EasyJet: Budget Airline Joins FTSE 100

Budget airline easyJet has been promoted to the FTSE 100 Index after a record run for its share price.

The Luton-based firm is the London market's 82nd largest company and with a value of £4bn is large enough to earn a place among the ranks of blue-chip companies in the latest quarterly review of FTSE indices.

Its shares closed at a record high of 1017p on Friday, having stood at just under 400p when Carolyn McCall took over as chief executive in July 2010.

The company, which joined the stock market in 2000, has benefited from an improved operational performance and the launch of allocated seating, which helped it attract 10 million business passengers last year.

EasyJet has consistently beaten City expectations for profits but a long-running war of words with founder and major shareholder Sir Stelios Haji Ioannou has overshadowed some of its recent success.

Sir Stelios, whose family holds around 36% of the company's shares, has been unhappy at plans to place a large order for a fleet of more fuel-efficient aircraft.

At its recent annual meeting, the entrepreneur was unsuccessful in a vote against the company's remuneration report and re-election of Sir Mike Rake as chairman.

Sir Mike has already said he will leave the company in the summer because easyJet's promotion to the FTSE 100 Index will conflict with his role as chairman of another blue-chip company, BT Group.

The FTSE 100 is the index of the biggest firms listed in London.

It will be the first time that Easyjet has made it into the blue-chip index.

The London Stock Exchange is also returning to the FTSE 100 after a nearly three-year absence.

The changes will take effect from the start of trading on Monday March 18.

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RBS Apology As Customers Hit By New IT Glitch

RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank have apologised after many customers were unable to log in to their accounts or withdraw cash.

The technical problems come less than a year after they were hit by a computer meltdown that left millions of people unable to access their money.

"We are disappointed that our customers have faced disruption to banking services for a period this evening, and apologise for that," the banks said in a message on Twitter.

The banks said their systems were back to normal around three hours after they admitted there was a problem.

Customers said they had difficulties using cash machines or logging into online banking, while others complained their cards had been declined.

Steve Ireland, who lives in London, told Sky News he discovered the problem when he tried to pay with his card at a supermarket.

RBS boss Stephen Hester had to apologise for a glitch last June

"I was out shopping after a night out with my partner to celebrate a birthday," he said. "I went into a very big chain supermarket and got to the cash desk with all my shopping, only to be told the card was declined.

"It was a really bad experience and very embarrassing. You get evil looks from the cashier when you can't pay."

Stuart Keel, from Cornwall, said he tried to use a cash machine but it was not working.

"We went to the supermarket thinking we could use our cards in there, no problem," he said.

"While we were walking around I was using my NatWest (smartphone) app and it wasn't working at all."

He said his card was then declined at the checkout.

"I thought, 'There's something not right here'," he added.

In June last year, millions of people were affected when a software update failed at the banks.

Customers were unable to view up-to-date balances, while payments such as direct debits for bills were not made and some wages were not received.

Stephen Hester, the chief executive of the banks' parent company RBS Group, which is 80% state-owned, was forced to apologise for the problems at the time and £100m was put aside to compensate customers.

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Dow Industrial Average Closes At All-Time High

By Sky News US Team, in New York

The Dow Jones industrial average has closed at an all-time high, powered by China's strong economic growth targets and a jump in European retail sales

It settled at 14,253.77 points, up 125.95 points, or 0.9%, surpassing its previous record high of 14,198 set on October 11, 2007.

The index is up nearly 9% this year, capping a remarkable comeback. The Dow has more than doubled since hitting a 12-year low in March 2009.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 14 points, or 1%, to 1,539. The S&P also is within striking distance of its record close of 1,565.

The Nasdaq gained 42 points, or 1.3%, to 3,224.

Three stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was light at 3.3 billion shares.

Stocks have rallied this year on optimism that the US housing market is recovering and companies are slowly starting to hire again. Strong corporate earnings have also helped increase demand.

The market has also benefited from economic stimulus from the Federal Reserve and other global central banks.

The US central bank is buying $85bn each month in Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities to keep long-term interest rates very low.

Home prices rose 9.7% in January from a year ago and had the biggest gain since April 2006, according to data released by CoreLogic.

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CPP In Talks Over Debt-For-Equity Swap

By By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

One of Britain's biggest providers of identity theft insurance is in talks about a financial restructuring that could involve its lenders taking a significant stake in the company.

I have learnt that CPP Group is holding discussions about a possible debt-for-equity swap in an attempt to safeguard its future following a mis-selling scandal that saw it hit with a multimillion pound fine by the City regulator.

The talks come ahead of a deadline at the end of this month for CPP to secure new terms with its creditors.

Under one scenario being negotiated with its lenders, which are led by Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander UK, the three banks would exchange debt for an undisclosed proportion of CPP's shares.

Another proposal would involve Hamish Ogston, the entrepreneur who founded CPP and floated it on the stock market in 2010, participating in the refinancing by injecting new funds into the company. Mr Ogston already owns a 57% stake in CPP and could emerge from the refinancing discussions with a larger shareholding, according to insiders.

Among the issues which is at the centre of the conversations is whether any new shares held by Mr Ogston or any other new investor would rank alongside those of the company's existing shareholders. Other business partners of CPP, such as HSBC, could also wind up with an equity stake in the credit card insurer.

Mr Ogston's stake in CPP was worth about £16.5m at Tuesday's closing share price of 17.25p. The company's share price has slumped by more than 80% during the last 12 months.

The banks and CPP have been in talks about the restructuring for more than six months. People close to CPP said that unless a solvent solution could be achieved through a scheme of arrangement that would ring-fence compensation for customers, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme was likely to be forced to step in.

Such an outcome would anger industry members which were not responsible for selling CPP's products. The company markets itself as a "life assistance" provider which sells cover for mobile phone theft, offers access to airport lounges and provides a secure key storage service.

"There is an urgency about the talks which reflects the fact that CPP's debt facilities mature at the end of March," said one person involved in the talks.

Although modest by comparison with the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) and interest rate hedging products, the CPP episode is likely to cost the company and its banking partners as much as £200m.

CPP, which stands for Card Protection Plan, was fined £10.5m by the Financial Services Authority for selling insurance to hundreds of thousands of customers who were already covered by existing policies.

In December, the company said in a statement to the Stock Exchange that it remained in talks with the FSA and its business partners about the structure for offering compensation.

"These discussions continue to include consideration of the use of a solvent Scheme of Arrangement as a vehicle for providing redress. The amount of redress which will require to be paid to customers is uncertain. The Group expects to materially increase the provision it has made for customer redress and associated costs in light of current estimates."

CPP, which employs about 1,000 people at its headquarters in York, sold a relatively small proportion of its policies directly to consumers. The vast majority were sold by bank,s which acted as 'introducers' and which will have to fork out for the bulk of the eventual compensation bill.

The board of CPP has also considered selling the whole company as part of its review of options to preserve its future. However, discussions about a takeover by the US company Affinion Group ended without agreement in November.

Last month, CPP confirmed that RBS had notified it that the bank would not renew its contract for providing mobile phone insurance, while restrictions imposed by the FSA will have an adverse impact on CPP's revenues.

A CPP spokesman declined to comment on Tuesday.

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Funding For Lending Credit Cut Sharply

British lenders taking part in a Bank of England scheme to boost firms' and households' access to credit cut lending sharply in the last three months, official statistics have revealed.

The lower than expected Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) figures have dampened hopes that the project could help revive economic growth.

The BoE announced the scheme jointly with the Government in June 2012, as a way to unblock a credit log-jam which some economists say is a big factor behind Britain's weak economic recovery.

Banks and building societies cut lending by a net £2.425bn between October and December.

The figure compares to an increase of around £1bn in the first months of the FLS's operation.

Total net lending by banks and building societies taking part in the scheme - which includes all major British lenders apart from HSBC - is now down by £1.502bn since June 30.

The bank said that the scheme's benefits will not be fully clear until later in 2013.

"I would not expect to see a return to rising aggregate quantities until we start getting data for 2013 at the earliest," the bank's Paul Fisher said.

Taxpayer-backed lenders Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group saw lending fall, despite drawing money from the scheme.

Lloyds has drawn £3bn so far, but lending fell by £3.1bn last quarter, while RBS has taken £750m, but its lending still fell by £1.7bn.

Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman said that the Government and the BoE had always made clear that it would take some time before the impact of the Funding for Lending scheme was felt, and that it was not expected as early as the fourth quarter of 2012.

"I think the Bank of England at the time of the launch of the policy was clear that it would take some time for the impact of the policy to be fully felt," the spokesman said.

"The most recent figures for lending in the economy, for January - the first month of Q1 2013 (the first quarter of 2013) - show that lending to the economy increased in January.

"I think we are also seeing the impact of the Funding for Lending scheme through lower borrowing costs. I think we are seeing evidence of the policy having a clear impact."

But shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: "These are deeply disappointing figures. Net lending is actually down since the Funding for Lending scheme started and down by £2.4bn in the final three months of 2012.

"And the Bank of England's own figures show that net lending to businesses fell by £4.5bn in the last quarter."

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New FSA Rules Prompt Internet Bank Rethink

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

A new retail bank which has been struggling to secure funding and regulatory approval for more than three years has restarted talks with potential investors, buoyed by new rules governing start-up lenders.

I have learnt that Home & Savings Bank, which has been seeking as much as £250m of external capital since 2009, has in recent weeks resumed canvassing private equity firms, hedge funds and wealthy individuals about backing its launch plans.

The company, which would be a telephone and internet-based lender, is the brainchild of a group of former bank executives and Martin Finegold, the boss of Cambridge Place Asset Management, a London-based hedge fund.

People familiar with Home & Savings Bank's business plan said it had scaled back its ambitions and was now aiming to raise between £100m and £150m.

The nascent bank's management team includes Stuart Sinclair, former head of Tesco Personal Finance, and Peter Birch, one-time head of Abbey National.

Its new fundraising objective has been galvanised by the imminent publication of guidelines by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which will allow banking start-ups to operate with much less capital than established high street rivals.

Mr Finegold's fund has already burned through millions of pounds in costs incurred by the development of Home & Savings Bank.

Over a three-year period it has held talks with dozens of possible investors, including Advent International and Blackstone, the buyout firms, and Magnetar Financial, the hedge fund. Home & Savings Bank also tried to pursue a stock market flotation but without success.

All of those discussions proved fruitless amid what many analysts see as a vicious circle hindering such embryonic projects: regulators will not approve new lenders until they have sufficient capital, while investors are reluctant to commit capital when there is uncertainty about whether a bank will receive regulatory approval.

Since the financial crisis a number of new retail banks have launched in Britain, the most prominent of which has been Metro Bank. Despite its public relations success, however, even it has made only modest competitive in-roads against the likes of Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Last month, Sky News revealed that talks over the FSA reforms were being held up by demands from the Treasury to accelerate further the timetable for authorising new banks.

A spokesman for Home & Savings Bank declined to comment.

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HSBC Boss Gulliver In Line For £2m Bonus

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

HSBC is to award its chief executive a bonus of just under £2m for 2012 following a year of successful strategic action to overhaul the bank but which was marred by a £1.2bn fine for violating US money-laundering laws.

I have learned that HSBC, Britain's biggest lender by market capitalisation, will announce on Monday alongside its full-year results that Stuart Gulliver has been awarded the bonus as part of a multimillion pound pay package.

Mr Gulliver intends to accept the award, according to HSBC insiders. His bonus will be deferred and subject to clawback, and he will not be able to cash it in until he retires from or leaves HSBC.

As part of an effort to demonstrate greater transparency over the way it rewards top executives, HSBC will for the first time publish a single figure for the aggregate pay and benefits packages awarded to Mr Gulliver and his most senior colleagues.

This will include pension contributions as well as salary, annual bonus and a long-term share award that has been allotted to him this year. It is designed to show compliance with new Government rules that will come into force later this year, which have been spearheaded by Vince Cable, the Business Secretary.

Douglas Flint, the chairman, Sir Simon Robertson, the deputy chairman, and John Thornton, the non-executive director who chairs the remuneration committee, are understood to have orchestrated the switch to the new disclosure regime ahead of the Government deadline.

For 2011, Mr Gulliver was awarded an annual bonus of just over £2.1m, alongside his base salary of £1.25m and £3.75m in long-term share awards, making a total of £7.2m.

In 2012, his bonus and LTIP are understood to have been determined "in broadly the same ballpark" with a total package worth between £6m and £7m, one person close to the bank said.

HSBC has been applauded by many leading City shareholders for the way it details its executive pay policies through the publication of a 'scorecard' for Mr Gulliver, who took over in 2011.

The chief executive is eligible for an annual bonus of three times his salary and six times his base pay in long-term incentive awards.

A chunk of both payments is determined by HSBC's compliance success and the bank's reputation during a 12-month period. Mr Gulliver is understood to have been awarded nothing in this bracket in 2012, the same outcome as a year earlier, when HSBC was fined for mis-selling bonds to elderly customers.

HSBC suffered one of the most ignominious episodes in its history last year, when it was forced to pay £1.2bn to US regulators to settle money laundering and sanctions breaches which had allowed its Mexican operation to be used by drug cartels and terrorist organisations.

In January, the bank established a committee to bolster its defences against financial crime, recruiting the former heads of HM Revenue and Customs and the Serious Organised Crime Agency, as well as a former US deputy attorney-general.

HSBC will set out plans on Monday to claw back millions of pounds from senior executives deemed to have been culpable in the Mexican situation.

While the bank will not name the affected individuals, they include Sandy Flockhart, the former head of the bank's Asian operation, who was at one stage seen as a contender against Mr Gulliver for the top job.

Mr Flockhart, who left HSBC last year, ran its Mexican subsidiary between 2002 and 2007, and had several million pounds-worth of shares which he is understood to have been told he will not now receive.

I understand, however, that Lord Green, the trade minister who stepped down as HSBC chairman in 2010, will not be included in the clawback effort, partly because he opted to take his long-term pay awards as pension contributions.

Michael Geoghegan, Mr Gulliver's predecessor as chief executive, has also been excluded from the clawback arrangement because the bank's remuneration committee did not conclude that he had been personally responsible for the compliance failings.

The effort to demonstrate pay restraint will be reflected in a lower bonus pool than the £2.8bn that was paid out for 2011, less than a quarter of which was paid to UK employees. HSBC will say on Monday that there has been an across-the-board reduction in the payout pot because of the US fine, although it is still understood to be paying out roughly £2bn in bonuses to staff around the world.

HSBC is also expected to pay a healthy final dividend, with its payouts to shareholders an increasingly-important source of income to UK investors in the context of a banking sector which has seen dividend expenditure shrink dramatically since the financial crisis.

In the UK, HSBC has abandoned a structure for paying staff that saw it impose a £50,000 cap on cash bonuses last year. The scheme involved the bank issuing shares that were then sold immediately in the market to hand executives larger cash sums.

HSBC bosses felt the initiative, devised with the Bank of England and Financial Services Authority, was "cosmetic". Instead, payouts will not include a cash ceiling but larger sums will have to be deferred for several years and won't pay out until employees leave or retire.

Analysts expect HSBC's full-year results to show continued progress under Mr Gulliver at accelerating the pace of change of what had historically been seen as a sluggish supertanker.

He has sold scores of businesses which did not meet internal targets for generating returns and has prioritised growth in the world's fastest-growing economies.

"HSBC has made excellent progress in its strategy to simplify the business and refocus it on growth markets and markets that benefit from international connectivity," analysts at Shore Capital said.

They predict underlying full-year profit of £12.5bn, against £11.8bn in 2011.

HSBC, which declined to comment, is also expected to outline a further provision for compensating customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance.

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StanChart Cuts Bonuses After £440m Iran Fine

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Standard Chartered will this week cut both its group-wide bonus pool and the payout for its chief executive despite a record trading year buoyed by continued economic growth in its core markets.

I understand that London-headquartered Standard Chartered will announce alongside its annual results on Tuesday that it will pay out around $1.4bn (£930m) in bonuses, down from $1.535bn (£1.02bn) last year.

Peter Sands, the bank's chief executive, will see his own award reduced from $3.5m (£2.3m) for 2011 to less than £2m, according to insiders.

Bank chief executive Peter Sands

The reduced payouts will reflect a $667m (£443m) settlement struck late last year between the bank and US regulators over failings in the disclosure of transactions with entities in countries including Iran.

The smaller bonus pool will come despite analysts' expectations that Standard Chartered will announce underlying profits for last year of approximately $7.5bn (£5bn). Including the US fines at a statutory level, earnings are expected to be flat compared to last year's $6.8bn (£4.5bn).

People close to the bank said the bonus reductions were not only an acknowledgement of the Iran episode. They were, they said, also a reflection of demands for banks to hold more capital and for Standard Chartered's board to continue delivering its commitment to a progressive dividend policy.

More detailed disclosure about pay for top executives will not emerge until Standard Chartered's annual report is published next month.

People close to the bank said it would not be able to reclaim past bonuses in relation to the US settlement because the staff involved in the erroneous processing actions were too junior and because the errors took place before clawback was an established feature of bankers' employment contracts.

Standard Chartered, which declined to comment on its bonus plans, is also expected to criticise the deal proposed last week by the European Commission to cap bank bonuses at the level of a year's salary, or two years' with the consent of shareholders.

The rules, which if ratified will come into effect next year, would apply to the global operations of any bank domiciled within the European Union.

Standard Chartered would be at a particular disadvantage from these rules because, although it is based in London, it does little business within the EU. The bank's operations are focused on Asia and Africa, having positioned itself to benefit from the emerging trading blocs of the next few decades.

Mr Sands is thought to be particularly annoyed by the EU proposals after several reviews of Standard Chartered's domicile concluded that the UK continued to offer the most appropriate base for the bank.

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Pressure On First Buyers As House Prices Rise

By Nick Martin, Sky Correspondent

House prices edged up month-on-month in both January and February this year, bringing good news for homeowners but adding pressure on first-time buyers.

Building society Nationwide said it was cautiously optimistic that activity will pick up in the months ahead.

It comes after reports revealed more young people were living with their parents while trying to save for a deposit for a property. 

According to the Halifax, the average age of a first-time buyer is 30 years old - up from 29 in 2011.

There has been a significant increase in the proportion of first time buyers receiving financial help in recent years.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) estimate that 65% of first time buyers of had financial assistance in mid 2012 compared with 31% in mid-2005.

Kirsty Gilmore, 26, from Bristol, has been living at home for 18 months and has saved more than £30,000. But that is still not enough to buy a property. She says the market is so competitive it is hard to get a good price.

"I want to have my own place, I want to start a family and have a home to call my own, not just my mum and dad's.

"You feel a bit excluded from society - nobody cares and you're stuck in this rut really - and everyone else my age is," she told Sky News.

Mortgage approvals for home buyers have dipped for the first time since a Government scheme to boost lending was launched last August, Bank of England figures showed.

There were 54,719 approvals in January, showing a 2% decline compared with an 11-month high recorded the previous month and marking the first time that there has been a month-on-month decrease since July.

Mortgage approvals for house purchases had been on a steady upward path since the Government's Funding for Lending scheme, which aims to help borrowers by giving lenders access to cheap finance, was launched at the start of August.

The latest figures echo recent findings from the CML, with some analysts blaming the recent bad weather.

Housing minister Mark Prisk said the Government was trying to help first time buyers get onto the property ladder.

"Many people have to rely on the bank of mum and dad - so what we are trying to do with the builders and the Government by putting equity loans forward is make those deposit affordable for first time buyers. It's already helped 17,000 people. We hope it will help 27,000."

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HSBC Boss Gulliver In Line For £2m Bonus

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

HSBC is to award its chief executive a bonus of just under £2m for 2012 following a year of successful strategic action to overhaul the bank but which was marred by a £1.2bn fine for violating US money-laundering laws.

I have learned that HSBC, Britain's biggest lender by market capitalisation, will announce on Monday alongside its full-year results that Stuart Gulliver has been awarded the bonus as part of a multimillion pound pay package.

Mr Gulliver intends to accept the award, according to HSBC insiders. His bonus will be deferred and subject to clawback, and he will not be able to cash it in until he retires from or leaves HSBC.

As part of an effort to demonstrate greater transparency over the way it rewards top executives, HSBC will for the first time publish a single figure for the aggregate pay and benefits packages awarded to Mr Gulliver and his most senior colleagues.

This will include pension contributions as well as salary, annual bonus and a long-term share award that has been allotted to him this year. It is designed to show compliance with new Government rules that will come into force later this year, which have been spearheaded by Vince Cable, the Business Secretary.

Douglas Flint, the chairman, Sir Simon Robertson, the deputy chairman, and John Thornton, the non-executive director who chairs the remuneration committee, are understood to have orchestrated the switch to the new disclosure regime ahead of the Government deadline.

For 2011, Mr Gulliver was awarded an annual bonus of just over £2.1m, alongside his base salary of £1.25m and £3.75m in long-term share awards, making a total of £7.2m.

In 2012, his bonus and LTIP are understood to have been determined "in broadly the same ballpark" with a total package worth between £6m and £7m, one person close to the bank said.

HSBC has been applauded by many leading City shareholders for the way it details its executive pay policies through the publication of a 'scorecard' for Mr Gulliver, who took over in 2011.

The chief executive is eligible for an annual bonus of three times his salary and six times his base pay in long-term incentive awards.

A chunk of both payments is determined by HSBC's compliance success and the bank's reputation during a 12-month period. Mr Gulliver is understood to have been awarded nothing in this bracket in 2012, the same outcome as a year earlier, when HSBC was fined for mis-selling bonds to elderly customers.

HSBC suffered one of the most ignominious episodes in its history last year, when it was forced to pay £1.2bn to US regulators to settle money laundering and sanctions breaches which had allowed its Mexican operation to be used by drug cartels and terrorist organisations.

In January, the bank established a committee to bolster its defences against financial crime, recruiting the former heads of HM Revenue and Customs and the Serious Organised Crime Agency, as well as a former US deputy attorney-general.

HSBC will set out plans on Monday to claw back millions of pounds from senior executives deemed to have been culpable in the Mexican situation.

While the bank will not name the affected individuals, they include Sandy Flockhart, the former head of the bank's Asian operation, who was at one stage seen as a contender against Mr Gulliver for the top job.

Mr Flockhart, who left HSBC last year, ran its Mexican subsidiary between 2002 and 2007, and had several million pounds-worth of shares which he is understood to have been told he will not now receive.

I understand, however, that Lord Green, the trade minister who stepped down as HSBC chairman in 2010, will not be included in the clawback effort, partly because he opted to take his long-term pay awards as pension contributions.

Michael Geoghegan, Mr Gulliver's predecessor as chief executive, has also been excluded from the clawback arrangement because the bank's remuneration committee did not conclude that he had been personally responsible for the compliance failings.

The effort to demonstrate pay restraint will be reflected in a lower bonus pool than the £2.8bn that was paid out for 2011, less than a quarter of which was paid to UK employees. HSBC will say on Monday that there has been an across-the-board reduction in the payout pot because of the US fine, although it is still understood to be paying out roughly £2bn in bonuses to staff around the world.

HSBC is also expected to pay a healthy final dividend, with its payouts to shareholders an increasingly-important source of income to UK investors in the context of a banking sector which has seen dividend expenditure shrink dramatically since the financial crisis.

In the UK, HSBC has abandoned a structure for paying staff that saw it impose a £50,000 cap on cash bonuses last year. The scheme involved the bank issuing shares that were then sold immediately in the market to hand executives larger cash sums.

HSBC bosses felt the initiative, devised with the Bank of England and Financial Services Authority, was "cosmetic". Instead, payouts will not include a cash ceiling but larger sums will have to be deferred for several years and won't pay out until employees leave or retire.

Analysts expect HSBC's full-year results to show continued progress under Mr Gulliver at accelerating the pace of change of what had historically been seen as a sluggish supertanker.

He has sold scores of businesses which did not meet internal targets for generating returns and has prioritised growth in the world's fastest-growing economies.

"HSBC has made excellent progress in its strategy to simplify the business and refocus it on growth markets and markets that benefit from international connectivity," analysts at Shore Capital said.

They predict underlying full-year profit of £12.5bn, against £11.8bn in 2011.

HSBC, which declined to comment, is also expected to outline a further provision for compensating customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance.

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