Tuesday newspaper round-up: CBI, Deloitte, BHP Billiton

Poland has become the latest European country to woo some of Britain’s biggest banksin the wake of the Brexit vote with a charm offensive in London this week to lure City institutions to Warsaw. The Polish deputy prime minister will arrive on Thursday armed with a package of incentives to offer senior executives at some of the biggest banks in the City that have shown an interest in shifting jobs to the continent. – Financial Times

The head of the CBI employers’ federation has urged the British government and regulators to allow the banking industry “off the naughty step” if the City of London is to fend off post-Brexit challengers to its position as Europe’s leading financial centre. Carolyn Fairbairn said the government should scrap the punitive 8 per cent surcharge on banks’ profits, and the City’s twin regulators, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, should “really prioritise competitiveness”. – Financial Times

Investment into the UK boomed last year as firms from around the world backed a record 2,213 British projects, including infrastructure developments, manufacturing plants and life sciences projects. he number of foreign-backed projects increased 11pc, creating 82,650 jobs, as well as safeguarding more than 30,000 jobs and bolstering economic growth in the run up to the EU referendum. – Telegraph

Accounting giant Deloitte has posted record revenue of £3.1bn, triggering higher payouts for its legion of partners around the globe. Revenue shot up 11.2pc last year as every part of the business grew. Deloitte now audits 23pc of the FTSE 100 companies’ accounts, and said it also increased its work on mergers and acquisitions in the 12 months to the end of May 2016. – Telegraph

Consumers are feeling more positive about their personal financial situation but worried about the UK’s overall prospects, according to July’s Lloyds Bank spending power report. The monthly barometer, which tracks both spending habits and consumer confidence, found that in the weeks following the vote to leave the EU, almost 70% of consumers said they believed their own personal finance situation was either “excellent”, “very good” or “somewhat good” – the highest level since the survey started five years ago. - Guardian

The huge disparity in youth unemployment rates across the UK has been laid bare by a new report that found over a quarter of 16- to 24-year-olds in Bradford, Middlesbrough, Swansea and Wolverhampton are now unemployed. The study commissioned by the accountancy firm EY found youth unemployment rates range from 18.3% in north-east England to 11.2% in the east of England. Coventry had one of the lowest youth unemployment rates out of the 48 UK cities reviewed, at just 8.2%. – Guardian

A former Barclays trader faces becoming the first individual to be fined over allegations that he rigged the foreign exchange market after US regulators pressed ahead with moves to impose a penalty of more than $1 million. The Federal Reserve said yesterday that it would seek to fine Christopher Ashton $1.2 million, as well as barring him from working again for a bank, over claims that he co-ordinated attempts to manipulate currencies. – The Times

The fatal collapse of a Brazilian dam operated by a mining company owned by BHP Billiton and Vale occurred because its poorly designed structure had allowed water to seep into its infrastructure and left sand inside the dam “loose, uncompacted and saturated”, an expert panel announced yesterday. The report claimed that Samarco’s iron ore tailings dam near the town of Mariana, in Minas Gerais state, was a ticking bomb because of a process known as liquefaction, whereby solid materials lose their strength and behave like liquids. When a series of small earthquakes hit it, the dam crumbled. – The Times