Australia counts the cost of flood and cyclone disasters

Asda flier promotes expensive cash withdrawals

The ‘Asda Price’ slogan took on a whole new meaning after a flier, designed to look like a Christmas card, suggested that Asda Money customers should withdraw cash from an ATM using their credit card. Customers withdrawing cash on their credit card are charged 3 per cent of the amount withdrawn, or £5, whichever is [...]

Car insurance prices falling

The cost of car insurance fell by 6.6 per cent this month, compared with a year ago, according to Tiger Watch, the car insurance price monitor produced by Tiger.co.uk. Compared with November, prices increased by 0.4 per cent, but across a three month period, prices have fallen to a two-year low. Competition between insurance providers [...]

Chancellor open-minded about ending inflation target

Chancellor George Osborne has welcomed remarks made by the incoming Governor of the Bank of England about scrapping the inflation target to focus on gross domestic product (GDP). Such a change in strategy would require the Bank of England to introduce new measure to stimulate the economy, even if this caused inflation to rise. Mark [...]

Shepshed Building Society joins with The Nottingham

The Nottingham and Shepshed building societies will merge in July 2013, with Shepshed’s three branches being rebranded under The Nottingham name. Shepshed Building Society, which has branches in Shepshed and Loughborough, Leicestershire; and Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, has struggled to grow in the face of economic downturn and increased competition, prompting it to seek a merger. It [...]

Moneyfacts reports fall in number of savings accounts

The Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS), launched by the Bank of England and the Treasury this summer, has caused a sharp fall in the number of accounts available for savers, according to Moneyfacts, a leading provider of personal finance data. FLS is designed to increase the availability of mortgages and business loans by providing banks [...]

Large deposits still challenging first-time buyers

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) is forecasting a positive year in 2013 for the UK property market, but first-time buyers are still struggling to find the large deposits required by mortgage lenders. The CML has recorded a steady increase in mortgage lending with 49,500 home loans advanced for house purchases in October. This represents [...]

HSBC fined $1.92 billion by US authorities

HSBC has received a record $1.9 billion (£1.2 billion) fine from US federal and state authorities after its poor money laundering controls allowed it to be used as a conduit for drug barons and nations on which sanctions had been imposed, including Iran. Following a multi-agency investigation HSBC was charged with violating sanctions by transferring [...]

Northern Rock customers to receive windfall

Northern Rock customers could receive a windfall of around £1,700 because of an error in the wording of loan statements. The mistake, made by the nationalised part of the bank, will cost UK taxpayers a total of £270 million. Up to 152,000 customers who took out personal loans of less than £25,000 will receive an [...]

Government acts to curb whiplash epidemic

Medical panels could be introduced to assess car drivers and passengers making an insurance claim for a whiplash injury following an accident. The number of personal injury claims relating to road accidents has soared by 60 per cent since 2006, despite a 20 per cent fall in road traffic accidents and the government is to [...]

Insurers warn householders to keep Christmas gifts secure

With UK households expected to spend around £8.5 billion on Christmas presents this year, according to a survey by Tesco Bank, insurers are warning consumers to keep their gifts secure. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says that insurers received £35m of claims for the 23,000 burglaries which took place in December last year. Shoppers [...]