Darling confirmed to the BBC that he was committed to halving the record budget deficit over the next four years; he believes that if it was cut faster as the Conservatives planned it “would run the risk … of tipping us back into recession.”

The budget that is so close to the general election usual ends up a pre-election giveaway budget, just like in 1987 when Nigel Lawson cut 2p off the basic rate of income tax, or when Ken Clarke in 1996, offered a small tax cut in compensation for the four years of fiscal austerity just endured. No this budget Darling will have to use what he has got. Labour will have to use this budget to their advantage by claiming the fragile state of the economy makes a vote for Conservative plain and simply dangerous.

To read more on this story go to guardian.co.uk.

Financial figures included in the consortium that call themselves the Red Knights, are former Football League chairman Keith Harris and Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill, who are trying to buy the club from the American family. The Glazers brought the football club in 2005 for around £790 million pounds.

Fans opposed the deal at the time, have started to show their feelings by protesting on match days. Gone are the famous red white and black scarves, which are replaced by green and yellow ones based on the colours of United’s predecessors Newton Heath. The Red Knights have said takeover plans were at an early stage. The consortium say they want to return United to the fans, possibly selling a stake in the club through a share issue.

The Glazers still insist that the club is not for sale. To read more on this story go to reuters.com.

AIG agreed to sell its Asian life unit, American International Assurance (AIA), to Prudential (NYSE:PRU) for $35.5 billion, as we recently reported. It is believed that MetLife will pay $6.8 billion in cash and about $8.7 billion in equity to AIG for Alico. This will boost MetLife in Japan the second largest life insurance market behind Asia.

It is expected that MetLife will finance the deal by $1.75 billion in cash on hand plus $2 billion of common stock with issuances of $3.1 billion in senior debt. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.

Source online.wsj.com.

The British tax payer had to bail RBS out during the financial crisis was ordered by the EU antitrust regulators to sell assets to compensate for the billions of pounds they received in a bail out to keep the bank afloat. Suitors received details of the bank branches and their payment processing arm.

It is believed that over 40 bidders have been showing an interest in processing unit better known as WorldPay. It is believed that the WorldPay deal could be worth between 1.5 billion and 3 billion pounds, bidders such as Apax Partners and Advent International are showing a keen interest.

Although RBS said there were a lot of interested suitors looking at WorldPay, the interest in bank branches was not as popular. To read more on this story go to reuters.com.

The deal will be financed by a $20 billion equity capital raising plus a $5 Billion debt issue according to Prudential. The $20 billion will be one of the largest cash calls in the world. Prudential’s shares however tumbled 11.5 percent to 532 pence after trading resumed after an earlier suspension on Monday.

According to ING analyst Kevin Ryan who said “No one knows exactly what AIA contains or how profitable it is.” The takeover of AIA will make Prudential Asia’s biggest foreign insurer, boosting the company’s appeal to investors. Prudential is already among the top foreign insurers in Asia.

To read more on this story go to bbc.co.uk.

The US largest card issuer JP Morgan Chase had warned last year that the laws could cost the industry as much as $750 million just this year alone. Credit card advisory firm R.K. Hammer warns that the industry could lose more than $50 billion through 2015. The new law will prevent card issuers putting up interest rates in the first year of the card being issued.

Card issuers will also not be allowed to raise interest rates on outstanding balances. They will also have to watch the way they provide cards to the under 21-year-old’s so they will be required to get proof that the cards are affordable and show how it will be repaid. Credit card companies must give customers the option to opt in for an overdraft facility, instead of being automatically enrolled.

To read more on this story go to money.cnn.com. What do you think of the new laws? Let us know your thoughts.

The Turkish oil executive was fined for insider trading of shares from Heritage Oil Plc. The FSA also fined Murat Ozgul who is Sepil Chief Commercial Officer and exploration manager Levent Akca. This came about when the men purchased shares when they were told that the company had struck oil in the Kurdish region of Iraq. The next day the company announced their findings lifting its shares 25 percent.

The men shave denied in a statement that had in fact they were unaware their actions broke any rules. The FSA have said that they had decided against launching criminal proceedings because it accepted their pleas, “We do want people to be aware that coming forward does bring benefits,” Margaret Cole, the FSA’s director of enforcement at the FSA.

This fine exceeds the 750,000 pounds given to Philippe Jabre, the former hedge fund manager at GLG Partners Inc., in 2006. To read more on this story go to businessweek.com.

The pre-tax profits were 92 per cent ahead of 2008 figures. Probably more relevant is its £9.6bn of retained earnings. It seems that Barclay’s has become a much safer bank over the past year. Barclay’s gross lending and assets are now equivalent to 20 times its equity capital, in other words the bank is a lot less likely to go bankrupt than last year.

The profits were buoyed by its investment banking arm and the sale of part of the business last year to raise substantial funds. In the UK, Barclay’s made a £612m profit from retail banking and £749m from commercial banking. And to cap of a great feel good factor about banking, Chief Executive John Varley and President of the bank Bob Diamond have sacrificed payouts, because of the increased public interest into bank bonuses.

To read more on this story go to bbc.co.uk. What are your thoughts on the bosses who turned down their bonuses? Let us know your thoughts.

This was claimed yesterday by Regulatory partner Jonathan Davies at the City lawyers Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, after the shock announcement that chief executive, Hector Sants was resigning. Sants took over the regulatory body soon after the first signs of cracking appeared within the banks in July 2007. Sants told the board that he will leave after 3 years; however this news seems to have taken the board by surprise.

According to another senior City lawyer who believes it was a very sensitive moment to be going: 54-year-old Sants was paid £623,000 last year. Now the hot contender for the role is Sally Dewar, head of risk to take over from Hector Sants. John Pain, head of supervision, is the other contender who came from Lloyds.

To read more on this story go to business.timesonline.co.uk. Let us know your thoughts on the FSA.

This comes after American International Group Inc (AIG) announced yesterday that current and former employees of its Financial Products unit had to accept cuts totaling about $20 million in retention payments, this is still short of a $26 million target.

AIG was bailed out by the U.S Government for $182.3 billion lawmaker Darrell Issa who investigated the payout to AIG said that “it’s not a question if the bonuses are justified, but if AIG are being transparent.” An uproar from the American public evolved last March after AIG paid $165 million to employees.

AIG asked the unit’s current and former employees to make up for the difference by taking cuts from the $195 million in retention payments that were due this March. To read more on this story go to nytimes.com.