The low-cost airline easyJet is in advanced talks to appoint Carolyn McCall, the boss of the company which publishes The Guardian newspaper, as its new chief executive, I have learned.

The appointment of McCall, which will stun both the media and airline industries, is likely to be announced later this week and could come as soon as tomorrow.

McCall, the chief executive of Guardian Media Group,...

UPDATE 22:00: As I disclosed earlier this evening, the arrest of employees of Deutsche Bank and a trading firm part-owned by BNP Paribas - as well as one of the world's best-known hedge fund managers - sends a further signal that nobody is untouchable in the FSA's efforts to stamp out market abuse....

An employee of Deutsche Bank was arrested as part of an insider trading crackdown by the City regulator today, I have learned.

I understand that Deutsche is one of the “leading City institutions” referred to in the FSA statement below. As others have reported in the last hour, Moore Capital is the hedge fund whose employee has been implicated in the swoop.

I’ll have more on this later....

A belated note on yesterday's announcement from Lloyds Banking Group that Wolfgang Berndt is to step down from the board at its annual meeting in May.

Berndt has elected to avoid an unseemly and potentially damaging shareholder revolt over his decision (as head of Lloyds' boardroom pay committee) to award the maximum bonus possible to Eric Daniels, Lloyds'

As I revealed last week, UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the body that manages taxpayers' 41 per cent stake in Lloyds,...

The Treasury is to order Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to lend at least £80bn between them to UK business customers during the next year, I have learned.

The Government’s agreement with the two banks, which was being negotiated in meetings today, is likely to be announced as part of the Chancellor’s Budget statement on Wednesday....

It hasn’t been a good week for the reputation of Kraft Foods in Britain. On Tuesday, the company was criticised by a group of MPs for having apparently misled Cadbury employees during its takeover of the British confectioner earlier this year.

Now, I can reveal that Cadbury staff may have equal cause to lament the loss of the company’s independence.

According to an internal memo I have just obtained,...

I have learned that John Muse, the American private equity tycoon, is to play a leading role in an offer to buy a 40 per cent stake in Liverpool Football Club.

Muse has been lined up to co-invest alongside Rhone Capital, a US investment firm which last week tabled the first formal proposal to inject new funds into the Premier League club.

What I'm not clear about is how much money Muse, who is now chairman of HM Capital Partners, another private equity group, would invest under the Rhone proposal,...

A former executive at MBIA, the world’s biggest bond insurer, is to play a key role in restoring Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS’s) battered balance sheet to health, I have learned.

John Caouette, a veteran of the structured credit market, is to become chairman of the Asset Protection Agency (APA), the body set up to administer the Treasury’s giant toxic asset insurance scheme.

Caouette is a former senior adviser to Apax Partners, the private equity group,...

I understand that Jon Aisbitt, the chairman of Britain’s biggest quoted hedge fund manager, Man Group, is being courted to join the supporter-led group that wants to buy Manchester United.

Aisbitt, a former Goldman Sachs partner whose wealth is estimated at tens of millions of pounds, is being lined up by the Red Knights consortium as one of dozens of potential investors in the Premier League champions. He has been contacted by representatives of the group this week.

An avid United fan,...

The body that manages taxpayers' stake in Lloyds Banking Group is to consider voting against the re-election of one of the bank's directors at its annual meeting, I have learned.

UK Financial Investments (UKFI) will contemplate voting against Wolfgang Berndt, a non-executive director and the chairman of Lloyds' remuneration committee, when it begins discussing its voting intentions in the coming weeks.

To be clear, it’s very early days,...