Monday newspaper round-up: Wizz Air, Energy debts, Thames Water

(Sharecast News) - The City watchdog has said the UK needs to "strengthen" its grip on foreign tech firms providing critical services to banks, amid growing concerns over outages and cyber-attacks. Sarah Pritchard, who was appointed the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) first deputy chief executive this summer, said there had been "very frequent reminders" of how important it was for the banking sector to have "good, strong operational resilience and cyber controls". - Guardian The former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is making a claim of "conspiracy" against the government of Jersey after the crown dependency launched a criminal investigation into allegations of corruption and money laundering in connection with the original source of the oligarch's wealth. The latest move threatens to throw open parts of a secretive legal battle on the Channel island about the tycoon's rise to become one of the world's richest people, which emerged in September after a Switzerland federal criminal court ordered the release of a cache of Swiss banking records requested by the Jersey attorney general. - Guardian

Wizz Air is slashing the number of flights it operates from Gatwick in a scramble to cut costs, the boss of the airline has said. József Váradi, the chief executive of Wizz, said it was losing money flying out of Britain's second-busiest airport because of high operating fees and poorly timed departure slots. As part of a Europe-wide shake-up, the Budapest-based carrier will move more planes from Gatwick to Luton because of its lower costs. - Telegraph

Household energy debts are poised to hit £6bn next year, a new industry study has warned. A quarter of UK households will become unable to pay their gas and electricity bills in 2026, according to the latest forecast from Baringa, an energy consultancy. Debts have already surged from £2bn three years ago to £4.4bn this summer but the study suggests looming price rises will leave millions of households struggling this winter. - Telegraph

A bidder for Thames Water has returned with an improved offer in an attempt to break the impasse between the crisis-hit utility's £20 billion debtholders and the industry regulator over how to prevent it falling into insolvency. John Reynolds, chief executive of Castle Water, said talks between creditors and Ofwat to restructure Thames Water and save it from administration had stalled, possibly irretrievably - however, a spokesman for London & Valley Water, the creditors' consortium, last night denied this, saying it was "simply not true" that discussions had halted. - The Times