Wednesday newspaper round-up: Brexit, banks, food, Capita, fracking

The City will maintain access to European markets after Brexit if British regulations are similar enough to its own, the vice-president of the European Commission has said. Valdis Dombrovskis said that UK banks probably could use a system of equivalence to secure EU access after Britain leaves the bloc. However, he warned that Brussels had a “unilateral and discretionary” say over whether regulation would be strong enough. - The Times

The UK will have to pay its Brexit “divorce bill” of up to £39bn even if no agreement is reached on a future trade deal with the EU, the head of Whitehall’s spending watchdog has said. The head of the National Audit Office (NAO), Sir Amyas Morse, said on Tuesday that if parliament approves the withdrawal agreement in a vote in the autumn, it will become a legally binding treaty regardless of the success of separate trade talks, contrary to Theresa May's statement that she will not pay Brussels the money if it denies Britain a post-Brexit trade deal. - Guardian

Buy-one-get-one-free deals on junk food are set to be banned after opposition parties gave Theresa May their backing to tackle the obesity crisis. Stringent action to combat unhealthy lifestyles is due to be announced within weeks, sources said, reflecting a shift in public opinion in favour of measures such as banning junk food advertising before 9pm and preventing celebrities from endorsing fatty or sugary products. - The Times

Banks have been accused of giving savers a raw deal after analysis found that nine out of ten did not pass on last year’s interest rate rise in full. The failure to raise returns in line with the quarter point increase in the Bank of England base rate is costing Britons an estimated £600 million a year in lost interest — the equivalent of almost £15 for every person with a savings account. - The Times

The government has repeatedly refused to give MPs assurances on what contingency plans it has in place in the event that Capita, the outsourcing group, gets into similar financial trouble to that which resulted in the collapse of Carillion, another major Whitehall contractor, at the start of the year. Exchanges in the Commons that left both Conservative and opposition MPs frustrated, followed comments earlier to a parliamentary committee by Sir Amyas Morse, the auditor-general, that ministers and civil servants need to act “earlier and more intrusively” in monitoring contractors and improve their game in outsourcing procurement. - The Times

More than 400,000 households were vulnerable to hackers eavesdropping on their web browsing habits and credit card details thanks to a flaw in equipment from a British broadband provider. Hyperoptic, Britain's largest residential gigabit broadband provider, provided customers with routers made by ZTE, the Chinese company that last week prompted a security warning from GCHQ. - Telegraph

More than 6,000 shale gas wells would be needed to replace half the UK’s gas imports over a 15-year period, according to a new report. The nascent UK fracking industry has argued that growing reliance on gas from Norway and Qatar necessitates developing home-produced supplies in addition to North Sea output. - Guardian

Emmanuel Macron has proposed negotiations on a “new deal” aimed at curbing Iran’s military power and regional activities, to exist alongside a three year-old agreement that restricts the country’s nuclear programme. The offer seemed calculated to appease the US president’s discontent with the current agreement, the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Programme of Action (JCPOA) by proposing a broader initiative to tackle other elements of Iran’s challenge in the region, particularly its ballistic missile programme, and its military role in Syria. - Guardian

Britain has agreed to a £4.4bn acquisition of armoured vehicles for the army without a formal competition between suppliers, MPs have been told. The Defence Select Committee heard that a German-led consortium has almost certainly won the contract to build about 500 “mechanised infantry vehicles” (MIVs). - Guardian

The Chinese owner of Hamleys is in talks to buy a 51 per cent stake in House of Fraser. C. Banner International said that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Nanjing Cenbest, the present owner, also of China, to purchase a “possibly very substantial” equity interest in the chain. - The Times

A key council of employees at the John Lewis Partnership has held its first secret ballot in more than a decade to gauge support for the leadership of Sir Charlie Mayfield. In a vote that the partnership described as a landmark occasion, just under two thirds of the council backed a proposal to support the chairman’s “leadership and the continuing progress of the partnership”. - The Times

BP’s chief executive has cast doubt on the US-led sanctions against Russia by questioning whether the financial blocks against President Vladimir Putin’s regime are constructive. Bob Dudley said the oil major would abide by the crackdown launched by the US earlier this month, but would not apologise for doing business in the country where it owns almost a fifth of Russia’s state-owned oil company. - Telegraph

The founder of Metro Bank who has handed £21million to his wife’s business was hounded out of US finance for doing the same thing a decade ago. Billionaire Vernon Hill was thrown off the board of Commerce Bancorp, which he founded in the US in the 1990s, after he gave his wife Shirley £36m in payments to design branches. - Mail

TSB chief Paul Pester said he was "deeply sorry" for its banking problems, which continued into Tuesday night, but stood by the decision to migrate customers to a new platform at the weekend. Mr Pester said that the platform was "absolutely ready to go" and had been "tested nine times over". - Telegraph

…the botched IT “upgrade” saw up to 1.9 million customers locked out of their accounts for a sixth day, MPs demanding action and the bank facing a potential multimillion-pound compensation bill and regulatory fines. Owners of small businesses said they were unable to pay salaries or manage transactions, while some account holders found all their direct debits had disappeared. - Guardian

The French owner of Luton airport has agreed to sell its minority stake in Britain’s fifth largest airport to an Australian investment company. Ardian, which purchased its 49 per cent stake in 2013 for £445 million, is understood to have agreed the deal last week with AMP Capital, an Australian group that recently acquired Leeds/Bradford airport. - The Times

The Daily Express editor has said some of his newspaper’s past front pages have been “downright offensive”, made him feel “very uncomfortable” and contributed to an “Islamophobic sentiment” in the media. Gary Jones, who took over at the newspaper last month after Richard Desmond sold his Northern and Shell newspapers to Trinity Mirror in a £200m deal, told MPs he was unhappy with some of its previous coverage and would be looking to change the tone of the Express. - Guardian

Record numbers of nurses and midwives from EU27 countries quit Britain last year, fuelling fears that a Brexit brain drain will deepen the NHS’s already chronic staffing crisis. A total of 3,962 such staff from the European Economic Area (EEA) left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register between 2017 and 2018. - Guardian