Tuesday newspaper round-up: Weale, negative rates, FCA, BT

One of the UK’s top monetary policymakers has indicated he has changed his mind after a series of negative business surveys and now favours an immediate stimulus for the UK economy. The new stance of Martin Weale, an independent member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, all but guarantees that the central bank will announce a package of stimulus measures to fight a post-referendum downturn at its August 4 meeting. - Financial Times

Royal Bank of Scotland's Natwest has become the first bank to warn business customers it may charge them negative interest rates on money held in current accounts. In what is believed to be a UK first, the bank has signalled its intention to force account holders to either pay to hold money or move funds elsewhere. - Telegraph

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) should be stripped of its powers to fine and ban individuals for wrongdoing, according to a report by MPs that calls on new chancellor Philip Hammond to commission an independent review into whether an alternative investigatory body should be set up. The Treasury select committee said a new enforcement function should be set up outside the FCA and the Bank of England. Such a move would address the issues raised by the report into the collapse of HBOS, which was published in November 2015. - The Guardian

A tax break used by millions of homeowners provides “scope for widescale abuse to go undetected”, according to the government’s spending watchdog. The National Audit Office has called for more scrutiny of the capital gains tax exemption, which is used by people selling their main home and costs the exchequer £18bn a year. - Financial Times

Commerzbank warned on Monday night that its capital position had weakened in the second quarter as the result of a number of accounting adjustments. In an unscheduled announcement, Germany’s second-largest bank by assets said that its core tier one capital ratio — a key measure of financial strength — had fallen from 12 per cent at the end of March to 11.5 per cent at the end of June. - Financial Times

Sir Philip Green has broken cover to complain that a highly damning report by MPs was a “biased and unfair process” and is considering a legal complaint against the co-chairman of the Commons select committee responsible for the inquiry into BHS. The retail tycoon had been branded the "unacceptable face of capitalism" by a joint select committee who held him responsible for the demise of BHS. - Telegraph

BT Group made a last-ditch offer to appoint an independent board and chairman to oversee its Openreach division yesterday on the eve of a report by the regulator that may recommend a split. Openreach owns the copper wires and fibre that connect homes and businesses to telephone exchanges, enabling broadband internet connections. Ofcom, the regulator, will report today on the steps BT can take to improve the performance of Openreach. - The Times

New "mini" nuclear reactor technology should be built at the site of a former nuclear power station in Wales, a committee of Welsh MPs has said. The Trawsfynydd nuclear plant in Snowdonia National Park has been shut down since 1991 and is undergoing the lengthy process of decommissioning, making the site an "ideal" location to build small modular reactors, MPs on the Welsh Affairs select committee said. - Telegraph

Amazon has announced that it will partner with the British government to run tests to explore the viability of delivery of small parcels by drone – the first time such tests have been run in the UK. In a press release, the company announced that a cross-government team supported by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) gave permission to Amazon to explore three key areas: operations beyond line of sight, obstacle avoidance and flights where one person operates multiple autonomous drones. - Guardian

Profits at Arm Holdings could fall as the company shifts its focus to researching microchip designs for the “internet of things”, its new owner has said. Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank, is placing a big bet that the internet of things (IoT) will create booming demand for the microchips that Arm designs and that being taken private by SoftBank will free the company's management from the pressure of quarterly earnings to concentrate on designing new chips for the IoT, self-driving cars, servers and enterprise. - The Times