Monday newspaper round-up: O2, Barclays/Credit Suisse, Hitachi on Brexit

The British telecoms regulator has urged Brussels to block the proposed merger of telecoms operators O2 and Three, which it fears will send mobile phone bills for users in the UK sharply higher. Writing in the FT ahead of Europe’s first formal statement on the deal, Ofcom chief executive Sharon White said the merger of two of Britain’s four operators could also hit rival high-street retailers and upset existing network arrangements. – Financial Times

Credit Suisse and Barclays have agreed to pay a record $154m to settle investigations by regulators into their share trading venues known as “dark pools”. Barclays will pay $70m, the largest ever penalty for a dark pool operator, with the fine split evenly between the Securities Exchange Commission and New York attorney-general’s office. The fine also settles a legal battle brought against the bank by the NY attorney-general in June 2014. – Financial Times

Top British bankers, investors and regulators have set out a blueprint to rebuild the reputation of Britain’s financial sector and create a more positive banking culture. More than seven years after the taxpayer funded bail-outs of Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), a report backed by Andrew Bailey, deputy governor of the Bank of England, says the 2008 financial crisis provided Britain with a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to rethink how the industry works. - Telegraph

Hitachi will continue to invest in the UK even if the country votes to leave theEuropean Union, according to its chief executive. Hiroaki Nakanishi, who is also chairman of the Japanese industrial giant, said he discussed with Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, last month how a British exit from the EU could be made “feasible”. - Telegraph

A senior government minister has admitted the tax settlement between Googleand the UK government “was not a glorious moment”. The admission by the business secretary, Sajid Javid, came as a senior executive from Google claimed he could not say how much UK profit has been generated by the technology firm in the past decade, or how many meetings had been held between the company’s executives and ministers. - Guardian

Key North Sea oilfields could be abandoned and lost for ever if George Osborne does not cut the taxation of UK oil producers in the forthcoming budget, the chief executive of Centrica has warned. Iain Conn has written to the chancellor urging him to act in the budget next month and suspend the supplementary tax charges paid by oil companies on top of corporation tax. “I have only seen a fall in oil prices like this once before. The North Sea is really hurting. The government needs to be agile here. – The Times

John Lewis is to sell its wares in the Middle East as the department store’s ambitions to expand across the globe grow. The favourite retailer of the middle class plans to open a new “shop-in-shop” in the Robinson department store in the Dubai Festival City Mall in spring next year in an effort to add to its growing portfolio of overseas stores in Europe and Asia. – The Times