LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s top financial regulator announced he was to step down, surprising markets and casting doubt over the future of the Financial Services Authority and an overhaul of the sector.

Hector Sants, a former investment banker well-respected in the industry, will leave the FSA just after a general election widely expected to leave the opposition Conservatives in power.

The Conservative Party, a long-time leader in opinion polls, has said it wants to abolish the FSA and hand its banking supervisory powers to the Bank of England, saying the regulator failed to spot problems ahead of the financial crisis and was unable to avert a costly bailout.

Sants, who will leave in the summer, said he had always planned to hold the post for three years. Industry insiders said he has been talking to colleagues about his departure for some months.

LONDON/MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish bank Santander <SAN.MC> is considering the sale of a minority stake in its UK arm through a stock market flotation to potentially repeat a windfall from a Brazilian spinoff last year, industry sources said on Monday.

Analysts and industry observers have been speculating about a potential public share offering for Santander’s fast-growing UK arm since the euro zone’s largest bank struck gold with the market debut of its Brazilian subsidiary in October last year.

The sources said several investment banks pitched the London IPO idea to Santander executives as part of broader fundraising strategies and the idea was being considered by the bank.

Proposals remain sketchy and no date or details have been set, however, and could depend on planned regulatory changes.

LONDON/MADRID, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Spanish bank Santander <SAN.MC> is considering the sale of a minority stake in its UK arm through a stock market flotation to potentially repeat a windfall from a Brazilian spinoff last year, industry sources said on Monday.

Analysts and industry observers have been speculating about a potential public share offering for Santander’s fast-growing UK arm since the euro zone’s largest bank struck gold with the market debut of its Brazilian subsidiary in October last year.

The sources said several investment banks pitched the London IPO idea to Santander executives as part of broader fundraising strategies and the idea was being considered by the bank.

Proposals remain sketchy and no date or details have been set, however, and could depend on planned regulatory changes.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – A bank-funded safety net to absorb large failures could help shield markets and rebuild trust in the financial system, but regulators backing the idea will need to strike a delicate balance.

Finding a solution to the “too big to fail” debate is the main outstanding regulatory headache yet to be addressed in a bid to overhaul the financial industry after the crisis.

But informal talks in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos showed that while banks and regulators agree on the need to build shock absorbers and toughen capital rules to curb bank risk, finding a consensus on how to limit the potential cost to taxpayers of emergency bail-outs could lead to critical delays.

“We need living wills or resolutions,” European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said at the World Economic Forum.

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 31 (Reuters) – A bank-funded safety net to absorb large failures could help shield markets and rebuild trust in the financial system, but regulators backing the idea will need to strike a delicate balance.

Finding a solution to the “too big to fail” debate is the main outstanding regulatory headache yet to be addressed in a bid to overhaul the financial industry after the crisis.

But informal talks in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos showed that while banks and regulators agree on the need to build shock absorbers and toughen capital rules to curb bank risk, finding a consensus on how to limit the potential cost to taxpayers of emergency bail-outs could lead to critical delays.

“We need living wills or resolutions,” European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said at the World Economic Forum.

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 29 (Reuters) – A top European Union official said on Friday there was no risk that Greece would default or leave the euro zone and the country’s finance minister said he was not aware of any bailout talks.

“No, Greece will not default. Please. In the euro area, the default does not exist because with a single currency the possibility to get funding in your own currency is much bigger,” Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told Bloomberg TV.

“There is no bailout problems.”

Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou echoed those comments, saying he was not aware of any bailout talks with EU states including France and Germany, and said the government was focused on doing “whatever it takes to bring the deficit down.”

LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Barclays <BARC.L> Chairman Marcus Agius said on Thursday he expected the bank’s coming pay round to be “very different” from past years, responding to increased regulation and scrutiny over bankers’ salaries and bonuses.

“The architecture of our pay round shortly to be determined is going to be very different from anything we have seen before, in accordance with the changes in regulation that have already taken place,” Agius told an audience of financial industry executives in London. He gave no further details.

Public outrage directed against banks, financiers and their failures during the credit crisis is justified and must be taken into account, Agius added.

“There is a huge amount of public anger, quite understandable, very justified. That has got to be accommodated,” he told a conference in London.

LONDON (Reuters) – The risk that deteriorating government finances could push economies into full-fledged debt crises tops a list of threats facing the world in 2010, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.

Major world economies have responded to the financial crisis with stimulus packages and by underwriting private debt obligations, causing deficits to balloon. This may have helped keep a worse recession at bay, but high debt has become a growing concern for financial markets.

The risk is particularly high for developed nations, as many emerging economies, not least in Latin America, have already been forced by previous shocks to put their fiscal houses in order, the WEF think tank said in its annual Global Risks report ahead of its meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

“Governments, in trying to stimulate their economies, in fighting the recession, are (building) unprecedented levels of debt and therefore there is a rising risk of sovereign defaults,” said John Drzik, Chief Executive of management consultancy Oliver Wyman, which was one of the contributors to the WEF report.

LONDON (Reuters) – The risk that deteriorating government finances could push economies into full-fledged debt crises tops a list of threats facing the world in 2010, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.

Major world economies have responded to the financial crisis with stimulus packages and by underwriting private debt obligations, causing deficits to balloon. This may have helped keep a worse recession at bay, but high debt has become a growing concern for financial markets.

The risk is particularly high for developed nations, as many emerging economies, not least in Latin America, have already been forced by previous shocks to put their fiscal houses in order, the WEF think tank said in its annual Global Risks report ahead of its meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

“Governments, in trying to stimulate their economies, in fighting the recession, are (building) unprecedented levels of debt and therefore there is a rising risk of sovereign defaults,” said John Drzik, Chief Executive of management consultancy Oliver Wyman, which was one of the contributors to the WEF report.

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – The risk that deteriorating government finances could push economies into full-fledged debt crises tops a list of threats facing the world in 2010, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.

Major world economies have responded to the financial crisis with stimulus packages and by underwriting private debt obligations, causing deficits to balloon. This may have helped keep a worse recession at bay, but high debt has become a growing concern for financial markets.

The risk is particularly high for developed nations, as many emerging economies, not least in Latin America, have already been forced by previous shocks to put their fiscal houses in order, the WEF think tank said in its annual Global Risks report ahead of its meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

“Governments, in trying to stimulate their economies, in fighting the recession, are (building) unprecedented levels of debt and therefore there is a rising risk of sovereign defaults,” said John Drzik, Chief Executive of management consultancy Oliver Wyman, which was one of the contributors to the WEF report.