The Conference Board, which polls 5,000 households, said the “significant deterioration” could trigger a fall in consumer spending.”The continued decline in the value of stock market portfolios, coupled with ongoing reports of corporate scandals, have taken a toll on consumer confidence,” said Lynn Franco, the head of consumer research “The continued decline … suggests consumers would tend to curb their spending in the absence of offsetting incentives.”The fall was much worse than Wall Street had expected and economists said consumers had probably reacted to the sharp falls on the stock market earlier in the month.David Bloom, global economist at HSBC, said: “It’s a bit ridiculous ­ the equity markets go down, so confidence goes down and the equity markets react to that by going down.”The key issue for the Federal Reserve will be whether the fall in confidence, which was measured before the recent Wall Street recovery, will curb spending. “The Fed will be watching what consumers do rather than what they say,” said Jade Zelnik, chief economist at Greenwich Capital Markets.Meanwhile, Britons’ confidence in their financial and economic outlook slumped to a seven-month low, according to a monthly survey published yesterday. “Households just do not seem to associate falling share prices with a deterioration in their own finances, especially while house prices are surging,” said John Butler, UK economist at HSBC.. An influential group of MPs called yesterday for regulators to take a fresh look at the UK’s Big Four banks amid concerns that Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland Group face insufficient competition. The committee also said procedures for switching accounts need to be simplified so small businesses can move to a different bank more easily and quickly, and challenged banks to guarantee accounts would be switched within five weeks or pay compensation.

The report suggested the banks were deliberately going slow on introducing reforms to the industry and said they should no longer be allowed to “profit from procrastination”.The report also outlined a host of arrears where it said banks were failing customers, ranging from lack of progress in cutting clearing times for cheques to failing to provide effective basic accounts for poorer customers.It singled out for particular criticism incomprehensible charges on credit cards, which stifle competition and obscure the high costs of borrowing. The amount of interest charged on their credit cards can be as much as four to five times the current Bank of England base rate of 4 per cent The complexity of the charges was also criticised. The report said “that for individuals to understand interest rate calculations requires an unreasonable amount of time and effort”. Calculating interest charges even managed to fox a mathematician from Cambridge University who was called in by the cross-party committee to decipher the “calculus” behind the rates.Most banks advertise the annual interest rate on a credit card, with customers believing the lower the rate, the cheaper the card. William Mason, the executive director of the British Bankers’ Association, agreed with the committee’s findings on the complexity of annual rates “The industry is well aware of the problem. There isn’t a single workable solution that covers all circumstances.

With revolving credit there are many variables such as fluctuating balance and different introductory offers,” he said.MPs want to see credit and charge card companies publish all the variables that make up the actual cost of credit to allow customers to see the real cost of running up bills. The committee called for greater transparency in the way charges are set and better presentation of charges to customers.A spokeswoman for Lloyds TSB said it has worked to improve transparency in the way its charges are set out and that its customers are willing to pay for the high level of service they receive. The Big Four ­ which hold about 70 per cent of current accounts ­ are coming under increasing pressure to change their ways, after the Competition Commission found them guilty of operating a “complex monopoly” of overcharging.. International Business Machines moved dramatically to boost the services side of its global business, announcing that it was to buy the consulting division of PricewaterhouseCoopers for $3.5bn (£2.2bn) in cash and stock. Just two years ago, it was close to sealing a deal with Hewlett-Packard for up to $18bn, but that fell through. It then considered disposing it through an initial public offering.It will also reinforce the changing face of IBM, which already has 150,000 employees in its services business which is already larger than its computer hardware division for which it is known around the world. This acquisition, which still will need regulatory approval, will add another 30,000 employees to the services side from PwC.Wall Street noted that it was the first significant move by Samuel Palmisano, the new chief executive at IBM who took over from the veteran head of the computer giant, Louis Gerstner, on 1 March.

From the start, he has been under pressure to boost revenues and do something to pep up IBM’s stock. Shares in Big Blue, as it is sometimes known, have slipped 40 per cent this year, partly in tandem with the rest of the market.The services division helped keep revenue flowing at IBM through the late 1990s, but they too have stalled recently as businesses have cut back not only purchasing new hardware but also on buying computer and network services. Mr Palmisano’s biggest step hitherto had been in cost cutting. Early this year, he pared about 8,000 jobs and also finalised plans to exit the hard-disk drive business..