Friday newspaper round-up: Trump, Brexit, Libor
Protesters took to the streets across US cities on Thursday for a second day of demonstrations against president-elect Donald Trump, who responded by blaming the unrest on “professional protesters” egged on by media. Fresh from his first White House meeting with President Barack Obama, Mr Trump tweeted on Thursday night: “Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!” – Financial Times
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and chief executive, has shot down allegations that fake news spread on the social network influenced the US presidential election. Fake news stories were a “very small volume” of posts and there were hoaxes on both sides in the election, Mr Zuckerberg said in his first public appearance since Tuesday’s vote. – Financial Times
Global banking businesses will face nightmarish decisions if the UK loses its access to euro-clearing trading as part of the Brexit negotiations, the Japanese ambassador to the UK has warned. Koji Tsuruoaka said that Japanese companies would be among those affected as he emphasised the seriousness of what is at stake as the UK prepares for Brexit. Some EU countries are determined to stop the UK retaining its euro-clearing rights post-Brexit, so the business would be transferred to Frankfurt and Paris. – Guardian
The Pensions Regulator is seeking millions of pounds from Dominic Chappell and Retail Acquisitions in relation to the £571m deficit in the BHS pension scheme. Sources close to the situation say warning notices sent by the regulator to Chappell and his company show it wants to receive “multiples of £1m”. – Guardian
The Arab Spring cost $614 billion in lost growth to Arab countries, a new UN survey has found. The report, the first of its kind by a major economic body, estimates that conflicts in the region between 2011 and 2015 led to a net loss of $613.8 billion in economic activity, equivalent to 6% of the region's GDP. – Telegraph
Major lenders told Sir Paul Tucker, the former deputy governor of the Bank of England, as early as mid-2007 that they were not submitting accurate Libors, it is alleged in legal documents that form part of a claim by a care home operator over an allegedly mis-sold interest rate hedging product. A senior banker at Lloyds Banking Group is said to have told fellow executives that he attended a meeting hosted by Sir Paul, then executive director of the Bank responsible for markets, at which top City managers stated that “Libors do not reflect where we can borrow decent size”. – The Times
Rio Tinto reported itself to the Serious Fraud Office over a $10.5 million “consultancy payment” after it was confronted by a news website, despite having been aware of the issue for more than two months. The FTSE 100 miner announced on Tuesday night that it had informed British and American authorities after emails emerged regarding the payment over the Simandou project in Guinea. – The Times