PRESS DIGEST - Financial Times - March 11

March 11 (Reuters) - Headlines

Bank commission demands tougher rules

Banks rush to redraft pay deals

Buyout firms' cash payouts hit record

Unease grows in Madrid over Iberia deal

Pharma group sues European regulator over data

OMV chief calls for EU stance on fracking

Cove directors reunite for new oil project Cukurova fined for contempt in US

Overview

UK's banks may have to adhere to tougher leverage ratios than their global rivals. The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards has called for the government's proposed new banking legislation to be toughened.

European banks are racing to tweak executive pay deals by the end of the month to meet new EU bonus rules and secure shareholder backing at upcoming annual meetings. Private equity firms are highlighting huge sums of cash returned to investors even though the value of their portfolios has risen faster, boosted by trillions of assets that they are struggling to sell.

Spain's growing unease with the British Airways-Iberia merger is being watched closely at a time when the financial crisis has left the country's corporate sector more vulnerable to foreign takeovers.

AbbVie, the U.S. pharmaceuticals business spun off from Abbott Laboratories, has sought an injunction to block Europe's medicines regulator from releasing detailed data on its blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug. The head of Austrian energy group OMV has warned that the European Union must arrive at a common position on shale gas or risk deindustrialisation that would put European companies at a competitive disadvantage to Asian and U.S. rivals. Three key executives that were behind the creation and sale of London-listed Cove Energy have come together again to raise funds to explore once more for oil and gas in waters off Mozambique.

A U.S. court has imposed an escalating series of fines on Turkey's biggest mobile operator Turkcell, controlled by the country's best known tycoons Mehmet Karamehmet.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130310/press-digest-financial-times-march-11