One of the world’s leading accountancy firms, KPMG, is the latest to suffer during the economic downturn after it offered its 11,000 staff sabbaticals or a shorter working week. In an email earlier today, staff were told they have the option of moving onto a 4-day week, with the fifth day unpaid. According to the [...]
Government measures aimed at helping homeowners in danger of repossession come into full effect today. Up to 6,000 households in England could benefit from the £200 million scheme, which allows housing associations to buy the homes of people with serious mortgage arrears and rent the properties back to the previous owners, at a price that [...]
Anglo Irish Bank has been nationalised to prevent the bank from collapse. The Irish Government said under the circumstances, nationalisation was the only option. If it had been declared insolvent, the Government would have been left with approximately €100 billion of liabilities after guaranteeing all deposits in Irish banks last year. The funding position at [...]
US banking giant Citigroup has today announced a worse-than-expected fourth quarter net loss of $8.29 billion (£5.6 billion) and said it plans to split the firm into two separate businesses to restore profitability. The bank’s net loss for the last quarter of 2008 works out at $1.72 per share, far worse than most analysts’ forecasts [...]
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has reported that in November, new mortgage lending continued to fall. The number of new home loans approved fell 17% on October to 33,000 and was 59% below the level recorded in November 2007. The outlook for the next few months is bleak, with the CML predicting that lending [...]
Two of the UK’s biggest home insurance providers, Aviva (Norwich Union) and More Than, are offering free contents insurance to new buildings insurance customers. Aviva’s offer gives up to £50,000 free contents cover to customers buying buildings and contents insurance together. The offer is available on all new policies, provided that customers have not made [...]
RBS Group, whose subsidiaries include the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest, has launched a new fixed rate mortgage at 3.99% interest. The two year deal is available to new and existing customers with a loan to value (LTV) of 60%. It has a £799 set up fee. Other fixed rate mortgages offered by RBS [...]
Emergency funding of $20 billion (£13.4 billion) has been provided to Bank of America after it shares plummeted 17.5% yesterday amid speculation that the bank might be nationalised. In return for the cash injection, the bank must adhere to strict restrictions on senior management pay. Bank of America has been one of the strongest in [...]
Gender directive could slash men’s annuity payouts
The EU Gender Directive, which came into force today, could see men losing up to £10,000 from their annuity payouts, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Under the new rules insurers are no longer allowed to take gender into account when setting annuity rates and premiums on insurance products. Men previously enjoyed higher annuity rates than [...]
Home rental costs down in November
The cost of renting a house in England and Wales fell by 0.4 per cent in November, its first dip since March, according to a survey by LSL Property Services. Average rent was £741m during the month, returning to the level seen in September. However, it was 3.4 per higher than in November last year. [...]
Lloyds TSB halts sale of packaged accounts in branches
Lloyds TSB will stop selling packaged account in its branches from 1 January 2013, until its sales procedures are brought into line with those operated by sister bank The Halifax. Lloyds TSB is one of the main providers of packaged accounts in Britain, with around one in three of its customers choosing to pay fees [...]
Housing market recovery to continue next year
Recent improvements in the housing market should continue into next year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) Gross lending is estimated to have increased to £12.9 billion in November, helped by the Funding for Lending scheme which provides banks and building societies with lower-cost funding, which they are then supposed to pass on [...]
Newcastle Building Society exits interest-only mortgages
Newcastle Building Society has stopped offering interest-only mortgages to new borrowers, following the lead of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide, Co-operative bank and Coventry Building Society. The decision will not affect existing Newcastle customers and applications for interest-only mortgages received before 14 December will still be processed. Prior to the credit crunch, interest-only mortgages [...]
Less than half of Brits considered creditworthy
Fifty-seven per cent of UK adults are at risk of having an application for credit turned down by a mainstream lender according to a new report. The ‘Mind the Credit Gap‘ report commissioned by aqua credit cards suggests that even people with a good credit rating and earning more than £50,000 could have a credit [...]
Monthly incomes £22 lower in 2012
The average monthly income of UK households fell by £22 in real terms compared with last year, according to a survey carried out for the Bank of England (BoE) by NMG Consulting. People on lower incomes have seen their income eroded more than higher earners and households still have high levels of debt the BoE [...]
Savers dig deep to fund Christmas
New research from the Halifax suggests that savers are funding their Christmas spending with money set aside for other purposes. Thirty-seven per cent of 2,138 savers surveyed by the bank at the end of November had withdrawn savings in the last three months. The average amount withdrawn was £1,186, more than double the average savings [...]
Financial data at risk from unsafe passwords
According to a survey by the Payments Council the problem of having to remember a different password for several accounts means that many internet users are compromising the security of their financial data. Internet users have 22 password-protected accounts on average and many use the same log-in details for more than one account, even though [...]
Wonga launches Paylater loans on retailer website
Payday loan company Wonga has launched a new Paylater service on furniture firm Cotswold Company’s website. The service, which allows customers to “buy now, pay later” will be introduced on other retailers’ sites in the near future. Although the Paylater branding is similar to Wonga’s, the Wonga name only appears in the small print. A [...]
About | Privacy | Disclaimer | Resources | XML Feeds | Press Releases | Directory | Contact us
