Yellow card for bank chiefs

UNDER normal circumstances the chief executives of Britain's biggest banks swish around town in limos, cross the Atlantic first class and stare down on the masses from grand glass towers. Occasionally, they glance at computer screens to check the value of their share options.

What is certainly not on their agenda is turning up at the House of Commons to be questioned by a jumped-up group of MPs. By some accounts, MPs' knowledge of finance is largely limited to seeing how much they can pay members of their families to be researchers or secretaries without coming under scrutiny.

So on Thursday, when the chief executives of the big five in British credit cards - Eric Daniels of Lloyds TSB, Fred Goodwin of Royal Bank of Scotland, James Crosby of HBOS, Matt Barrett of Barclays and General Charles Krulak of MBNA - are questioned on the transparency of card costs, they are likely to be considerably discomforted.

Normally they do not do public hearings. The choice of witnesses is in itself fascinating. Missing from the line-up will be Stephen Green, chief executive of Britain's biggest bank HSBC, the owner of the old Midland franchise.

HSBC has fallen so far down the credit card league that it does not even make the premiership - which may be just as well.

What John McFall and his MPs want to know is why it is taking so long for the banks to include a clear statement on their promotional literature of the exact annual percentage rate to be paid by consumers.

This is more difficult than it might seem since there is no one rate for any card. Banks have different rates for card transfers, cash transactions and shop transactions among other things. So the case for more transparency is pressing.

Indeed, there is a case for a box giving all the charges not just shown boldly in the promotional material, but on every month's credit card bill - something which HBOS is promising to do.

The MPs may be barking up the wrong tree if they start to demand a standard range of interest rate charges for credit cards. Britain has one of the most competitive markets in the world with more than 100 different types of card on offer and this has driven down the cost of credit.

Moreover, there is competition not just in interest charges but in 'interest free' periods, which range from 59 days at the best providers to 22 days at the worst.

Any attempt to standardise would lead to a cartel where there is now competition.

APRs, which currently range from 9% to 18%, may be perceived to be too high. But they are still cheaper than in most Group of Seven countries - including the US although official interest rates there are just 1%.

Counting down

THE prospect of Rupert Murdoch, 72, remaining at the helm of News Corporation until he is 'carried out' is enough to give non-family shareholders convulsions.

Murdoch may have grown News Corp from a provincial Australian newspaper company into one of the biggest and most powerful media empires in the world, but he is not carrying outside shareholders along with him.

At the group's agm in Adelaide, even his Australian shareholders - who over the years have been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt - had some reservations.

Plans for an options package which would have granted six executives, including his two sons Lachlan and James, a total of £13.5m have been abandoned.

And investors are encouraging him to be a little more generous with the dividend now that the company is moving towards maturity.

Murdoch did himself no favours with shareholders when he bought the satellite broadcaster DirecTV in the States and promptly transferred the burden of the deal to minority interests in the Fox network.

Here in Britain, efforts by News Corp to leverage James Murdoch into the chief executive's post at BSkyB are being resisted by institutional shareholders. They have already forced a more open selection process, even if the outcome turns out to be the same.

But governance - including Murdoch's own succession plans at News Corp - is an issue in all the markets in which he now operates. At BSkyB some shareholders are questioning the role of auditors Deloitte Touche, who also advise on pay and provide consultancy services. Sooner or later Murdoch and his successors will need to 'normalise' his complex empire.

Brambles bonus

FINALLY, a failed executive steps down with some honour. CK Chow has taken personal responsibility for the chaos at pallets group Brambles. He leaves with a modest payoff, eschewing a £1m bonus. Progress at last.