UK retail sales stage recovery in February

RBS initiates talks with Virgin Money over branches

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is seeking a new buyer for 316 branches after a deal with Santander fell through, and is believed to have approached Virgin Money. RBS is required the sell the branches under the EU conditions attached to the £45 billion bailout it received from the government when it came to the [...]

Government to legislate on uncollected debt

The Government is planning to introduce new laws allowing its departments to share information on individuals and companies that owe them money. The proposal follows a review by the Cabinet Office’s Fraud, Error and Debt taskforce. Around £20 billion is owed to the Government and more than £7 billion is lost each year through unpaid [...]

Inflation falls to 2.2%

The rate of inflation on the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) fell to 2.2 per cent last month according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), its lowest level since November 2009. In August, CPI inflation, which excludes mortgage interest payments, stood at 2.5 per cent. The Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation, which includes [...]

Pot-follows-member reform could hit retirement income

Proposals to allow workers to move their workplace pension to a new scheme each time they move employment have been criticised by pension and consumer groups. The Department for Work and Pensions is introducing the ‘pot follows member’ approach to avoid the potential problem of workers having several small pots when they reach retirement age, [...]

Accident numbers fall but whiplash claims still rise

The number of claims for compensation for a whiplash injury sustained in a motor accident has continued to increase despite a fall in accident numbers, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries has revealed. The Institute reported a 20 per cent drop in the number of injuries reported to the police in accidents between 2006 and [...]

Consumer spending power weakens

Annual income growth fell to 1.7 per cent last month, its lowest level since December 2010, according to Lloyds Banking Group’s Spending Power Report for September. This was largely responsible for a 0.9 per cent fall in real discretionary spending power, with the amount consumers have to spend on non-essential items falling around £8 per [...]

Funding for Lending scheme prompts mortgage cuts

Mortgage brokers have attributed moves by several lenders to cut their mortgage rates to the Bank of England’s recently launched Funding for Lending scheme. Ray Boulger of mortgage brokers John Charcol said that the Funding for Lending scheme was the key to the cuts. “Wholesale borrowing rates have fallen quite quickly since the scheme was [...]

RBS computer glitch costs Ulster Bank £18m

An IT failure at parent company RBS was a “major disaster” for Ulster Bank, its chief executive Jim Brown told a committee at the Northern Ireland parliament. Following a routine software upgrade on 19 June which went wrong, thousands of Ulster Bank customers were unable to access their accounts. Ulster Bank has paid out £18m [...]

Auto-enrolment could lead to pensions mis-selling

The Pensions Institute has warned that the government’s recently launched auto-enrolment programme could lead to workers being enrolled into poor-value pension schemes. This month employers started to automatically enrol workers aged between 22 years and state pension age into a workplace pension, as long as they earn £8,105 or more. The scheme has started with [...]

Annuity rates plummet due to money-printing

Annuity rates have fallen by 7 per cent in just three months according to MGM Advantage, the retirement income specialist. This means that a 65 year old man with pension savings of £50,000 would receive a retirement income of £2,579 a year from the annuity they purchased with their pension pot, compared with £2,778 in [...]