• The U.K.’s Cameron is leaving the door open to increased funding of the IMF. If an international effort moves forward in countries like Brazil and China to increase funding Britain may go along. The information comes from inside the Cameron team. Any such attempt might raise the ire of skeptics within his Conservative Party. From The Financial Times.
• The Royal Bank of Scotland is set to announce that it will shutter its cash equities business if a buyer can’t be found. The move highlights the difficulties in the equities business with demographics, poor performance, volume, and market structure all working against firms. The unit is responsible for 1200 jobs. From Bloomberg News.
• Wall Street faces big pay cuts for 2011 based on anticipated earnings and traditional payout ratios. Earnings announcements by the major banks are scheduled for release beginning this week. Poor stock performance will most likely give little room to maintain compensation levels at the expense of shareholder value. From the Wall Street Journal.