US banks agreed to pay out more than $20bn on Monday in two settlements to resolve claims arising from the mortgage crisis. The Bank of America has agreed to pay $11.6bn to Fannie Mae, the government-controlled mortgage company, to resolve a legal battle over bad loans. The payment will wipe out most of BofA’s earnings for a second successive quarter. In a separate settlement, ten mortgage lenders, including BofA, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, agreed to pay more than $8.5bn to settle regulators’ allegations that they were guilty of widespread abuse of the foreclosure system that allowed banks to seize homes from defaulting borrowers. (Financial Times*, Independent, BBC)
IT companies accused of underpaying tax by £800m
Technology companies in receipt of government contracts, including IBM, Microsoft, Symantec and Dell are paying little or no corporation tax despite recording billions of pounds of UK profits, according to a Conservative MP. Charlie Elphicke, a former tax lawyer, said the companies are “fleecing” the UK tax system, accusing the firms of “big-business tax avoidance on an industrial scale”. Mr Elphicke said that a group of ten technology companies paid a total of just £78m in taxes in 2011 on UK earnings of £17.5bn, he estimated their tax bill should have been £879 million. (Times*, Telegraph)
Inclusive Business
Interface to sell closed loop ‘fishing net’ carpets
Sustainable carpet manufacturer, Interface will this year start selling tiles made from discarded fishing nets washed up in the Philippines, as it seeks to simultaneously clean up the ocean and find new sources of nylon. Interface revealed plans to scale up a pilot scheme that it launched last year with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) that aims to create a closed loop resource chain for the manufacturing of carpet tiles. Interface is not the only company to reuse fishing nets for carpet yarn. Desso also buys some of its material from Italy's Aquafil that creates carpet yarn from a range of waste materials, including discarded fishing yarn. (Business Green)
Employees
Harmony Gold threatens to close mine over unrest
Harmony Gold, South Africa’s third-largest gold producer, has suspended operations at one of its main mines following a period of violent industrial unrest. If meetings with labour unions fail, the Kusasalethu mine, in the north of the country, which employs about 6,000 people and accounts for about 14 percent of the group’s total production, could face indefinite closure. The announcement is a fresh blow to South Africa’s mining industry which is recovering from a wave of wildcat strikes and stoppages last year that cost the platinum and gold sectors more than R10bn ($1.2bn) in lost production. (Financial Times*, Washington Post)
Environment
Public to play part in environmental policy making
An €8.5m (£6.9m) project, which aims to empower the public to collect and contribute environmental data for use in policy formation and governance, is now underway. The four year project, ‘COBWEB’ (Citizen Observatory WEB), is being led by the University of Edinburgh, which put together a consortium of 13 partners from five European countries: UK, Germany, Greece, Netherlands and Ireland. Citizens living within UNESCO designated ‘Biosphere Reserves’ will collect environmental data using mobile devices; this data will be aggregated with data from more authoritative sources. The infrastructure developed will explore the possibilities of crowd sourcing techniques and the concept of 'people as sensors'. (Edie)
Manufacturers concerned over UK energy policy
Manufacturers have expressed "high levels of concern" at the UK's energy policies and are increasingly looking to invest in their own electricity supply to insulate themselves against price shocks. That is one of the stark findings from a survey of over 400 senior executives working in the UK High Tech manufacturing sector, conducted by the engineering giant General Electric. It found a perceived lack of clarity over the coalition's energy policy as one of the biggest challenges manufacturers face. Amongst the findings the report states that almost half of businesses surveyed said they have considered generating their own power or investing in energy efficient technologies. (Business Green)
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