More Pensioners Working Into Retirement

By Becky Johnson, Sky News Correspondent

As nearly 10 million people in Britain are now over 65, increasing numbers of pensioners are taking up a second career after they retire.

One in three 45 to 65-year-olds now plan to carry on working into retirement, according to a report by investment group Standard Life.

Sam Almond is 86 and lives in Altrincham, Cheshire, with his wife Hazel. After he retired from his job as the owner of a manufacturing company he began writing books about the financial markets.

His success as an author spurred him on to write a self-help book, Spinach For Breakfast, about the secrets to living longer.

He believes the key to staying young is keeping busy. Every day he gets up at 4.30am to allow time to do some exercise, eat a healthy breakfast and be at his desk for 8am.

The latest census shows the number of people over the age of 65 in England and Wales has increased by 10% over the last decade.

According to the Department for Work and Pensions life expectancy for men is expected to reach 91 by the year 2050.

One reason more people over retirement age are continuing to work is to top up their income.

The National Association for Pension Funds says nine in 10 people believe the state pension will not be enough for them in retirement.

Universities Minister David Willetts told Sky News: "One thing that we've done is transform the regime for older workers by abolishing compulsory retirement ages so that companies can keep staff for longer.

"But there may some people, who've paid off the mortgage and the kids have left home, who want to make a career change.

"We notice increasingly mature students who may have had one career but who are now thinking of getting a new qualification and starting a second career.

"I believe the more people that are out there seeking work, the more jobs get created. And if you look at the record of the last two years, despite the austerity, there have been more than one million extra jobs created in the private sector so we can create the jobs as people come forward who want to do them."

Julie Kertesz, 77, took up stand-up comedy a year ago. She says it's something she fell into by accident after realising she could make people laugh.

Originally from Hungary she has lived and worked around the world, mainly as a chemist.

She retired aged 60 but says she continued to pursue her interests in writing and photography.

She then tried public speaking and has now performed her stand-up routine in more than 50 venues across the UK.

She told Sky News: "The young people who listen to me are surprised and they like it, they say I'd like my grandmother to be like that or my grandfather.

"Don't die before you die - do things and live completely, change things because that is when you live... Even at 70 or 80 you can do wonderful things."

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Swiss Bank Wegelin To Close After Tax Probe

The oldest Swiss private bank is to close after pleading guilty to helping wealthy Americans evade their taxes through secret accounts.

Wegelin & Co, founded in 1741, admitted charges of conspiracy in helping US taxpayers hide at least $1.2bn (£747m) for nearly a decade.

The plea, in a New York court, sounded the death knell for one of Switzerland's most storied banks, whose original European clients pre-date the American Revolution.

The bank agreed to pay $57.8m (£35.9m) to the United States in compensation and fines.

Otto Bruderer, a managing partner at the 271-year-old bank, told the court: "Wegelin was aware that this conduct was wrong."

He said that "from about 2002 through about 2010, Wegelin agreed with certain US taxpayers to evade the US tax obligations of these US taxpayer clients, who filed false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service".

The case against Wegelin is one of the most aggressive bank crackdowns on overseas tax evasion in US history.

It remains unclear whether the bank is required to reveal the details of its American clients.

The fate of three of its bankers - Michael Berlinka, Urs Frei and Roger Keller - indicted in January 2012 on charges later modified to include the bank, also remains up in the air.

The bank initially vowed to resist the charges last February and was declared a fugitive from justice when its Swiss-based executives failed to appear in court.

It claimed because it only had branches in Switzerland it could not be prosecuted by the US, adding that its actions were not in violation of Swiss law.

But in a statement on Thursday from its headquarters in the remote town of St Gallen near the German-Austrian border, it announced it would "cease to operate as a bank" once the matter was concluded.

Since its indictment it has moved quickly to wind down its business, partly through a sale of its non-US assets to regional Swiss bank Raiffesen Gruppe.

In a statement after the plea, assistant US Attorney General Kathryn Keneally said it was a top Justice Department priority "to find those who continue to shirk their tax obligations," as well as those who help them and profit from it.

In 2009, UBS the largest Swiss bank, entered into a deferred-prosecution agreement with US tax authorities on matters related to tax evasion and agreed to turn over the names of 4,450 clients and pay a $780m (£485m) fine.

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Tax Cheats: HMRC Publishes Names and Photos

The names and photographs of last year's top tax cheats have been made public as part of the Government's efforts to crack down on evasion.

The 32 criminals have been sentenced to a combined 155 years and 10 months behind bars, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said.

The move to publish their details is designed to shame tax cheats.

The Government invested £917m in tackling tax evasion, avoidance and fraud in 2011-12, with an additional £77m planned over the next two years.

"Most people play by the rules and pay what they owe, but HMRC is cracking down on those who don't," said Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke.

"We hope that publishing these pictures will help get across that it always makes sense to declare all your income, and tax dodgers are simply storing up trouble for the future."

The Government hopes its crackdown will raise an additional £7bn each year by 2014-15.

Among those whose details were published was a criminal gang that has been jailed for one of the biggest alcohol-smuggling frauds ever uncovered in the UK.

The scam was worth £50m a year in unpaid duty and VAT, and allowed the gang members to spend vast amounts of money on luxury cars and properties throughout Europe.

The Prime Minister has made tackling tax avoidance a key issue of the UK's presidency of the G8 group, amid mounting concerns over the tax policies of big international firms in the country.

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iPhone Mini? Smartphone War 'May Prompt Launch'

Samsung will increase its dominance of the Smartphone market in 2013 - prompting Apple to fight back with a cheaper "iPhone mini", experts believe.

Samsung smartphone sales are tipped to grow 35% - from 215 million last year to 290 million in 2013 - according to market researcher Strategy Analytics.

Meanwhile Apple's smartphone sales are forecast to reach 180 million this year, up 33% from last year.

This will give the South Korean company a 33% share of the 2013 smartphone market, up from last year's estimated 31%, while Apple's share will rise by 1% to 21%.

According to Strategy Analytics, Apple may respond by launching a smaller and cheaper smartphone - the iPhone Mini.

However, it is not expected to be available before 2014.

"We expect Samsung to slightly extend its lead over Apple this year because of its larger multi-tier product portfolio," Strategy Analytics executive director Neil Mawston said.

Reports suggest Samsung may launch the Galaxy S IV - a new version of its flagship smartphone - in April, and the Galaxy Note III phablet, plus a series of other new smartphones over the course of the year.

"Samsung plays in more segments and this should enable it to capture more volume than Apple (assuming Apple does not launch an 'iPhone Mini' this year)," Mr Mawston added.

The rivals - which dominate the global mobile device market - have been locked in legal disputes around the world over design and technology.

Last month, Apple lost its bid to ban the sale of several Samsung smartphone models in the US.

Shortly afterwards, Samsung announced it was dropping legal action seeking to ban the sale of Apple products in Europe.

In August 2012, Apple was awarded $1.05bn (£655m) in damages after jurors found Samsung had illegally copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad.

A further copyright court case involving the companies over newer products is set to come to trial in the US in 2014.

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Apple Defends Corporate Tax Arrangements

Tech giant Apple has defended its tax arrangements in the United States, ahead of a Congressional report into corporate finance structures.

In a statement Apple said it paid "an enormous amount of taxes" to local, state and federal authorities.

It added: "In fiscal 2012 we paid $6bn (£3.73bn) in federal corporate incomes taxes, which is 1 out of every 40 dollars in corporate income taxes collected by the US government."

Apple's statement was prompted by the year-long Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations inquiry into at least six of America's leading technology firms.

The report, which also addresses the arrangements used by Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Google and some biotech firms, is expected to be released shortly.

According to the New York Times, Apple has become a central focus of the inquiry.

It said Apple, the world's most valuable tech company, had helped pioneer offshore tax structures in the 1970s through Irish, Dutch and Caribbean subsidiaries.

Senator Carl Levin has grilled executives of tech firms

The paper said: "Although the majority of Apple's executives, product designers, marketers, employees, research and development operations and retail stores are in the US, in the past Apple's accountants have found legal ways to allocate about 70% of the company's profits overseas, where tax rates are often much lower, according to corporate filings."

Last year MPs on the Public Accounts Committee grilled executives from Starbucks, Amazon and Google over the low level of their UK corporate tax rates.

It emerged that Starbucks paid £8.6m UK tax over 13 years on sales of £3.1bn, while Google paid £6m in tax for 2011 on sales of £395m.

Amazon was also revealed to have paid no UK corporation tax in 2011 although it amassed sales of £3.3bn in the year.

Starbucks, which has built an image of being an ethically-minded firm, responded to a UK consumer backlash by offering £10m to HM Revenue and Customs for the tax year.

Top US firms have come under scrutiny in Britain for their tax arrangements

During the US inquiry's hearing in September, Senator Carl Levin indicated that Apple had deferred taxes on at least $35bn (£29bn) of offshore income during two years.

Apple responded to the increasing clamour over corporate tax by saying it was "one of the top corporate income taxpayers in the country, if not the largest".

The company added that it "conducted all of its business with the highest of ethical standards, complying with applicable laws and accounting rules".

Ex-Treasury Department economist Martin Sullivan told the newspaper: "Apple went out of its way to try and ensure that its tax savings didn't attract too much public attention.

"Because tax avoidance of that magnitude - even though it's legal and permissible - isn't in keeping with the image of a socially progressive company."

Apple's image of social responsibility has also suffered recently through revelations about worker conditions at sub-contractor Foxconn's facilities in China.

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Power Tech Pioneer Plots Fundraising

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

One of Britain's fastest-growing advanced technology companies has hired bankers to prepare a cash call that will value the loss-making business at more than £300m.

I understand that Intelligent Energy has appointed Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) to drum up interest from potential investors in the fuel cell pioneer.

Intelligent Energy, which is based in Loughborough, wants to use the new capital partly to cement its status as an emerging supplier of fuel cells for electric cars.

BAML will work alongside Rothschild, Intelligent Energy's existing financial adviser, on the fundraising plan.

Intelligent Energy, which was established by four Loughborough University academics in 1995, wants to raise the money to accelerate its expansion into consumer electronics products and overseas markets including India.

A similar fundraising exercise last year saw the company attract nearly £20m of new money, valuing it at approximately £300m.

The fundraising exercise comes amid a range of projects aimed at exploiting Intelligent Energy's technology amid a race to win contracts from the world's largest car manufacturers. It has a contract with Suzuki to develop hydrogen fuel cell engines for mass production.

The company is a beneficiary of growing incentives from governments to develop more sustainable technologies, although it has yet to make an annual profit.

Fuel cells use the power generated when hydrogen is combined with oxygen, are emerging as an alternative to conventional battery power for electric cars.

A report by the management consultancy McKinsey concluded that fuel cells were the "lowest-carbon solution for medium and larger cars", which it said account for half of all cars and 75 per cent of CO2 emissions.

Last year, Intelligent Energy appointed Paul Heiden, a former finance director of Rolls-Royce, as its new chairman, and Rothschild, the advisory firm, as its financial advisor.

Intelligent Energy declined to comment on the fundraising plan or on the identities of its existing shareholders.

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Console Sales Plunge As App Gaming Takes Off

Video game console sales fell by a third in the UK in 2012, according to the latest industry figures.

Overall sales were down 33.1% from the previous year, with purchases of home consoles, such as the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, falling by 34.1%.

Handheld consoles fell by 31.3%, despite the introduction of new products such as the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo's 3DS XL.

The figures from the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE), a trade body, and research company GfK Chart-Track are based on a panel of more than 30 online and High Street retailers, including Game, Blockbuster, Amazon, Play and the major supermarkets.

However, UKIE said the figures needed to be seen in the context of the wider gaming market.

More people are playing mobile games such as Angry Birds says the UKIE

It said the growth in app downloads, where gaming is one of the most popular areas, showed the sector was still in good health.

The figures might also be part of a natural dip in sales, it said, as gamers wait for the next generation of consoles, which are expected over the next year or so.

"The fact that traditional console sales are down this year only tells part of the story," said UKIE boss Dr Jo Twist.

"This comes at a time when the main established consoles are nearing the end of their lifecycles.

"We are actually seeing more and more people playing games on ever more devices such as phones and tablets, as well as traditional dedicated games consoles.

"This is an exciting time for the games industry and games players."

The figures showed the Xbox 360 is the UK's best-selling console with 29% of total sales, while the PlayStation 3 has 23% of the market.

Earlier this week, separate figures from the Entertainment Retailers Association painted a positive picture of the games industry, with UK digital sales topping £552m in 2012.

That figure was mainly generated by massive multiplayer online games, social gaming and online console transactions.

It also represents more than digital sales of music and video combined.

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'Triple Dip' Recession Fears In Markit Survey

There are fresh fears that the UK economy is sliding towards a triple dip recession this year after output slipped in the final quarter of 2012.

Output contracted by 0.2%, according to an eagerly awaited indicator for the economy.

The Markit/Cips Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) survey for December found that activity in the powerhouse service sector shrank for the first time in two years.

The index suggested that the economy as a whole has slipped back into contraction during the last three months.

Markit/Cips said the figures, combined with mixed manufacturing and construction figures earlier this week, suggest Britain's economy suffered a bigger drop than most other private sector forecasts.

"The first fall in service sector activity for two years raises the likelihood that the UK economy is sliding back into recession," Markit chief economist Chris Williamson said.

The figures dampen hopes of recent upbeat surveys and official services data for October that Britain would be able to power out of a fourth-quarter contraction.

A fresh fall in GDP, just three months after Britain officially emerged from its second recession since the global financial crisis, would undermine Government economic policy.

"The data today on the services PMI are quite discouraging," Societe Generale economist Brian Hilliard said.

"This is quite worrying. It does suggest that as we come to the turn of the year the economy's been losing momentum, so it doesn't augur well for growth.

"I think (the data) will make it clear to the Bank of England that they should consider more easing, but the point is in the short term at least it's coming in the form of the Funding for Lending scheme and the data on that are quite encouraging."

Markit/Cips said the PMI dropped to 48.9 in December - its lowest level since April - from 50.2 in November.

It is the first time the index has fallen below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction since December 2010, when unusually heavy snow disrupted many businesses.

Separate BoE figures released on Friday morning showed the biggest monthly rise in mortgage approvals since January 2012.

The bank said mortgage approvals reached 54,036 in November, up from 53,071 in October.

Before the financial crisis in 2008 monthly mortgage approvals ran at around 90,000 and were a major driver of consumer spending.

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Ant & Dec To Front Morrisons' TV Adverts

Morrisons has signed a brand endorsement and sponsorship deal with TV presenters Ant & Dec in a drive to boost sales.

The Geordie duo will feature in a campaign throughout 2013, while the supermarket will sponsor their ITV shows Britain's Got Talent and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway as part of the deal with broadcaster ITV, FremantleMedia Enterprises, Syco and James Grant Management.

Forecast by analysts as the worst performing of the major supermarkets at Christmas, the Bradford-based firm, which has 482 stores, hopes the partnership will revive its flagging fortunes.

The new adverts will showcase the supermarket's traditional skills - over 5,000 trained butchers, bakers and fishmongers - which it claims sets it apart from the rest of Britain's major supermarkets.

Recent industry data has shown Morrisons losing market share to big rivals Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's, as well as Aldi and Lidl.

In November, the firm posted a worsening sales decline and parted company with its commercial director, Richard Hodgson, saying it had failed to get its selling points across to consumers.

During the four weeks ending December 2, Morrisons spent £7.1m on TV and press, while Tesco was the highest spending at £11.8m, followed by Asda at £11.2m then Sainsbury's at £7.3m.

Morrisons is set to release the details of its Christmas trading figures for the six weeks to December 30 on Monday.

Analysts are predicting the firm will reveal a fall in sales of about 2%.

Unlike its competitors, Morrisons does not offer an online shopping service.

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FSA To Sweep Away New Bank Barriers

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The City regulator will set out proposals later this month to slash capital requirements for new banks as ministers try to ferment fresh competition to the industry's dominant players.

I have learned that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has convened a summit on January 16 at which it will lay out plans to sweep away many of the restrictions that critics have argued have restricted the ability of new banks to get off the ground.

Among those attending the meeting will be representatives of the Treasury, the British Bankers' Association and the Association of Foreign Banks. The regulator's plans will be set out by Martin Wheatley and Andrew Bailey, the managing directors of the FSA.

According to insiders, the main proposal will be to relax the requirement for new lenders to hold comparable capital buffers to established banks during the early stages of their existence. Under current rules, new banks must significantly increase the capital they hold during their third year of operation, a measure that the FSA will propose is abolished.

Virgin Money entered the banking market as an alternative to the 'Big Four'

The existing capital regime has been criticised as excessively onerous by some executives who have attempted to launch banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

Only one new high street lender - Metro Bank - has opened its doors in recent times, and ministers are keen to encourage further efforts to assail the dominance of the likes of Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.

A number of other projects, including a telephone and internet-based lender called Home & Savings Bank, have failed to see the light of day because of capital-raising difficulties.

Modernisation in 1959 included drive-in banks, like this one in Leicester

Last autumn, Mr Wheatley told the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards that the reformed regime for authorising new banks would achieve the Government's competition objectives.

"We are looking at a staged process where we can give new entrants enough certainty to recruit a chief executive and get capital but still reserve our position that they cannot be fully operational until the right things are in place."

The effort to remove capital obstacles to the formation of new banks comes as regulators intensify pressure on Britain's major lenders to increase the financial buffers in place to protect them in the event of a future financial crash.

The Bank of England, which will assume responsibility for regulating the banking industry this year, has warned lenders that they will need to restrict dividend and bonus payments in order to conserve capital.

The FSA, which is expected to publish its plans early next month, declined to comment on the forthcoming meeting.

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