The US Federal Reserve heralded the beginning of the end for its third round of quantitative easing as Ben Bernanke said it could slow the $85bn-a-month pace of asset purchases �in the next few meetings� if the labour market is strong.

Nationwide has grabbed a record share of the mortgage market after seeing a big rise in the number of first-time buyers joining the property ladder.

The Committee on Climate Change acknowledged that paying for �green� energy may be costly in the short term but it will actually save the country up to �100 billion in the long run.

Cable & Wireless Communications, the telecoms group that traces its history back to the early days of the British empire, is to leave the UK after more than 140 years and move its headquarters across the Atlantic.

A company headed by an Irishman and using wind energy technology first designed in Queen's University Belfast has been granted planning permission by the Scottish government for the world's largest commercial wave farm.