishPower's IT systems only allowed "a partial implementation" of the Ombudsman's proposed remedies and the firm had been providing thousands of affected customers with free energy and writing off past debt as a result.

The statement continued: "ScottishPower has assured us that these Ombudsman requirements will remain in force for any case where the company can only partially implement the Ombudsman's decisions.

"More than 2,000 customers are currently receiving free energy."

Sarah Harrison, who heads enforcement at the regulator, said: "A sales ban illustrates the difficulties ScottishPower is having in delivering the levels of service customers deserve.

"While Ofgem's targets have driven significant improvements in ScottishPower's performance, we remain very concerned about how customers are being treated.

"As well as our ongoing investigation, we require ScottishPower to undertake an independent audit of its progress on improving customer service.

"We will keep the need for any further action under review."

ScottishPower insisted it was committed to improving customer service and said it had voluntarily agreed to the improvement targets.

The chief executive of its retail and generation business, Neil Clitheroe, said: "The process of moving to our new (IT) system has been challenging and has resulted in service problems for some of our customers.

"We are determined to put this right. We continue to correct problems, pay appropriate compensation and ensure no customer is left financially disadvantaged."

It said the failure to clear complaints via the Ombudsman was down to the fact 30 cases had been closed incorrectly.

The statement continued: "We are all fully committed to delivering continued service improvements, return to the high service standards long associated with ScottishPower and ensure that our customers realise the very real benefits of our IT system investment."

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UK Wins ECB Euro Clearing Court Fight

The Government has won a legal challenge to a European Central Bank (ECB) decision which potentially threatened thousands of jobs in the City of London.

The EU's General Court ruled the ECB was wrong to insist that euro clearing house work should be based in a single currency member state.

The UK, which is a member of the EU but does not use the euro, argued in Luxembourg that the move contravened the EU's single market principles.

The court said: "The ECB does not have the competence necessary to impose such a requirement on central counterparties involved in the clearing of securities."

Clearing houses stand between the two sides of stock and bond trades, ensuring smooth completion of transactions.

The ECB had argued that having clearing houses which handle more than €5bn of euro-denominated securities inside the eurozone would make it easier to intervene if they got into trouble.

But the court said the bank did not have the regulatory powers it required for such a move.

Lawyers had said a failure of Britain's legal challenge could have forced several operations, including the London Stock Exchange's LCH.Clearnet clearing house, to shift large chunks of business to continental Europe.

The case marks a rare European court victory for the Government.

It lost a case over short selling securities, and last November withdrew a challenge to the EU's cap on banker bonuses.

The Chancellor George Osborne said it highlighted the importance of a level playing field across Europe's single market.

He said: "That's why we brought a legal challenge against the ECB's utterly discriminatory location policy, and why we welcome today's ruling from the European Court of Justice which strikes this policy down.

"This is a major win for Britain and a major win for all those who want to see a European economy that is both open and successful."

Chris Cummings, chief executive of TheCityUK, said: "Given London, as Europe's financial centre, clears more euro-denominated transactions than anywhere in the EU, today's ruling is a good outcome for Europe."

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NAB Woos Investors For Yorkshire Bank Float

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

National Australia Bank (NAB) is beginning to court investors ahead of a possible flotation of its UK operations, intensifying competition for capital amid a slew of listings of British lenders.

Sky News understands that NAB has organised a series of so-called 'pilot-fishing' meetings with institutions for this month as it prepares to offload its Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank subsidiaries.

The discussions underline the extent to which NAB is considering a listing of its UK business even as several rivals prepare similar public market transactions.

NAB, which is Australia's fourth-biggest bank by market value, has been examining an exit from the Clydesdale and Yorkshire for several years but has struggled to find an external buyer prepared to match its valuation.

In January, it announced the appointment of David Duffy, the highly regarded boss of Allied Irish Banks, as its new chief executive.

Mr Duffy has yet to take up his role but is expected to do so shortly.

Despite only being the eighth-biggest bank in Britain, NAB UK has been caught up to a significant degree in the scandal over the mis-selling of payment protection insurance, forking out hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation.

It has also been hampered by poor property lending and a hefty bill for mis-selling interest rate hedging products.

Last October, NAB's group chief executive Andrew Thorburn said its "clear focus" was on its operations in Australia and New Zealan and that "in relation to exiting UK banking...we are now examining a broader range of options including those provided by public markets".

A number of private equity firms are continuing to explore possible offers for the Clydesdale and Yorkshire, while competitors such as TSB are also being touted as potential bidders.

The preliminary meetings with City investors come amid the flotation of Aldermore, the details of which were revealed by Sky News last week, and an imminent announcement from rival Shawbrook.

Lloyds Banking Group is expected to resume selling shares in TSB in the coming weeks, while the Government is also continuing to dispose of chunks of its remaining 24% stake in Lloyds itself.

On Thursday, another recently listed challenger bank, Virgin Money, will publish its maiden set of annual results since going public.

An NAB UK spokesman said it did not comment "on speculation or market rumour".

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Eurostar Stake Sale Raises £757m For Treasury

The Government has confirmed its stake in Eurostar is to be sold to a consortium of British and Canadian pension and infrastructure funds, raising almost £760m.

The Chancellor George Osborne said the sale, reported by Sky News on Tuesday night, represented a "fantastic deal" for the taxpayer and the money would be used to draw down debts and on core infrastructure.

However, rail unions accused him of putting short term financial gain ahead of the travelling public.

Under the agreement Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) and Hermes Infrastructure have agreed to acquire the Government's 40% holding for £585.1m.

In addition, Eurostar will redeem the Government's preference share, raising a further £172m.

Video: Eurostar A 'Long Term Investment'

The stake in the cross-channel rail link operator was put up for sale last autumn as part of a plan to raise £20bn from asset sales by the end of the decade.

Eurostar, which launched its inaugural service in 1994, has seen a surge in demand, with more than 10 million passengers travelling on its trains in 2013 alone.

Among the other bidders for the Eurostar stake were 3i, the private equity firm, a division of the French bank Credit Agricole and an arm of the Singaporean government.

The remainder of Eurostar is owned by SNCF, the French state-owned rail operator, which controls 55%, and the Belgian government.

Mr Osborne said it was "a fantastic deal" for UK taxpayers that exceeds expectations.

"Investing in the best quality infrastructure for Britain, getting the best value for money for the taxpayer and tackling our country's debts are key parts of our long term economic plan, and in today's agreement, we are delivering on all three".

CDPQ is a Canadian institutional fund manager with investments worldwide in major financial markets, private equity and real estate.

Hermes Infrastructure - part of Hermes Investment Management - is a UK-based fund managing approximately £3bn on behalf of clients.

Mick Cash, leader of the RMT union, said: "The news today that the Government has reached a deal to sell off the British slice of
our cash-generating Eurostar assets before the May election is pure Thatcherite industrial vandalism that makes us a laughing stock across Europe".

Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA rail union, added: "The reason that France and Belgium already own the majority stake in Eurostar is that they believe in running a publicly owned railway for the benefit of everybody.

"One-eyed Osborne, on the other hand, prefers the private English model where fat cat bosses are at the front of the queue, way ahead of the passengers".

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