Business News

The Co-op has released details of £1.5bn deal to plug hole over two years. Investors who lent them cash, not customers will take the hit.

The key thing about this first 'bail-in' for a high street bank, is the deal with the new regulator - PRA - doesn't affect the taxpayer or the customer.

If you hear 'subordinated junior bond holder' again and again today, that's the investors who lent to Co-op, whose cash will be swapped for shares.

But some of those Co-op investors may be very badly affected, could potentially be pensioners losing life savings.

• Business
• Co-op

The Co-operative Group has announced a plan to address the £1.5bn shortfall in capital at its bank. Group Chief Executive, Euan Sutherland, has outlined the plan on the group's YouTube channel:

• Business
• Co-op

The Co-operative Group has unveiled a deal with regulators that will see the co-operative plug a £1.5 billion shortfall in the balance sheet of its banking arm.

• UK
• Co-op

Energy watchdog Ofgem said it shared EDF Energy's goal of a simpler energy market, but warned the single-unit price option was "not as simple as it sounds".

Ofgem's retail markets and research partner Maxine Frerk said it did not take into account discounts for payment method, dual fuel and paperless billing.

Ms Frerk said, "Our extensive consumer research indicates that customers value these discounts, and our reforms seek to deliver simplicity while retaining the choice that consumers value".

• UK
• Energy
• Ofgem

One of the UK's biggest energy suppliers has called for petrol station-style pricing in a bid to help consumers identify the best deals.

EDF Energy, which supplies 5.5 million households and businesses, said it will implement single-unit pricing for gas and electricity if all other suppliers also committed to doing so.

It would mean that customers would only need one price - the unit price - to compare between different suppliers.

Energy prices are currently set regionally with some suppliers including a standing charge and a price for each unit of electricity and gas consumed.

Other suppliers operate a two tier pricing structure, where customers are charged a lower unit rate once a certain amount of energy has been used.

• UK
• Energy

Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England, will leave his post later this year, the bank said.

• UK

Getting taxpayers' money back from RBS is more important to them than the speed of selling it off, David Cameron has said.

The Prime Minister told Bloomberg:

As for when we get it back into the private sector, I just have two very simple concerns: one is we must make sure this bank contributes to the recovery of the UK economy; secondly, people put their money in - I want them to get their money out.

As we work with this bank as it's nursed back to even further health, the public want to know 'Am I going to get my money back?'

I think they are more interested in getting their money back than the time. Let's get it right.

He also paid tribute to the bank's outgoing chief executive Stephen Hester:

He's done an enormous amount to shrink the balance sheet and to get the bank into a more healthy position, to get it out of crisis and into recovery.

• Read more: RBS chief executive says he didn't want to leave

• Chris Ship on why it was politics, not banking, behind Hester's resignation

• Business
• David Cameron
• Banks

There are reports tonight that the Thameslink contract to supply 1,140 new carriages has gone to Siemens, a German firm, not the Derby-based firm Bombardier - a big blow for UK manufacturers.

Read more: Public spending watchdog's concerns over Thameslink upgrade delays

• Business
• Thameslink
• Bombardier