Monday newspaper round-up: Sterling, City jobs, Williams & Glyn, CMA

The British pound was powering ahead in Asian morning trading on Monday as the latest opinion polls on Britain’s EU referendum showed the two camps running neck and neck. In previous weeks, the campaign for the UK to vote in favour of leaving the EU at its June 23 referendum had slowly gained momentum, unsettling the pound and markets in general. - Financial Times

Officials in Frankfurt are looking at plans to seize trading in hundreds of billions’ worth of euros processed in London should the UK vote to leave the European Union. In a move that could jeopardise tens of thousands of City jobs, the European Central Bank is exploring a contingency for Brexit that would force financial institutions to move all their euro- denominated business through a clearing house based inside the eurozone. - The Times

Royal Bank of Scotland has put on hold for the rest of the year its marketing efforts to create the brand for the smaller lender that it is supposed to carve out under state aid rules. Uncertainty surrounds the task of launching Williams & Glyn, with some observers predicting that the name will never appear on the high street because of IT issues and management problems. - The Times

Regulators are about to drop a contentious accusation that the “big six” energy suppliers have overcharged customers by £1.7bn a year, in the latest sign the watchdog is retreating from some of its toughest previous verdicts. After two years of investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority will publish its final recommendations on Friday on how to shake up the energy market. - Financial Times

Britain’s share of global merger and acquisition activity has tumbled to a record low, as dealmaking freezes amid the uncertainty over the UK’s membership of the EU. The volume of deals involving UK targets is down almost 70 per cent this year compared with the same period in 2015, with the $57.6bn spent on transactions accounting for only 4 per cent of worldwide M&A. - Financial Times

National Grid is recruiting cash-strapped NHS hospitals to fire up their emergency generators and turn down their air conditioning systems when power supplies are scarce. The company, which is responsible for balancing UK supply and demand, wants to make more use of “demand side response” schemes, in which energy users are paid to temporarily reduce the amount of power they draw from the grid. - Telegraph

Repatriation and burial of war casualties and notification of next of kin are to be run by the private sector with the Ministry of Defence set to invite bids next month for a contract to run the services. Defence Business Services was established in 2011 to run human resources, payroll and vetting, and was merged with the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency in 2014. - Financial Times

Lloyds Banking Group has accused competition regulators of making “obvious flaws” in a major study of the banking market, hitting back against claims that its accounts are expensive and its customers unsatisfied. Lloyds was criticised last year by the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) initial report into the sector, as regulators found Lloyds’ accounts were among the most expensive in the industry while also offering “below average quality”. - Telegraph

William Hill has begun another review of its online operations only six months after it claimed that it had drawn a line under problems with its digital platform. KPMG has been called in to conduct a strategic review of the bookmaker’s business with a focus on the online and technology operations. - Mail

A businessman who claims his firm was asset-stripped by bankers said his concerns were repeatedly ignored by politicians. Neil Mitchell, who was chief executive at software firm Torex Retail when it passed into the control of Royal Bank of Scotland after he blew the whistle on an accounting scandal, has claimed RBS’s global restructuring group let his company collapse instead of helping the struggling firm as it was meant to. He alleges the sale price was too low and has launched a £128million lawsuit. He also claims to have unearthed 388 similar cases involving RBS. - Mail

London and Country Mortgages, Britain’s biggest fee-free mortgage broker, is ignoring worries over the fate of the housing market in the wake of the EU referendum by lining up a sale or stock market float with a valuation of up to £300m. The company, majority-owned by its chairman, Michael Edge, has appointed advisers to run a twin-track sales process. It is understood that London and Country is likely to be offered to banks, rival brokers, comparison websites and independent financial advisers. - Telegraph

Westminster grillings of Sir Philip Green and Mike Ashley should remind business leaders of the impact that their behaviour can have on public opinion, an influential body has warned. The Institute of Directors’ comments come amid parliamentary investigations into the collapse of BHS and employment conditions at Sports Direct, which have triggered the latest in a series of hearings featuring business leaders over recent years. - The Times

The value of fines issued by the financial regulator against firms dropped 37% last year though fines against individuals has more than doubled, research has found. Firms were hit with bills of £880m by the Financial Conduct Authority in 2015, compared to £1.4billion a year earlier, according to figures from law firm Clyde & Co. - Mail

Fears over the outcome of the European Union referendum are a key challenge for Britain’s hospitality industry, with a potential Brexit causing uncertainty for consumers and business leaders. Almost three quarters of industry chief executives surveyed for the British Hospitality Association’s Leaders’ Report said that they would be voting to stay in the EU on Thursday, with 8 per cent undecided and 18 per cent said that they supported a Brexit. - The Times

PwC is promoting 61 new partners this year, the biggest number ever as the accountancy and consulting group continues to grow strongly. It now has a record 969 partners, all of whom are equity partners, meaning they earn a share of the group’s profits. Of the new cohort, 28pc are female and 41pc work outside London. - Telegraph