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All Financial News
The latest financial news:
July 3, 2009
by David Masters
HSBC-owned first direct has launched a new offset tracker mortgage with an interest rate at 2.48% above the Bank of England's base rate.
With the Bank of England's base rate at 0.5%, this gives first direct's mortgage a headline rate of 2.98%, or 3.2% APR.
Unlike any other tracker mortgage currently available, first direct's product is capped at 4.99% until 2012.
The mortgage is ...
by David Masters
HSBC this week launched the Onshore Investment Bond, aimed at clients seeking a professionally managed, whole market investment portfolio.
The bond offers Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) a choice of investments in almost 2,000 funds - OIECs and Unit Trusts - from more than 100 fund managers.
Two versions of the bond are available - 'Select', for fee charging advisers, and 'Flexible' for commission-priced advisers.
Select ...
by David Masters
Many women over 50 have 'given up' saving for retirement due to the recession, according to research by Scottish Widows.
In research for its fifth annual UK Pensions Report, the pensions provider found that one in five (22%) women over 50 are now saving nothing towards their pension.
This is up from 14% a year ago, and represents an increase of ...
by Gill Montia
New evidence of a revival of the UK property market comes from auctioneers who have seen a rise of almost two-thirds in the proportion of properties attracting successful bids.
Countrywide Property Auctions says it sold around 79% of all properties going under the hammer between 28th May and 12th June, compared with 49% during the same period of 2008.
In addition, 40% of properties ...
by Kay Murchie
There was more bad news for the struggling euro zone today with the news of a fall in retail sales in May.
According to Eurostat, retail sales in the euro zone fell 0.4% month-on-month - analysts had expected a fall of 0.1%.
Meanwhile, on an annual basis, the fall was 3.3% - again worse than the 2.7% fall analysts had expected.
The latest ...
July 2, 2009
by Elaine Frei
European equities markets were lower Thursday after new data from the United States Labor Department revealed that unemployment was up again there in June and on a separate report that said Eurozone unemployment rose to 9.5 percent, the highest level in a decade.
In London, the FTSE 100 was 2.45 percent lower to 4,234.27 while the FTSE 250 ...
by David Masters
The commercial banking wings of Abbey and Alliance & Leicester were yesterday renamed under the Santander brand.
Santander-owned Abbey UK Corporate Banking and Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank were rebranded Santander Corporate Banking.
A total of 20 regional corporate banking centres will undergo the name change this year, including centres in Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Hull, Liverpool, and Reading.
Centres in Nottingham and Manchester will be ...
by David Masters
Britain's mountain of debt continues to grow, with the average adult now owing 132% of their typical earnings.
Collectively, UK consumers owe £1.459 trillion, Credit Action revealed this week, equivalent to £30,480 per person.
Personal debt on credit cards, store cards, overdrafts, and unsecured loans is also on the rise, increasing to £4,860 per person during the month of May.
The pace at which ...
by David Masters
Sainsbury's is offering 12 months car insurance for the price of ten this summer.
Motorists taking an insurance policy with the supermarket financial provider before 31st August 2009 will receive 2 months cover free.
Customers who take out the policy online will receive an extra 10% discount.
Features of the policy include compensation for vehicle vandalism and road rage, and the replacement of ...
by Gill Montia
In its latest Credit Conditions Survey, the Bank of England reports that the availability of mortgages with loan-to-value (LTV) ratios above 75% remained broadly unchanged during the three months to mid-June.
However, improvements in the cost and availability of funds meant that a small majority of lenders reported an increase in the availability of secured credit to households, the ...
by Kay Murchie
The European Central Bank (ECB) has today elected to keep interest rates at 1% as widely expected.
In an effort to boost the struggling economy, the ECB has cut rates seven times since October when rates stood at 4.25%.
Elsewhere in Europe, Sweden lowered interest rates to 0.25% - the lowest level since records began over 100 years ago.
Meanwhile, Iceland opted to ...
by Kay Murchie
Figures from the US Labor Department have revealed that the unemployment rate in the US rose from 9.4% in May to 9.5% in June.
While the rate of 9.5% was slightly lower than had been expected - it is still the highest since August 1983 with a total of 14.7 million people unemployed in June in the world‘s largest economy. ...
by Kay Murchie
Figures from the Eurostat agency have revealed that the unemployment rate in the 16-nations that share the European single currency rose from 9.3% in April to 9.5% in May - the highest rate since 1999.
Economists had forecast a rise to 9.4%.
According to Eurostat, 15 million people were out of work in May, up by 273,000 from the ...
by Kay Murchie
Virgin Atlantic is set to reduce its number of flights this winter which will put 600 jobs at risk.
The airline, founded by Sir Richard Branson, announced that it was not operating its Heathrow-Chicago daily service for the winter 2009/10 season and is suspending one of its two daily services between Heathrow and Hong Kong.
The airline said it ...
by Kay Murchie
A series of measures to assist people facing difficulties with debt as well as the termination of credit card cheques are set to be unveiled by the Government.
The Consumer White Paper is set to be launched by Consumer Affairs Minister, Kevin Brennan, at an event in London, held by consumer group Consumer Focus.
According to Mr Brennan, the new ...
by Kay Murchie
“The Big Three” US carmakers reported a slump in sales in June compared to the same month last year.
General Motors (GM) said sales fell 33.6%, while Chrysler sales declined by 42%.
However, Ford, which is the only one of the three not to have gone bankrupt, said sales were down 10.9% compared with a year earlier - a much smaller ...
by Kay Murchie
The Central Statistics Office has revealed that Irish unemployment hit a 13-year high in June, taking the unemployment rate up to 11.8%.
Ireland was the first euro zone country to enter recession and has the second-worst jobless rate in the European Union, behind Spain.
Meanwhile, the number of people claiming jobless benefits in Ireland has nearly doubled over the last 12 months to ...
July 1, 2009
by Elaine Frei
European equities markets were higher Wednesday as miners and most banks saw advances.
In London, the FTSE 100 was 2.15 percent higher to 4,340.71 and the FTSE 250 added 1.24 percent to 7,506.71.
Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED) was 9.86 percent higher to lead the 100 while gold and silver miner Hochschild (LSE: HOC) was the top gainer on the 250, where it added ...
by David Masters
National Savings and Investments (NS&I) yesterday launched the 18th issue of its Guaranteed Equity Bond (GEB).
The five-year bond pays returns linked to the performance of the FTSE 100 index.
Over the term of the bond investors can earn a maximum of 40% on their original investment, with no risk to their capital.
Returns are calculated by comparing the start level of the FTSE 100 index, ...
by David Masters
Only six families have been helped by the government's Mortgage Rescue Scheme, housing minister John Healey admitted yesterday.
Set up in January, the £200 million initiative aims to help vulnerable families at risk of having their home repossessed.
Participants in the scheme can choose to have their home bought by the local authorities then rented back to them, or to take out a ...
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HSBC-owned first direct has launched a new offset tracker mortgage with an interest rate at 2.48% above the Bank of England's base rate.
With the Bank of England's base rate at 0.5%, this gives first direct's mortgage a headline rate of 2.98%, or 3.2% APR.
Unlike any other tracker mortgage currently available, first direct's product is capped at 4.99% until 2012.
The mortgage is ...
European equities markets were higher Wednesday as miners and most banks saw advances.
In London, the FTSE 100 was 2.15 percent higher to 4,340.71 and the FTSE 250 added 1.24 percent to 7,506.71.
Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED) was 9.86 percent higher to lead the 100 while gold and silver miner Hochschild (LSE: HOC) was the top gainer on the 250, where it added ...
