King Warned Of Political Push For Co-op Deal

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The Governor of the Bank of England warned one of the bidders for more than 630 Lloyds Banking Group branches that its offer would fail because of "a political desire" to see a rival proposal from the Co-operative Group succeed.

Sky News can reveal that Lord King, who stepped down as Governor in June, told Lord Levene, the chairman of NBNK Investments, that the Co-op's bid had won political favour in Whitehall that would be difficult to overturn.

The disclosure of Lord King's remarks threatens to provide a 'smoking gun' for those who have insisted that there was explicit political interference in the £1.5bn branches auction as ministers sought to promote the mutual ownership model in the banking sector.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, and Lloyds directors including Sir Win Bischoff, its chairman, have consistently denied any attempt by ministers to influence the outcome of the auction.

The intervention of Lord King provides the latest twist after an extraordinary week in which a series of allegations have been made about the private life and professional competence of Paul Flowers, the Co-op Bank's former chairman.

The meeting between the then Sir Mervyn King and Lord Levene is understood to have taken place in July last year, just before Lloyds announced a firm intention to sell the branch network to the Co-op on July 19, 2012.

"He [Lord King] said that there was a political desire to see the Co-op acquire the branches," said a Bank of England insider familiar with the discussion.

News of the meeting, which is said to have been brief and focused on the Lloyds auction, provides the most powerful evidence so far of a belief within the most senior echelons of the City that Coalition ministers had a direct preference for the Co-op to expand by buying the branches.

Lord Levene and the Bank of England both declined to comment on last year's meeting.

It is not clear whether Lord King referred to individual politicians during the meeting with Lord Levene but his remark could nevertheless embarrass Mr Osborne, who publicly enthused about the Co-op Bank's expansion and who announced on Friday the terms of an independent inquiry into the mutual's troubles.

Bank of England insiders said the former Governor had harboured reservations about the Co-op's ability to undertake such a transformational deal although it is unclear whether such doubts were expressed during his conversation with the NBNK chairman or the extent to which they were then raised with banking regulators.

The Treasury said on Friday that the decision about the sale of the branches had been a matter for the boards of the companies and the relevant regulators.

The takeover of the 'Project Verde' network of 631 branches would have trebled the Co-op Bank's size and created a bank with nearly 8 million customers and a balance sheet of more than £30bn.

The Co-op originally won preferred bidder status from Lloyds on December 14, 2011. However, after discussions between the two parties stalled, Lloyds then announced on May 1, 2012 that it was no longer in talks with the Co-op on an exclusive basis and would consider other bids.

NBNK then assembled an improved offer but again lost out to the Co-op in July last year.

The Treasury is reported to have intervened in Brussels to help smooth a path for the Co-op to gain preferential treatment in relation to its capital position, with one aide to Mr Osborne telling the Financial Times this week: "We are totally unashamed in trying to help a British institution [the Co-op] and the British economy."

The decision to sell the Verde branches to the Co-op despite concerns about the mutual's ability to complete the deal has inflamed political tensions this week, with Labour's close links with the Co-operative Bank highlighted by Conservatives.

In turn, senior Labour figures have accused ministers of failing to undertake sufficient due diligence on the Co-op Bank to ensure that it was in a sufficiently sound financial position to take on the Lloyds branches.

The Co-op has now been forced to seek a £1.5bn rescue deal for its banking arm, which is reliant on a £125m capital injection from a group of hedge funds. Investors will vote on the proposed deal during the next two weeks.

NBNK has repeatedly argued both that it offered a better financial deal to Lloyds than the Co-op and greater assurances that it would be able to execute an agreement.

In evidence provided to the Treasury Select Committee earlier this year, the acquisition vehicle also warned Lloyds that it believed the Co-op was in a worse financial position than had been publicly acknowledged and that the mutual would be forced to withdraw.

Senior City sources now believe that one of the motivations for favouring a Co-op deal with Lloyds was that the well-capitalised Verde network would help to ease the mutual's difficulties over IT systems, management inexperience and doubts about the robustness of its capital position.

The Verde branches are now being carved out of Lloyds under the TSB brand, with a stock market flotation expected to take place next year.

Sky News revealed last week that the former boss of RSA Insurance, Andy Haste, is being lined up to chair the new TSB public company.

In an interview with Sky News earlier on Friday, Lord Levene said NBNK had been told by its advisers that a bid by the Co-op was "not viable".

"What I did was… [to] take that report and give it to the chairman of Lloyds Bank who I knew very well and say to him, 'Look…I really think before you press the button on this you ought to read this report for yourself because I think you will see from this that the Co-op is not going to be the answer for you. Subsequently the Chairman… denied that he had ever seen that piece of paper."

Lloyds declined to comment.

A series of regulatory probes now awaits the Co-op and some of its former directors, with the FCA and PRA saying separately on Friday that they were already undertaking work to establish whether they should launch formal enforcement investigations.

A separate probe commissioned by the Treasury and undertaken by an as-yet unidentified figure from the world of banking or law will also take place.

In a statement on Friday afternoon, it said its inquiry would "cover the actions of relevant authorities (regulators and government) and the institution itself, including prudential issues, governance (including the appointment of senior staff) and acquisitions".

The Treasury's inquiry will not begin until after any PRA and FCA enforcement action has been concluded.

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Former Co-op Chairman Released On Police Bail

Chancellor George Osborne has announced plans for an independent inquiry into the Co-operative Bank's near collapse, as its former chairman was released by police.

The review uses new powers under the Financial Services Act and follows calls from Prime Minister David Cameron for an inquiry into the bank's ailing finances and the decision to appoint Paul Flowers as chairman.

It will add to an investigation being considered by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), following the regulators' talks with Bank of England governor Mark Carney on Friday.

Mr Osborne announced the review

The Co-op faces a rescue which will see 50 branches close and investors including US hedge funds take control of 70% of the business.

The Treasury-led inquiry will look into mistakes made in the run-up to the Co-op Bank's woes and the £1.5bn black hole in its finances, dating back to at least 2008.

The Treasury said it will investigate actions of the regulators and government in relation to the issues at the bank.

It will also cover the Co-op's takeover of Britannia Building Society at the height of the banking crisis, as well as appointment procedures in light of the scandal surrounding Mr Flowers.

Since Mr Flowers stepped down in June, questions have been asked about his competence in the role.

The 63-year-old Methodist minister was arrested by West Yorkshire Police on Thursday night in Merseyside.

He has been held in connection with an "an ongoing drug supply investigation", police said.

Mr Flowers has been questioned all day by police, and was released on Friday evening.

Asked how Mr Flowers was feeling, his solicitor Andy Hollas said: "I think a rather ponderous frame of mind - I think anyone in his situation would be."

Mr Hollas added: "He's not necessarily guilty of anything, he's not been charged with anything."

Mr Flowers resigned as Co-op chairman in June

Mr Flowers was suspended by both the church and the Labour Party following newspaper allegations that he bought and used illegal drugs.

The Treasury's inquiry will not start until the outcome of criminal investigations into Mr Flowers, or it is clear proceedings will not be prejudiced.

As with the recent review into Royal Bank of Scotland, the probe will be independently chaired, which is seen as vital by the Treasury Select Committee because the role of the regulators will also come under scrutiny.

The FCA said it "fully agrees" the investigation should be led by an independent person.

The Co-op is already at the centre of a barrage of investigations, with the group being grilled by MPs on the Treasury Select Committee into the bank's failed Project Verde bid for 632 Lloyds Banking Group branches.

Sky News has learned that the former Bank of England governor, Lord King, warned of a "political desire" for the Co-op to buy the branches.

It also emerged earlier that the Co-op is seeking to recover £31,000 paid to Mr Flowers since he quit his £132,000-a-year post in June.

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George Osborne's Stamp Duty Bonanza

By Ed Conway, Economics Editor

Stamp duty revenues - one of the most reliable measures of property market activity - are back to the same level they were just before the economic crisis in 2008, in the latest evidence of the housing boom.

Last month homebuyers paid £852m in stamp duty to the Exchequer, according to figures from HM Revenue & Customs - slightly higher than the £830m-a-month  it was earning at the peak of the boom in 2007/08.

The figures come amid growing evidence that, thanks to record low interest rates and the Chancellor's Help to Buy scheme, the housing market is experiencing a fully-fledged boom.

House prices rose by 3.8% across the country in the past year, with London experiencing close to double-digit price growth.

It is understood that property market activity in prime parts of central London was largely responsible for the sharp increase in stamp duty revenues, which have now doubled from the troughs they suffered in 2010 and 2011.

In the Budget the Chancellor forecast that he would earn £7.7bn in property-related stamp duty this year. He looks likely to beat this estimate by more than a billion pounds.

However, news that stamp duty revenues have exceeded the pre-crisis peak will also cause further concerns among economists, who have warned that the property market is becoming inflated in much the way it did before the crash.

They warn that, far from rebalancing, Britain's economy is becoming reliant, once again, on debt and the housing market.

The Chancellor has also enjoyed an extra fillip from new measures aimed at preventing property investors avoid stamp duty by "wrapping" their investment properties up in a company.

The punitive fees levied on these investors generated £78m for the Exchequer in September and October alone.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the overall government deficit dropped from £8.2bn in October 2012 to £8.1bn this October.

The figures are also likely to have been pushed higher by the fact that stamp duty tax rates have been lifted, and new higher rates have been introduced for the most expensive properties.

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Co-op: Flowers In £75k Charity Expenses 'Scam'

Disgraced former Co-op bank boss Paul Flowers claimed £75,000 in false expenses from a drugs charity, it has been alleged.

Mr Flowers, a former Labour councillor, totted up the claims over five years during his time as the chairman of the trustees at the Lifeline Project, according to the charity's chief executive Ian Wardle.

Mr Wardle told Sky News that he had raised questions over Mr Flowers' claims in 2004 and there had been an investigation during which the former Methodist minister was asked to account for his claims item by item.

Mr Flowers, 63, is under investigation by police after being filmed by a newspaper allegedly buying and using illegal drugs, including crystal meth, crack cocaine and ketamine - a horse tranquilliser used as a party drug.

Mr Wardle said that the "total cost of clearing up the mess" left by Mr Flowers during his time at the charity, which helps people with drug and alcohol problems, was £150,000.

Mr Flowers has been accused of incompetence while leading the Co-op Bank

He said: "I developed concerns at the beginning of 2004 about some of the claims which had been made and I spoke to our treasurer at the time and we then involved our solicitor and then to cut a long story short in June 2004 I raised the matter formally, fully and in depth with our trustee body.

"Our trustee body suspended Reverend Flowers and then we investigated the claims and we investigated five years of claims."

Mr Wardle said that after taking advice from a QC  they had sought to keep the matter quiet because they feared it would cause significant damage to the charity's reputation.

He said that he had filed a 70-page report on the matter to the Charity Commission.

The development comes amid the deepening crisis over Mr Flowers appointment to lead the Co-operative Bank, which was sparked by the drugs sting revealed in a newspaper on Sunday.

Len Wardle quit as boss of the beleagured bank on Tuesday

David Cameron on Wednesday announced there would be an inquiry into Mr Flowers' appointment to the bank and its ailing finances.

The Labour leader Ed Miliband has come under increasing pressure over the matter after it emerged that he Mr Flowers had been invited on to Labour's business advisory group and made a £50,000 donation to shadow chancellor Ed Balls.

Questions have also been raised over loans of more than £18m made to Labour at interest rates lower than those charged to ordinary customers.

Mr Miliband has in turn accused the Prime Minister of using the Labour Party's links with the Co-op Bank as part of a "smear" campaign ahead of the General Election run-up.

Mr Flowers managed to secure his £132,000-a-year position at the head of the Co-operative Bank for three years despite a past mired in scandal, it has subsequently emerged.

It has been disclosed that Mr Flowers resigned from his position on Bradford Council after being caught with pornography on his council laptop in 2011. He was also convicted of gross indecency in a public toilet with a man in 1981.

And it also emerged Mr Flowers was caught drink driving after celebrating his 40th birthday in 1990.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Cameron said: "Why was Rev Flowers judged suitable to be chairman of a bank? Why weren't alarm bells ringing earlier, particularly by those who knew? I think it will be important in the coming days that if anyone does have information they stand up and provide it to the authorities."

A £1.5bn black hole was discovered in the bank's finances

Len Wardle, the chairman of the Co-operative Group, resigned on Tuesday over his role leading the board that appointed Mr Flowers.

Mr Flowers resigned his post as chairman of the Co-operative Bank in June after a £1.5bn black hole was discovered in its finances, leading to accusations of incompetence.

The bank found a massive gap following the purchase of Britannia Building Society in 2009 and abortive attempts to take on hundreds of Lloyds branches.

During an appearance before the Commons Treasury committee earlier this month, Mr Flowers stumbled over basic facts and figures relating to the bank.

The Methodist Church, which had already suspended Mr Flowers for a three-week period under its rules, has said the suspension was now indefinite and that its disciplinary procedure would be put on hold until after any police investigation.

Mr Flowers has apologised for doing things that were "stupid and wrong" in relation to the drugs claims - but has not elaborated.

His whereabouts remain unknown.

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Energy Bills: Npower Deal Creates 'Big Seven'

A new player in the UK energy market is to be created after npower agreed a deal to offload 770,000 customer accounts.

They form part of npower's Electricity Plus and Gas Plus subsidiaries, which were sold today for £218m to Telecom Plus, a supplier of energy and telephony services trading as Utility Warehouse.

The deal, which will not result in any change to customer service and contracts, is expected to complete by early January.

It is the result of new rules from the industry regulator Ofgem which limit the number of tariffs on offer to domestic customers to a maximum of four.

As Utility Warehouse already manages the brands on behalf of npower, the sale will allow the two companies to continue to offer their customers up to four tariffs under their respective brands.

It will also meet demands for greater competition in the industry at a time of rising energy prices - a situation that has resulted in fierce debate in recent weeks over political intervention to ensure a fair marketplace for consumers.

Npower, which is part of Germany's RWE Group and recently topped a league table for customer complaints, currently has 5.4 million household accounts while price rises have prompted more people to look at switching from big six firms to a smaller competitor.

Npower's chief executive Paul Massara said: "In one move we have helped to create the biggest independent competitor in Britain's household energy supply market.

"This is good for competition and good for consumer choice. Today's announcement shows that Britain is well on the way to having a 'big seven' rather than a 'big six'."

Utility Warehouse will continue to receive its gas and electricity from npower under a new 20-year energy supply agreement which should enable it to provide more competitive tariffs to its customers.

The company said the deal boosted its medium-term target of supplying gas, electricity, fixed-line telephony, mobile telephony and broadband to more than one million customers.

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Barclays Boss To Head Major Business Charity

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The chief executive of Barclays is being lined up take the helm of the charity Business in the Community (BitC), less than 18 months after the bank became embroiled in a series of reputational crises.

Sky News understands that Antony Jenkins is to become the next chairman of BitC, which is a member of The Prince's Charities, the group of not-for-profit organisations of which Prince Charles is the president.

Mr Jenkins' appointment has yet to be finalised but is likely to be imminently, one insider said on Wednesday.

If he is confirmed to the post, it would see him replacing Mark Price, the boss of Waitrose and deputy chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, who is due to step down in January.

Insiders said on Wednesday that they expected Mr Jenkins to join the charity's board in the spring of next year, and take over the chairmanship in January 2015.

The arrival of Mr Jenkins at BitC would underpin his credentials as a corporate leader determined to hone his own ethical credentials as well as those of Barclays and the broader business community.

Since replacing Bob Diamond as the bank's chief executive last year, Mr Jenkins has sought to begin rebuilding its reputation, announcing a string of initiatives reflecting his attempt to establish it as "the go-to bank".

He has, however, been confronted with a number of ongoing regulatory probes into past misdeeds, including the circumstances of its bailout by Middle Eastern shareholders in 2008 and a widening investigation into potential manipulation of foreign exchange markets by traders working for Barclays and other banks.

The news of Mr Jenkins' prospective appointment at BitC also comes as the unfolding scandal at the Co-operative Bank threatens to inflict further damage on the industry's battered image.

Political rows over energy provision, payday lending and fraudulent claims by public sector outsourcers have deepened the sense of mistrust between the public and the business community.

BitC is the largest business-led charity of its kind in the UK, engaging in a broad range of education and training projects aimed at deepening companies' commitment to corporate social responsibility.

It has 850 members, who collectively employ more than 16m people, according to BitC's website.

Among its initiatives are Ban the Box, which encourages companies to give job applicants a second chance by not asking about previous criminal convictions; and Workwell, a programme focused on improving understanding of workplace health.

Mr Jenkins' appointment has been backed unanimously by the BitC board although some observers may question whether the charity will serve as a convenient platform for him to try to detoxify the Barclays brand.

Last week, the bank axed 1700 jobs across its UK branch networks as customers increasingly shift to using digital services, with thousands more likely to follow in the coming years.

Barclays already has an association with BitC as one of its corporate partners, while John Union, the head of the bank's Welsh operations, is a member of the charity's board.

Among the other directors of BitC are John Cridland, director general of the CBI; Sir Richard Lambert, his predecessor; Chris Hyman, the departing chief executive of Serco, the troubled outsourcing group; and Steve Holliday, chief executive of National Grid.

Sir Richard has also taken on a role as the chair of a new panel aimed at devising a new professional standards body for the banking industry.

Among the other senior businesspeople who have occupied the BitC chairmanship are Sir Stuart Rose, former chairman of Marks & Spencer, and Sir Mike Rake, who chairs BT Group and is the CBI's current president.

Barclays and BitC both declined to comment on Wednesday.

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JPMorgan Agrees $13bn Mortgage Complaint Deal

JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay $13bn (£8bn) to settle complaints over mortgages and mortgage securities, US officials have said.

The deal includes $9bn in payments to authorities and $4bn which will go to people affected by the bank's actions, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.

The US government called the settlement the largest in the country's history.

It resolves a series of complaints against the bank for mis-stating the quality of mortgages and mortgage securities it sold before the financial crisis, and complaints it mishandled the mortgages of millions of homeowners.

Mr Schneiderman said: "This historic deal, which will bring long-overdue relief to homeowners around the country and across New York, is exactly what our working group was created to do.

"We refused to allow systemic frauds that harmed so many New York homeowners and investors to simply be forgotten.

"And as a result we've won a major victory today in the fight to hold those who caused the financial crisis accountable."

Chief executive of the bank Jamie Dimon

JPMorgan has said most of its mortgage-backed securities came from Bear Stearns Cos and Washington Mutual Inc, troubled companies that JPMorgan acquired in 2008.

As part of $6bn it will give to investors, $4bn will resolve government claims that JPMorgan misled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about risky mortgage securities the bank sold them before the housing market crashed.

That part of the deal was announced on October 25.

Fannie and Freddie were bailed out by the government during the crisis and are under federal control.

The $13bn settlement amount is only about half of JPMorgan's record 2012 net income of $21.3bn, or $5.20 a share, which made it one of the most profitable US banks last year.

Mounting legal costs from government proceedings pushed JPMorgan to a rare loss in this year's third quarter, the first under chief executive Jamie Dimon's leadership.

The bank reported on October 11 that it set aside $9.2bn in the July to September quarter to cover the string of legal cases against it. 

It faces at least nine other government probes, covering everything from its hiring practices in China to whether it manipulated the Libor benchmark interest rate.

JPMorgan said it has placed $23bn in reserve to cover potential legal costs.

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Poor Language Skills 'Hampering UK Economy'

By James Matthews, Sky News Correspondent

Britain's inability to speak "important" foreign languages could jeopardise future prosperity and global standing, according to a new report.

According to the British Council, the UK has an alarming shortage of people who are able to speak what it regards as the 10 most important languages.

They are Spanish, Arabic, French, Mandarin Chinese, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish and Japanese.

The Languages For The Future report identifies these languages as vital to the UK  over the next 20 years on economic, geopolitical, cultural and educational grounds.

John Worne, director of strategy at the British Council, told Sky News: "The problem isn't that we're teaching the wrong languages, because the most widely taught languages like French, Spanish and German all feature in our top 10.

"But the UK needs more people to take up the opportunity to learn, and crucially, get using these languages - along with new ones like Arabic, Chinese and Japanese.

"If we don't act to tackle this shortfall, we'll lose out both economically and culturally.

"Schools have their job to do, but it's also a problem of complacency, confidence and culture - which policymakers, businesses, parents and everyone else in the UK can help to fix.

"Languages aren't just an academic issue - they are a practical route to opportunity for the UK in business, culture and all our lives."

A YouGov poll commissioned by the British Council showed that three quarters of British people cannot speak the "important" languages well enough to hold a conversation.

French is spoken by 15% of people, German by 6%, Spanish by 4% and Italian is spoken by 2%.

Arabic, Mandarin, Russian or Japanese are each only spoken by 1%, while less than 1% of people in the UK speak Portuguese or Turkish.

The report calls for children to be taught a broader range of languages and for the subjects to be given the same priority as Maths and Sciences.

It also states that businesses should invest in language training for staff and that everyone should learn at least the basics of those languages deemed so important to the country's future.

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Supermarket Offers Cited By Consumer Group

By Poppy Trowbridge, Business And Economics Correspondent

Some of Britain's biggest supermarkets have been accused of running so-called special offers that often see customers "paying over the odds".

Consumer group Which? analysed more than 70,000 grocery prices and found examples of what they call misleading multibuys and dodgy discounts.

Richard Lloyd, executive director, told Sky News: "People are at best paying what they would have done, or often we have found paying over the odds, paying extra when they think they are getting a discount. That can't be fair.

"These special offers simply aren't special at all. That is why we need to see the rules change to force the supermarkets to play fair."

Rising food prices are one of the top worries for consumers as inflation has outpaced average wage growth for about five years.

Which? is wants the Government to make the rules for special offers simpler, clearer and stricter.

The consumer group says if these changes are not made swiftly, it will consider using its formal legal powers to ensure the practice is tackled.

In the meantime shoppers should look carefully at the special offers, Richard Lloyd added.

"Make sure that you are not getting misled into buying something that you think is a good deal when that is just not the case."

The British Retail Consortium, which represents the supermarket industry, said in a statement: "Across the tens of thousands of promotions available every day, regrettably, occasional errors do slip through.

"Retailers work very quickly to rectify these mistakes whenever they are found."

Both Asda and Sainsbury also issued statements apologising for what they called pricing errors.

Sainsbury's said: "We are absolutely committed to fair and transparent promotions and carry out regular audits and thorough training on this."

Asda's statement said: "We take pricing seriously, and we've recently employed a new team within the business that looks at all aspects of our pricing process and pricing practices in store and online.

"Sometimes mistakes can happen, but we would never deliberately mislead our customers ... "

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Npower Tops List Of Energy Customer Complaints

Npower has topped a customer complaints list leading an energy watchdog to describe its performance as "unacceptable".

Latest research compiled by Consumer Futures, which represents consumers in regulated markets, said npower had 202.5 complaints per 100,000.

This was compared with 38.3 per 100,000 for SSE, the lowest of the main energy providers.

Audrey Gallacher, director of energy at Consumer Focus, said: "The company is implementing system changes that inevitably caused disruption to customers, however its complaints performance is unacceptable and the company must take further steps to tackle this.

"Energy companies have repeatedly said they want to rebuild consumer trust.

"Along with price, good service is important to customers. People want to know the relative performance on complaint handling to help them make informed choices when deciding whether to switch.

"Customer satisfaction with how complaints are handled is low across a whole range of industries and the same problems are seen over and over again."

The figures were taken from the period April to June 2013 and do not include any complaints made in the wake of recent price hike announcements.

Public confidence in energy suppliers has been dealt a major blow since five of the Big Six energy firms announced that charges would rise by an average of around 9%.

Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: "Price hikes of 36% over the last three years, coupled with poor customer service, has compounded the lack of trust in energy firms as households struggle to afford to have a warm home."

A spokesman for Energy UK, the trade association for the energy industry, said: "The vast majority of energy customers are happy with the service they get with only around one in every 1,400 customers likely to need to contact their supplier about a problem.

"Most complaints only need a phone call to sort out - around four out of five queries are resolved by the end of the next working day - but, if the problem cannot be resolved, the energy ombudsman is there to ensure problems get fixed.

"Energy companies take their relationship with customers extremely seriously and work hard to improve customer service."

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Banks Urged To End Expensive Phone Charges

High street banks, credit card companies and insurers are being urged to cut high-rate customer lines after a study found almost three quarters are costly 084 or 087 numbers.

Which? found that 177 out of 242 customer or complaints lines for financial services such as current accounts, loans and credit cards - or 73% - were premium-rate numbers.

The companies included leading high street banks and building societies such as HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Nationwide and TSB Bank, credit card providers American Express, Capital One and Tesco Bank and insurers Aviva, Churchill and Direct Line.

The watchdog found that four in 10 people (39%) prefer to call financial firms with an inquiry and nearly a third (31%) would rather complain by phone.

However, nearly all of the credit card providers studied (95%) use 084 or 087 numbers for complaints or customer service help lines, and 89% of current account providers use them for complaints or customer service help lines.

Existing customers are also being charged more than new ones, with free 0800 numbers used for 52% of sales or new customer lines compared with just 26% for existing customers and 21% for complaints.

Populus surveyed 2,070 adults online between August 30 and September 1.

Barclays and Barclaycard have announced they will offer a freephone or basic rate number for all customer help lines, while NatWest and RBS are also dropping costly calls.

Which? has called on other providers to follow their example.

The EU Consumer Rights Directive ban on the use of expensive numbers for customer help lines comes into force next year, but financial firms are excluded.

Which? is calling on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to clarify existing rules to stop financial services companies from using high rate numbers on complaints lines, and change the rules so they also cover customer help lines.

The watchdog's executive director Richard Lloyd said: "Millions of us prefer to deal with our bank on the phone, yet we are expected to cough up for a costly call when we do.

"It's not right that financial companies are being let off the hook."

Ashok Vaswani, chief executive of Barclays Retail and Business Banking, said: "For many customers the telephone is the most convenient way in which to contact us, so it's right that we have taken this step to ensure that no customer need dial a premium or high rate number simply to speak to us."

A British Bankers' Association spokesman said: "We expect to see many banks changing to use local numbers for complaints in the near future and it is good to see that some banks have already committed to doing so."

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Thomas Cook Offloads Foreign Exchange Unit

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The chief executive of Thomas Cook will on Monday continue her reshaping of the revitalised tour operator by unveiling the sale of its foreign currency division.

Sky News has learnt that Harriet Green struck a deal on Friday to sell Thomas Cook Corporate Foreign Exchange (CFX) to Moneycorp, a rival operator owned by funds affiliated to the state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

A statement is expected to be made to the London Stock Exchange on Monday to confirm the transaction.

The deal is understood to value the unit at only about £5m but is expected to be viewed by the City as a further step towards re-modeling Thomas Cook under the stewardship of Ms Green, who took over as chief executive last year.

Ms Green has presided over a sharp rise in the company's share price after tapping investors for more than £400m in new equity earlier this year and announcing a plan to refocus Thomas Cook on fewer core brands and higher-margin activities.

The fate of one of the best-known names in the UK holiday sector had been hanging in the balance when Ms Green contacted Thomas Cook's chairman, Frank Meysmann, to urge him to consider for the vacant chief executive's post.

Since taking over, she has sold a string of non-core assets, including its business in Egypt and Lebanon last month for just under £10m.

At a trading update in September, the company said it was hopeful of a positive end to its financial year, with full-year results to be published later this month.

"While we expect geopolitical events may impact destination choice, we are, following the improved integration of our business lines, offering customers a wider range of new routes and attractive vacations which we believe will provide a sound basis for continued performance into the new financial year," Thomas Cook said.

"This combined with the continued delivery of our new product range and our cost-out and profit improvement plan, give us confidence of achieving our targets and successfully implementing our strategy for profitable growth."

Thomas Cook declined to comment while Moneycorp could not be reached on Sunday.

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Crunch Time As Biscuit-Maker Seals £350m Sale

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The maker of Jammie Dodgers and Wagon Wheels is finalising an agreement to sell itself this weekend to a Canadian pension fund for around £350m.

Sky News understands that Burton's Biscuits is expected to announce on Saturday that it is being taken over by a major financial investor, with an arm of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in pole position to land the deal.

The sale has not yet been completed, and sources close to the talks said it remained possible that a rival bidder could yet make an improved last-minute offer.

Three other firms - Clayton Dubilier & Rice, Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus, which is an investor in Premier Foods, the UK's biggest branded foods producer - also tabled final offers for Burton's on Thursday.

Ontario Teachers has become a voracious acquirer of British companies in recent years, taking over Camelot, the National Lottery operator, and Busy Bees, the nursery chain.

If it completes the Burton's deal, it will look to expand the business overseas and consider further acquisitions.

A sale of Burton's will entail a change of ownership for another portfolio of prominent UK food brands following the sale several months ago of the snacks division of United Biscuits (UB), which included Hula Hoops and KP Skips among its products.

Burton's is Britain's second-largest biscuits manufacturer by sales, behind UB, which is also owned by two private equity groups, Blackstone and PAI Partners.

As well as Wagon Wheels, Burton's produces Cadbury Biscuits, Lyon's and Maryland cookies.

Based in St Albans, Hertfordshire, Burton's traces its roots back to the mid-1800s when it was founded by George Burton.

It employs more than 2,200 people around the UK in three manufacturing facilities in Llantarnam, Edinburgh and Blackpool, a chocolate refinery in Moreton and a central distribution hub in Liverpool.

Burton's is one of a sizeable number of mid-sized British companies which has been through several phases of private equity ownership.

In 2009, Apollo and CIBC, the Canadian bank, seized control of the company after Duke Street Capital, its previous owner, was forced to surrender control to the biscuit-maker's lenders.

Another private equity group, HM Capital, had bought the company in 2000 from Associated British Foods, owner of the Primark retail chain.

The auction of Burton's will pre-empt that of UB, which is expected to be put up for sale in the next couple of years.

Ontario Teachers is now likely to draw up plans to bid for part or all of UB.

UB, which now consists solely of a biscuits business, owns the McVitie's brand, which includes products such as Jaffa Cakes and Penguin.

Spokesmen for Burton's and Ontario Teachers declined to comment.

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Clegg Calls For Fifth Income Tax Threshold Rise

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is calling on his coalition partners to raise the income tax threshold for a fifth time so the Government can "reward" voters for years of austerity.

The Liberal Democrat leader wants Chancellor George Osborne to take advantage of the improving economy and raise the threshold at which people start paying income tax to at least £10,500 by the time of the general election in May 2015, aides have said.

The cut would be worth £100 a year to 24 million ordinary rate taxpayers while taking around half a million people out of income tax altogether.

The Lib Dems have already seen the coalition achieve their manifesto commitment to raise the personal allowance to £10,000 - which was finally reached in the last Budget in March.

Mr Clegg is now keen to be able to claim the political credit for a further advance in what he regards as his "signature tune" policy.

He will write to party activists next week declaring his intention to fight for a "workers' bonus" to reward voters for the sacrifices they have made during the years of austerity.

The move, expected to cost the Treasury £1bn, is likely to infuriate the Tories, who believe they should take just as much credit.

Lib Dems however pointed out that in the televised debates before the last general election, Mr Cameron argued that raising the personal allowance to £10,000 would not be possible.

A source close to Mr Clegg said: "Our polling shows that raising the tax allowance is both strongly associated with the Lib Dems and popular. We know that we are on to a vote winner here.

"The Tories once said this policy wasn't affordable but now they like to claim credit for it. Will they now join the Lib Dems in going further and faster?"

For Labour, shadow treasury chief secretary Chris Leslie dismissed the call, saying the coalition's changes had left working families worse off overall.

"Working people facing a cost-of-living crisis need help right now, but Nick Clegg's Government has instead prioritised a huge tax cut for those earning over £150,000," he said.

"When it comes to people on middle and low incomes, the Government is giving with one hand but taking away much more with the other.

"The Lib Dems need to explain how their proposal would be paid for and why they refuse to back Labour's plan to freeze energy bills and reform the market."

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