Thursday newspaper round-up: Rate cuts, Virgin Money, NatWest, Lyft

(Sharecast News) - The Bank of England governor has doused hopes that better-than-expected inflation news last month will accelerate cuts in interest rates, stressing the need for further evidence of wage moderation before Threadneedle Street moves. Appearing before the House of Lords economics committee on Wednesday, Andrew Bailey said it was "encouraging" that inflation had remained unchanged at 4% in January but the previous month's figure for the cost of living had been higher than predicted. - Guardian

Virgin Money bosses could be at risk of an embarrassing investor backlash, after an influential adviser hit out at a £2.6m package for its chief executive, David Duffy, saying it was "not appropriate" compared with the bank's average employee. Pensions and Investment Research Consultants (Pirc), which advises shareholders including UK local authority pension funds, also raised concerns over what it said was "a lack of board-level accountability for sustainability issues" at Britain's sixth largest lender. - Guardian

NatWest is poised to appoint an insider as chief executive in an effort to move on from its costly debanking crisis. The FTSE 100 bank is preparing to appoint interim chief Paul Thwaite to the role full-time. The board will meet on Thursday to approve the decision with confirmation expected on Friday when NatWest publishes its annual results. - Telegraph

Executives at Lyft were left red-faced after a typo in the ride-hailing company's financial results prompted a near-70 per cent jump in its share price before the error was spotted and the gains fell away dramatically. The turbulent trading began when Lyft reported that its margin growth for the year ahead would be far better than expected, up by five percentage points in 2024 compared with last year. - The Times

One of Britain's key producers of reinforced steel has been put up for sale by its Spanish parent company. The Celsa Steel UK plant in Cardiff, which has been supplying the vast Hinkley Point nuclear power station project in Somerset, claims to be the largest producer of reinforced steel for the British construction market and one of the country's largest recyclers of scrap metal, which it uses to feed its electric arc furnaces. - The Times