Newspaper round-up

LONDON (Reuters) - Here are the business headlines from Friday's newspapers.

Financial Times

BROWN LOSES BATTLE OVER ENERGY REBATE

The Prime Minister has admitted that his plans to force Britain's energy firms to fund a one billion pound cash rebate for poor families have failed. Speaking to a Scottish business audience, Gordon Brown said that his fuel-poverty bill would instead concentrate on making energy companies fund an energy efficiency programme. The shift in position conflicts with evidence earlier this summer that the government wanted to fund a one billion pound one-off payment to families claiming child benefit. Energy companies will be relieved that they seem to have avoided the threat of a windfall tax, or being forced to pay more for emissions permits.

FSA CHALLENGED IN INSIDER DEAL CASES

The Financial Services Authority has been challenged over whether criminal charges were properly issued in one of three criminal insider trading prosecutions. Neel and Matthew Uberoi, two of the defendants in one of the cases, have challenged whether the agency had the authority to issue the charges against them at a court hearing. The FSA has been widely criticised for failing to pursue more cases, given that its own research indicates that such activity is commonplace in the City. Although the watchdog is pursuing the three prosecutions and made eight arrests in connection with a separate investigation, critics argue it does not seem to be targeting the more established, organised behaviour.

MORTGAGES ARREARS SHOW SHARP RISE

A report by Moody's suggests that arrears and repossessions among prime mortgage borrowers soared in the second quarter, with home loans decreasing even among borrowers with healthy credit histories. The credit rating agency studied the performance of over 14 mortgage securitisations that account for billions of pounds of home loans issued by the UK's main banks. Moody's found that the number of borrowers in serious arrears climbed to 0.90percent of all mortgage loans compared to 0.60percent for the same period last year. The agency also found that the number of repossessions had more than doubled to 0.082percent of home loans - up from 0.037percent in the same quarter of 2007.

UNILEVER APPOINTS OUTSIDER AS CHIEF