European equities markets were up Thursday as London saw gains on a buoyant mining sector and after the Bank of England held interest rates steady again at 0.5 percent but did not expand its program to put more money into the faltering economy. The FTSE 100 added 0.45 percent in London, while the FTSE 250 [...]
Britain’s largest Steelmaker Corus is axing a further 366 jobs at its Scunthorpe plant and follows on from the 2,000 job losses announced last month, which included 500 in Scunthorpe. Corus, which is Europe’s second-largest steelmaker and the ninth largest in the world, was created over a decade ago from the merger of British Steel [...]
The China Association of Automobile Manufactures has announced strong car sales for the economy, helped by Government incentives such as subsidies to trade in older vehicles. According to the Association, car sales surged 36.5% in June compared with the same month last year, to 1.14 million vehicles. Sales reached 872,900 vehicles in June – the [...]
The International Monetary Fund recently singled Australia out as the strongest performing economy in the developed world but it seems the economy is not immune from rising unemployment. While the increase in unemployment for the month of June was less than expected, the rate has still hit a six-year high of 5.8% in June, rising [...]
US retailers have been hit by the continuous tightening of purse strings due to rising unemployment. Furthermore, bad weather in June further dampened US retail sales, in particular summer clothes and seasonal items. According to the Goldman Sachs Retail Composite Index, overall the industry reported a fall of 6.7% in sales for the month of [...]
Europe’s largest economy has received further good news today after a rise in exports was reported and follows on from the news that industrial output rose 3.7% in May compared with April. A 0.3% rise in exports has sparked hopes of a tentative economic recovery. For the last six years, Germany has been the world’s [...]
Food prices are rising more than three times faster than the average wage, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealed this week. Food inflation stands at 5.6% compared to the average UK worker’s pay rise of 1.8%. Many employees have had their wages frozen as businesses struggle to survive through the recession. However, the BRC added [...]
Brits are wasting more than £500 million a year by failing to shop around for the best deal on their home insurance. Research by Your Money, in conjunction with Confused.com, found that homeowners are spending an annual £508 million more than they need to on home insurance – equivalent to £180 per household. A second [...]
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has reported that the number of loans approved for house purchases rose 4% in May compared to April, to 37,400. However, volumes were 28% down on a year earlier and well below the 96,000 May average of the past seven years. May remortgaging volumes tumbled 9% on a month [...]
As widely expected, the Bank of England has kept interest rates unchanged at 0.5% today for the fourth month in a row. Prior to April, the Bank embarked on aggressive cuts to bring inflation down and fight off a prolonged recession. Rates currently stand at the lowest level since the Bank was established over 300 [...]
In a surprise move, Nationwide Building Society is offering a new mortgage with a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 125%. The deal is only available to existing customers who are in negative equity and need to move house. Even then borrowers will be selected very carefully. The building society says it can provide a loan for [...]
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 [...]
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