Claims management companies made up almost half of cases brought to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) during 2011.

Economic think-tank the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) has forecast that the Bank of England base rate may not increase until 2016. It has been at 0.5 per cent since March 2009.

The Treasury Committee has recommended that the Financial Conduct Authority should have a duty to promote competition for the benefit of consumers.

The Bank of England base rate has been held at 0.5 per cent and the quantitative easing asset purchase programme is also unchanged at £275bn.

Royal Bank of Scotland is to cut 3,500 jobs from its investment banking division.

There are only four days left to qualify for an early-booking discount on tickets for the Institute of Financial Planning’s first Financial Planning Day.

Morningstar has launched its analyst research for investment trusts, rating 32 closed-end funds from Gold to Negative.