Thursday newspaper round-up: Volkswagen, Facebook, RBS, Brexit

Volkswagen needs to tear up its complex corporate governance structure in the wake of the emissions scandal that knocked a further 10 per cent off its share price on Wednesday, according to investors and governance experts. They called for a radical overhaul that would involve the families, state government and sovereign wealth fund that are the carmaker’s biggest shareholders all giving up seats on its supervisory board. – Financial Times

Competition regulators are “lazy” and “passing the buck” as their probe into the banking market failed to find crucial information on the cost of bank accounts, according to MPs. The Competition and Markets Authority is studying the market to see why so few customers switch banks, and last month ordered banks to prompt customers to switch to a rival whenever a special offer runs out, the bank's systems crash for a long period of time, or the customer racks up unauthorised overdraft charges. – Telegraph

Facebook has passed 1.5bn monthly users for the first time in its history, the world’s biggest social network said, as it smashed Wall Street expectations to post an 11pc increase in profits. The social network, which now counts half the world’s internet users as members, grew revenues by 40pc in the three months to September. For the first time, more than 1bn people logged on to Facebook every day, it said, and monthly active users reached 1.55bn, a 14pc increase on a year ago. – Telegraph

Stripping Whitehall of the bulk of its powers through a process of sweeping devolution would raise living standards in the UK by 6%, a leading free-market thinktank has said. The Institute for Economic Affairs said Britain would be richer with a fully federal system in which central government would have control over defence, foreign affairs and border control and all other responsibilities would be passed down to local authorities. - GuardianGeorge Osborne is being urged to stop the selloff of Royal Bank of Scotland shares at a loss before a parliamentary debate on the future of the bailed-out bank. - Guardian

Campaigners for banking reform argue that the public is opposed to the fire sale of the government stake in the bank, which fell for the first time in August when the chancellor sanctioned the sale of shares at a £1bn loss to the taxpayer. The stake was reduced from 79% to 74% and the government has stated that its objective is to sell off its entire holding in RBS, which was rescued by £45bn of taxpayer funds during the 2008 and 2009 crisis. - Guardian

Leaving the EU would plunge Britain back into recession, damage the country’s long-term growth potential and drive up government borrowing, Morgan Stanley has warned. In a comprehensive review of the economic impact of an exit vote at the referendum, the American investment bank said that Britain would “flirt with recession” in the best case and collapse into a full-blown slump if there were difficulties in “resolving post-referendum uncertainties”. – The Times

The company behind the QuickQuid and Pounds to Pocket websites has become the fourth payday loans group to be censured by regulators for lending to people who could not afford to repay the money. CashEuroNet, which is owned by the US-listed Enova International, has been ordered by the Financial Conduct Authority to compensate nearly 4,000 people wrongly given loans. – The Times