Lex: Interchange fees

The way retailers pay banks when customers spend on plastic is peculiar. Visa and MasterCard do not make revenues from interchange directly

• Credit card offers to US consumers plunge
• Credit card groups face debt curbs

Paradoxical Japan’s payday ‘will come’

Portents for the Japanese economy looked strong a year ago, but then recession hit again, pulling Nikko AM into the storm with it

Ex-Lloyds chairman eyes banking ventures

Sir Brian Pitman, the former chairman of Lloyds Bank, is considering backing new banking ventures, as entrepreneurs queue up to take on the Big Four banks

RBS signs up for toxic asset protection

Royal Bank of Scotland signs the final agreement to formally enter the government’s scheme next month, paving the way for £240bn of toxic assets to be insured

Reasons to be thankful as the next storm hits

As our American cousins mark the Thanksgiving holiday, Recovery watch would like readers to note a few high points of the past week that show we Britons, too, have...

Banks set to ask for dismissal of charge claims

High-street banks are set to write to hundreds of county courts asking them to strike out consumer claims, following their Supreme Court victory on bank charges for...

The big name

Sir David Walker Sir David Walker is a dab hand at reviews. His analysis of bank corporate governance is his third such opus (after a Lloyd's of London reinsurance...

The trials of an activist investor

1996-2005: William Browder's Hermitage manages Russia's largest foreign portfolio investment fund. He gains a reputation as a crusader for share- holders' rights...