Insurer Axa Sun Life has been fined £500,000 for its misleading TV adverts – the highest such fine ever imposed by the City watchdog.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said adverts for Axa Cash Builder Plus and its guaranteed over-50 investment plans did not alert consumers to risk.
The FSA said the “design, content and format” of the adverts focused attention on benefits rather than risk
Australian building products group James Hardie has agreed to pay $1.1bn (£568m) to victims of asbestos-related diseases.
The landmark deal could see thousands of people suffering from lung diseases – caused by asbestos the company once made – receive compensation
US mortgage company Fannie Mae should restate its earnings, the US finance watchdog has said, a move that could put a major dent in its finances
The Securities & Exchange Commission accused Fannie Mae of using techniques that “did not comply in material respects” with accounting standards. Last month Fannie Mae warned that the problems could cost it $9bn (£4.6bn)
Media giant Time Warner is to pay $210m (£108m) to settle charges of securities fraud involving America Online (AOL).
The US Department of Justice has been investigating allegations that AOL conspired with several smaller internet firms to inflate their earnings.
Criminal charges will be deferred for two years, provided the US firm agrees to cooperate with investigators
Vivendi Universal and its former chief executive Jean-Marie Messier have each been fined 1m euros ($1.3m; £690,000) by French regulators.
The fines come after a 15-month probe into allegations the media giant misled investors after a costly acquisition program went wrong
HSBC is the first big bank to commit to going carbon neutral as it seeks to reduce its environmental impact.
Starting in 2005, it will plant trees, reduce energy use, buy green electricity and trade carbon credits to cut carbon dioxode flows.
HSBC chief executive Stephen Green said: “In 2003, HSBC’s CO2 emissions
Troubled engineering giant Halliburton has won a US court order approving the settlement of asbestos claims by the end of the month.
Halliburton, once run by US Vice President Dick Cheney, agreed a $4.2bn (£2
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has referred Apple’s iTunes service to the European Commission on grounds that it overcharges UK customers.
The move follows a complaint from Which? that iTunes charges UK users 20% more than those in France and Germany.
Which?, formerly the Consumer Association, also complained that the UK customers were barred from logging on to the French and German sites
Four executives of German microchip giant Infineon Technologies have pleaded guilty to price-fixing, the US Justice Department has said.
The three Germans and an American will each pay a fine of $250,000 (£129,000) and serve a prison term of up to six months. Infineon agreed in September to pay a fine of $160m after pleading guilty to one count of price-fixing
Nigeria’s senate is to consider sanctions against a unit of Dutch and UK oil company Shell for failing to pay a $1.5bn (£775m) pollution penalty.
The firm had been told to make the payment by 23 November for alleged environmental damage caused by oil spillage in the Niger Delta region