Thursday newspaper round-up: Retirement, Centrica boss, energy prices

Millions of people in their late 30s and early 40s look set to have to work for an extra year after an official review recommended pushing up the state pension age (SPA) more quickly than previously planned. The independent report said the SPA should rise to 68 by 2039 instead of 2046. It also recommended that the state pension “triple lock” is withdrawn in the next parliament. – Guardian

The boss of British Gas’s parent company was handed a pay increase of nearly 40% last year, a raise Labour attacked as “astronomical” and a “kick in the teeth” for millions of families living in fuel poverty. Centrica chief executive Iain Conn’s remuneration jumped from £3.02m in 2015 to £4.15m in 2016, enough to pay the heating and lighting bills for nearly 4,000 customers on the company’s standard tariff. – Guardian

The Government’s pledge to curb household energy prices risks sabotaging the retail market leaving consumers worse off in the long run, a group of former regulators has warned. The UK’s largest energy suppliers are braced for what could be the industry’s most significant political hit yet following a decade of heated debate over rising energy bills and low levels of consumer switching. – Telegraph

The largest independent challenger to the UK’s ‘Big Six’ energy suppliers has set its sights on the broadband sector in an attempt to widen its consumer appeal as retail competition heats up. First Utility, which supplies gas and electricity to about 900,000 households, plans to undercut the broadband rates offered by the four largest telecoms giants to target the 15m broadband customers who pay a higher monthly rate for "out-of-contract" rates. – Telegraph

Japanese exporters are bouncing back, but at the risk of exciting the protectionist instincts of President Trump. The country enjoyed its biggest trade surplus for seven years in February thanks to increased demand in China. After shrinking for three months, the trade surplus with the United States also rose for the first time since Mr Trump entered the White House. – The Times

The City watchdog has won a crucial legal victory after the Supreme Court ruled that it had not wrongfully identified a former senior banker at JP Morgan blamed for the American bank’s “London Whale” trading scandal. In a majority ruling, Britain’s highest court said that the Financial Conduct Authority had not identified Achilles Macris as part of a £138 million settlement in 2013 that criticised managers of the bank’s chief investment office. – The Times