Times Online – The Financial Services Authority is facing a multimillion-pound compensation claim from a group of investors who say that the City watchdog failed to stop the activities of a suspected rogue trader.

Former clients of GFX Capital Markets, which has collapsed with estimated losses of £44 million, say that the FSA knew of serious concerns about its boss, Terry Freeman, but allowed him to continue trading.

The accusation comes as the regulator is struggling to cope with the most serious loss of public confidence in its decade-long history. It was accused of being negligent in its monitoring of Northern Rock, the mortgage lender that was nationalised last year, and the regulator’s chairman, Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, has been forced to draw up radical plans to improve its ability to police the City.

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Tax-news.com – Endeavouring to assuage fears and re-establish public confidence in the wake of one-day nationwide strikes, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced that local business tax or ‘taxe professionnelle’ will finally be abolished in 2010.

Expressing his determination to uphold his predecessor Jacques Chirac’s promise to end the highly controversial tax, President Sarkozy has underlined the importance of the measure – vital to maintaining industry in France and ultimately to the preservation of jobs, despite a total cost to the state estimated at EUR8bn.

Created in 1975 – ironically by the then Prime Minister Chirac – business tax forms one of four direct local taxes collected by councils, and represents around half of their tax revenue.

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Tags: business tax, controversial tax, fears, french president nicolas, french president nicolas sarkozy, jacques chirac, jobs, local taxes, nicolas sarkozy, predecessor, president-nicolas-sarkozy, prime-minister, public confidence, strikes, tax forms, tax news