Brothers Admit To Killing Top Banker In Taxi Rank Row

Two brothers, 22-year-old Tom Cowles, and sibling Ben, 21, have pleaded guilty to killing 45-year-old Frank McGarahan, at the time Chief Financial Officer at Barclays Wealth, over a spat near a taxi rank in Norwich in September last year.

The brothers deny murder, but admit manslaughter. McGarahan and some of his family witnessed an assault on another man early one morning in September, and came to his rescue. The brothers are said to have punched him about the head and pushed him to the ground. McGaraghan went into a coma and never recovered.

In other news, The New York Times reports that Holland's Rabobank has confirmed that it is one of the 22 firms undergoing a 'stress test' at the behest of the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (an EU body).

Reuters reports that Barclays has rubbished the claims of Lehman Brothers Holdings that it received billions of dollars too much when it took over the US business of the bankrupt firm last September. And Barclays said in a court filing last week that the price tag was in any case approved by the bankruptcy court.

Finally, The Wall Street Journal reports that a fake e-mail has caused red faces over at US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The e-mail, which appeared to come from Irene Gutierrez, a senior counsel at the agency, criticized SEC Chair Mary Schapiro and Inspector General David Kotz. It was sent to agency employees, and several news organisations. The SEC has now confirmed that the e-mail was sent outside of its network and was a spoof.