Alistair Darling’s Pre-Budget report was received among a flurry of interest and excitement, but anyone expecting tax cuts to help the UK’s small businesses and entrepreneurs will be left sorely disappointed. A cut in VAT from 17.5% to 15% was announced, ostensibly to help consumers – and yet consumers would be hit with rises on [...]
UK banks such as RBS, HBOS, Barclays and Lloyds have had it bad – share prices have plunged wiping billions from their company values, and commercial markets have frozen up leaving them in need of government help to remain afloat. During the drama of the financial crisis, everyone seems to have forgotten about the ongoing [...]
Hell – the DJI has already fallen through 9,000 tonight, only 4 days after crashing through 10,000 points – and the fall is continuing through the last half hour of normal trading. Currently the DJI is just above 8,900 points, a loss of over 3.8% on the day. That’s a consecutive loss of 18% over [...]
As yesterday morning’s speaker on BBC Radio 4′s “Thought for the Day” urged a bleary-eyed nation to consider in its prayers the plight of bankers, whose lives may be torn apart by the credit crisis, and bear in mind their efforts in support of charity, a new day of financial turmoil was about to break. [...]
We’ve seen Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley collapse, the Cheshire and Derbyshire Building Societies rescued, and even Halifax Bank of Scotland required a bail-out from Lloyds TSB. Turmoil in the world’s markets mean that credit around the globe has literally frozen up, and banks face the very real possibility of a systemic meltdown of [...]
A crisis might be a time for action rather than questions but with the scale of the problems facing the UK banking sector escalating, one particular question regularly bubbles to the surface. Is Grupo Santander any more likely to emerge from the credit crisis in sound shape than some of its failing European rivals? Santander [...]
Stock markets face a further crash over October, as a combination of bad economic data, credit derivative write downs, and the threat of further bank failures, plague financial markets already freezing up. The finance sector is bracing itself for further nasty shocks over the new few weeks, as a slew of worsening economic factors come [...]
The nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley is the most blatant case of legalised bank robbery this country has ever seen, with almost a million shareholders likely to lose a fortune. The whole point of having shareholders in a democracy is that they own the company and can decide its fate between them, including sacking the [...]
Wachovia Corporation (WB) When Harvard economist, Professor Kenneth Rogoff – formerly head of the IMF – predicted at the end of August that at least one major US bank would collapse along with hundreds of smaller banks, trader speculation fell on three names: – Lehman Brothers – Washington Mutual – Wachovia Corporation Since his warning [...]
Shares in US financials have begun a powerful rally, which has seen shares in many US banks leap by double percentile figures. The rally began just before 6pm GMT and 1pm New York time. Companies previously hit hard by investor fears on their mortgage assets are seeing the strongest rebound, with mortgage insurers and US [...]
Within the past 24 hours, two of the world’s biggest investment banks have been destroyed – Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy, while Merrill Lynch was rescued by Bank of America. The Fed extended emergency lines of credit; Wall St banks set up a $70 billion liqiudity fund. And global insurance super giant AIG suddenly threatened to [...]
I took out a self-certified mortgage with GMAC two years ago, because as a company director traditional lenders tend to get very confused when your income is not a straight salaried income-taxed income. Like many company directors, I instead take an income in the form of dividends. On the low interest rates everyone enjoyed at [...]
The BBC publishes a report: Savings returns ‘beating’ shares which makes the outlandish claim: Savers putting their money in funds investing in UK stocks and shares would have made more money since 2000 by putting it in savings accounts instead. To make such a claim requires extreme generalisation and a complete ignorance of investments. It’s [...]
Final salary pension funds return to the red, with pension trustees looking for more money to shore up the losses. What no one seems willing to talk about, though, is the mismanagement of final salary pension funds – and how the managers of these funds have been actively seeking to generate losses against their own [...]
If there’s one thing US analysts seem to enjoy at the moment, it’s downgrading US financials. It’s no surprise that the very companies most actively shorting financials should then release doom and gloom analyses, undermining these further. And in an almost tit-for-tat battle, analysts at different banks have been downgrading each other continually over the [...]
“The Credit Crunch is Over” is a bold statement to make, and more experienced people foolishly made the same prediction much earlier in the year. However, as we near the first anniversary of the Credit Crunch slamming into the financial markets, here are the observations and predictions from Finance Markets: 1. The Credit Crisis is [...]
With the collapse of Indymac, the FDIC was forced to allocate anywhere between $4-8 billion in assets to take over the company. Who are the FDIC? The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is an independent agency created by the Congress that maintains the stability and public confidence in the nation’s financial system by insuring deposits, [...]
The market in “sell and rent back” has boomed incredibly over the past couple of years. Originally there were just a handful of established companies in this market – but the tail-end of the property boom has brought in a massive influx of property speculators who have entered this market as an alternative to buy-to-let. [...]
The shock resignation of David Davis from the House of Commons is a brilliant political strategy. By forcing a by-election where the Liberal Democrats have agreed not to stand, Labour faces a rout that will make Crewe and Nantwich look like a picnic. And, of course, if re-elected – as expected – then David Davis [...]
The recommendation of a free national financial advice service by the Thoresen Review is deeply flawed, and no panacea for sloppy regulation. The BBC reports on recommendations by the Thoresen Review of Generic Financial Advice, which includes a free national financial advice service, provided for using the internet and telephone services. Commissioned by the government, [...]
M&S Money launches 3% cash ISA
M&S Money has launched an Advantage Cash ISA paying 3 per cent, and which allows transfers in from other ISAs. It can be opened with a minimum deposit of £100 lump sum followed by minimum monthly deposits of £25. The 3% rate is variable, but there is no short-term bonus so the return won’t plummet [...]
Google suspends UK Compare Mortgages site
Google has closed its UK mortgage comparison site which it launched in July last year, after it proved to be less popular than expected. Mortgage comparison sites are designed to allow visitors to compare mortgages quickly and easily without having to visit each lender’s individual site. Google was competing with several well-established comparison sites, including [...]
AA launches ‘black-box’ policy for young drivers
The AA is launching an innovative car insurance policy called Drivesafe which could help younger drivers save up to £850 a year. Younger drivers already pay substantially higher premiums than other motorists and these costs are increasing. A new study by Confused.com suggests insurance costs for younger driver have gone up by 5.7 per cent [...]
ATOL scheme updated to protect online bookers
ATOL, a financial protection scheme managed by the Civil Aviation Authority, is being extended to protect up to six million more holidays a year. The scheme ensures that holiday makers do not lose out financially if a travel company collapses, and that they are not stranded abroad. An increase in the number of holidays booked [...]
Home repossessions lowest for four years
The number of UK homes repossessed fell to 36,200 in 2011, significantly below the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ forecast of 40,000, and lower than 2010 when 37,100 homes were repossessed. With interest rates remaining low and lenders adopting a sympathetic attitude to customers in financial difficulty, repossessions fell to their lowest level since 2007. However, [...]
Monthly pay lasting just 17 days
Workers are running out of money just 17 days after receiving their monthly pay, according to new research by the Halifax bank. This means that the average UK worker spends half the month worrying about money. The study, based on the responses of more than 2,000 adults, found that 10 per cent of workers start [...]
Women disadvantaged by auto-enrolment changes
Government proposals to increase the auto-enrolment threshold to £10,000 could put 1.8 million women at risk of missing out on a pension, the TUC has warned. Under the auto-enrolment scheme, which will be phased in from October, private sector employers will automatically enrol workers between the age of 22 years and the state pension age, [...]
Emergency household repairs company Homeserve is taking longer than expected to get back on track after its operations were suspended last October. The company expected customer numbers to fall by 5% this year but it has increased this estimate to 8% and announced the loss of 200 jobs. It estimates that renewal revenue in 2013 [...]
Sale rumoured for Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks
There is growing speculation that National Australia Bank (NAB) may sell Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank after the Australian parent company announced a strategic review of the two banks’ operations. The Australian economy is performing well and NAB reported strong profits for the final quarter of 2011 but with the UK economy at a virtual [...]
More women experiencing debt difficulties
Women in Debt, which offers female-focused debt advice, has warned that the number of UK women facing serious debt has grown significantly over recent years. The organisation believes that more women will need advice on solving debt problems in the future because they are building up an unsustainable level of indebtedness. Women in Debt’s director, [...]
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