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BBC business reporter, Rob Young flags up some comments from the FCA's investigation into whether Barclays was diligent when assessing a big transaction.

The transaction was referred to within Barclays as an "elephant deal" because of its size.

In the early stages of arranging the deal, when it was suggested that the transaction might be for a larger sum, one senior manager recognised that it could be "the deal of the century".

One manager expressed a desire to “race this through”.

The Department for Transport, external estimates that 1.4% of vehicles are being driven without paying vehicle excise duty, also known as road tax.

That is a big increase on their last published survey in 2013 which showed 0.6% of vehicles having unpaid tax.

RAC chief engineer David Bizley said: “These are very worrying and disappointing statistics indeed. Sadly, the concerns we raised about the number of car tax evaders going up at the time the tax disc was confined to history have become a reality."

Business reporter Chris Johnston tweets:

One of yesterday's announcements from the Chancellor has hit shares in an Australian company.

Shares in legal group, Slater & Gordon plunged as much as 50% after the chancellor proposed legal changes that would restrict the rights of people to claim compensation for injuries like whiplash.

The company said it did not expect any impact on its results for the 2016 financial year.

As for 2017, the company says it will provide information at a later date.

A new, albeit fairly minor development in the Volkswagen scandal has seen luxury brand Audi suspend two engineers after its larger diesel engines were found to have been fitted with emissions cheat devices in the US.

Volkswagen (VW) and Audi notified US authorities last Thursday that around 85,000 cars with 3.0 litre V6 diesel engines were fitted with the devices that had not previously been disclosed to environmental  regulators.

It takes the number of people suspended in the wake of the emissions scandal to eight.

London's blue chip index is higher this morning by nearly 0.5% at 6367.4.

That's possibly based on speculation that the European Central Bank (ECB) may make an announcement  about further bond buying to stimulate the eurozone economy next week.

Meanwhile, miners have recovered some of the losses made on Wednesday, despite copper prices at near six year lows. 

Glencore shares are 4.42% higher while Antofagasta shares are 2.2% higher. 

Aldi has released its Christmas advert. 

It's a short and to the point spoof of a rather well know brand's advert. 

Image source, EPA

Cyber-thieves are preparing malware and spam campaigns in a bid to catch out retailers and shoppers during the run-up to Christmas, experts say.

One gang had updated the sophisticated malware it used to target tills in stores, security company iSight said.

There had also been an increase in spam and phishing emails crafted to catch out people seeking bargains.

And some crime groups had made fake copies of popular shopping apps in a bid to steal payment-card data

Image source, Reuters

The Daily Telegraph reports that, buried in the Autumn Statement, was a commitment to exempt competitors at next year's London Anniversary Games from income tax on their earnings made from the event.

Athletes had been exempt from tax at the previous Anniversary Games.

The latest exemption will be revoked after the 2017 World Athletics and Paralympics Championships in 2017 the report says.

The Telegraph says that sports leaders really want a permanent exemption for all major events, but are unlikely to get much support for that.

Image source, PA

It's being reported that Lloyds Banking Group is likely to confirm 1,000 job losses.

The Financial Times reports that the cuts are part of 150 branch closures and 9,000 job losses announced last year.

This round of redundancies are expected to impact the bank's operations, including branches, according to PA newswire.

It is believed Lloyds will seek to redeploy those affected elsewhere within the group to limit compulsory redundancies. 

Here is Barclays' response, external to the FCA fine.

The Financial ConductAuthority, external (FCA) has fined Barclays £72m for failing to properly manage risks that the bank may be used to aid financial crime.

In particular, the failings relate to a £1.88bn pound transaction that Barclays arranged in 2011 and 2012 for a number of rich clients.

The FCA says the clients should have been subject to "enhanced levels of due diligence and monitoring" as they were "politically exposed persons".

BBC Scotland Business and Economics Editor, Douglas Fraser tweets:

BBC Radio 5 Live

On Radio 5 live, shadow chancellor John McDonnell questions whether the apprenticeships scheme is delivering the skills the country needs.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Nick Robinson tells the Chancellor: "You said you would fix the roof while the sun was shining. To some it looks like you've got the deck chair out and you’re having a tea break." 

George Osborne says he accepts that there are going to be people who say "you should cut much faster" and there are going to be people who say "you shouldn’t cut at all". 

BBC Radio 5 Live

What would the opposition have done with the £27bn windfall that the Chancellor could receive over the next few years?

"We would have invested it for the long-term future basically and a lot of that would have been around research and development, science and new technology," Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell told Radio 5 live.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4