SSE has warned that consumers should brace themselves for further increases in energy bills, as the London-listed energy group reported a jump in full-year pre-tax profit and bolstered its dividend.

As unsettled weather and rising food prices put off shoppers, retail sales volumes including fuel sank 1.3pc month-on-month, confounding economists' forecasts for flat sales.

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said this morning that it had completed its review of Lloyds and RBS and that the bank could both generate enough capital through retained profits and restructuring their operations to meet the regulator's minimum ...

Lost tax revenue from money salted away offshore is costing governments more than $150bn (�99bn) a year, Oxfam has found - enough to eliminate extreme poverty across the globe twice over.

Nationwide, Britain's largest building society, today said it had increased lending on mortgages by 17pc to �21.5bn as it announced its full-year results.