Dear listener,

On Wednesday I was a guest at the Association of British Insurers Chairman’s Dinner. More than 150 big names from the pensions and life assurance industry together with regulators, government ministers and key civil servants turned up at a London hotel to eat and network. It struck me, slightly unkindly perhaps, that the pensions industry keeps as many people in well paid work as it does in modest retirement. But overall a useful evening. And no black tie which is always a relief (though the “no jeans” rule was a disappointment).

The morning after the night before the insurance industry woke up to find itself accused of overcharging customers by £1.4 billion a year on payment protection insurance (PPI). Not by a consumer group but by the Competition Commission no less. The man who ran the investigation will tell us what he intends to do about that and when. The industry will respond live.

There’s a big snake lurking near the housing ladder ready to knock buyers off the lower rungs. It’s called the Decent Homes Initiative. But paying tens of thousands of pounds for compulsory improvements could mean some have no home at all. Bob Howard, as ever, is on the case.

Shareholders are still being asked to pass round the bowler hat for Mr Bradford and Mr Bingley even though an American investor has chipped in £179 million to bail out the troubled buy-to-let lender after profits tumbled. So should we thank yanks as bank tanks? Unpicked by us as usual.

Would you like to buy a bit of a field that will be worth a lot more than you pay if it gets planning permission for housing? The Financial Services Authority is asking the High Court to close down one firm that made such offers. It took £69 million off thousands of customers who will now get just pence in the pound back. Though they still own their little grassy plots.

I’m running out of quart into pint pot analogies so let’s just say we’re off now to decant another vintage programme into our cut glass jug. you can drink deeply from Money Box - live on Saturday at noon and repeated on Sunday at nine pm. If you want to sit outdoors this weekend then why not download the podcast and drift off to it in the sunshine?

Best wishes,

Paul Lewis

PS Don’t forget the live preview of Money Box on BBC1 Breakfast between 8.45 and 9 on Saturday morning (look carefully – I will be wearing jeans).

e-mail Paul Lewis