UBS Dismiss Write-down Rumours

Cards launched for customers with low credit rating

SAV Credit, which offers credit cards to customers who have been turned away by High Street Banks, has launched two new products. The aqua Reward and aqua Advance cards are available to customers with a poor credit rating and offer credit limits of up to £1,600. The aqua Advance card offers a reduced rate of [...]

Inflation falls to 2.8%

Inflation fell to 2.8 per cent on the Consumer Prices Index in May, from 3 per cent in April, surprising economists who had not expected it to change. Inflation also fell on the Retail Prices Index, which includes housing costs, from 3.5 per cent in April to 3.1 per cent in June. Inflation is now [...]

A quarter of over-50s will delay retirement

Saga, which provides finance products exclusively for the over 50s, claims that more than a quarter of people in this age group will work past the current state pension age of 65. Based on 427,000 retirement dates given by people using its annuity service, 27 per cent of over 50s will work beyond the age [...]

Brits ‘careless’ about insuring mobile phones

Virgin Media says it’s ‘time to shake up the market’ over mobile phone insurance because many people are failing to insurance handsets that can be worth up to £500. A study by the communications firm into consumers’ perceptions of mobile insurance, found that 72 per cent of the 1,000 consumers surveyed had not insured their [...]

Passbook account popular with building society customers

Listening to what its customers want has paid off for the Yorkshire Building Society. In a survey, three out of five customers said they preferred to manage their account in branch, more than half said they wanted a passbook, and 70 per cent said they wanted a branch-based account with a competitive variable rate. . [...]

Mortgage lending fell 30% in April

Mortgage lending fell by 30 per cent in April, with just 36,000 home loans approved, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The fall followed the end of the stamp duty concession for first-time buyers, and loans to this group fell by nearly a half, to 12,600 in April. Many first-time buyers rushed to [...]

Flooding could lead to higher insurance premiums

Floods currently affecting Wales and south east England could be following by a rise in the price of home insurance premiums, according to analysts. The heavy rainfall could cause some insurance companies to miss their profitability targets, and there is more rain on the way according to the Met Office, with flood warnings in place [...]

Household incomes fall but fewer children in poverty

There was a fall in the average household income in 2010—11, due to rising inflation and recession, according to the government’s annual Household Below Average Income (HBAI) report. The number of children living in poverty in the UK also fell because this figure is based on median incomes, and incomes fell proportionally more for wealthier [...]

80% aspire to own their home

Although house sales have plummeted in the past five years, most people still hope to own their own home in the future. Eight out of 10 people surveyed by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said they hoped to own their own home by 2022, while three quarters said they hoped to achieve this ambition [...]

Number of pensioners in the workplace doubles

The number of people continuing to work after reaching retirement age has increased by 85 percent, from 753,000 in 1993 to 1.4 million in 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The ONS said this was due to a number of factors, including improved health and wellbeing for older people, with many of [...]