The Co-operative Group has announced a record dividend payment of £50 million after posting its highest ever profit in 2009. The five million members of the Co-operative Group will share in the £50.4 million payout, with an average payment of £9.88 per member. This is a 30% increase on last year’s dividend payment of £38.8 [...]
The UK’s biggest coal producer, UK Coal, has today reported increased losses for the 2009 year due to a fall in production and lower coal prices. The company said pre-tax losses grew to £129.1 million for the full year, against a loss of £15.6 million the previous year. Meanwhile, revenues plunged by 20% to £316 [...]
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) said it expects to see a strong recovery in world trade this year after experiencing the sharpest decline in over seven decades. According to the WTO, world trade fell by 12.2% last year as the economic crisis resulted in a slump in consumer confidence and dented demand. The world’s wealthiest [...]
The Co-operative bank saw a 38% growth in bank accounts over the past 12 months. Despite the recession, the ethical bank reported double digit growth in bank account sales for the third year running. Current account balances in 2009 were 21% higher than in 2008, the bank said. The company also reported a “marked increase” [...]
Britain’s largest mutually-owned retailer, the Co-operative Group, has today posted “record sales and profits” for the 2009 year after its acquisition of Somerfield and its merger with the Britannia building society. The group said underlying operating profits before significant items soared 20% to £473 million over the year, while revenue was £13.7 billion. Meanwhile, the [...]
In its latest round-up of UK mortgage statistics, the Financial Services Authority has reported a fall in the number of homeowners in arrears. In the final quarter of 2009, 378,000 households were behind with their monthly repayments (at a level equivalent to 1.5% of their outstanding balances). The figure is down 4% on the previous [...]
State-owned bank Northern Rock has today announced losses for the 2009 year fell to £258 million, compared with £1.36 billion in the previous year. Despite the loss, the Newcastle-based bank said it is awarding staff £14.9m in bonuses but Gary Hoffman, the chief executive of Northern Rock, is waiving his payout. Northern Rock said Mr [...]
Persimmon Homes managed 8,976 legal completions in 2009, compared with 10,202 in 2008, with an average selling price of £160,513 (down from £172,994 last year). However, Britain’s largest house builder says it has a strong forward sales book of around £900 million, up 29% on 2008. Ninety new sites are scheduled to open in the [...]
London-based bank Standard Chartered today announced a rise in pre-tax profits – meeting analysts expectations. The bank, which has a strong presence in Asia, said pre-tax profits in 2009 were £3.4 billion ($5.15 billion), a rise of 13% on 2008 figures. Meanwhile, revenue was up 9% to £10.14 billion ($15.18 billion). However, while many other [...]
In its second six-monthly set of complaints data relating to individual financial firms, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has today said complaints rose by 18% in the second half of 2009. According to the FOS, it received 82,136 complaints between 1 July and 31 December 2009 – a rise of 12,295 compared with the first [...]
Bonuses for Wall Street bankers grew by 17% to $20 billion (£13.2 billion) in 2009, according to figures from the New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The figures come at a time when US taxpayers are bailing out banks and Mr DiNapoli said: “For most Americans, these huge bonuses are a bitter pill and hard [...]
Latest UK house price statistics from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) show the value of a typical home up 2.9% in December, compared to a year earlier. The month saw a 0.8% increase on November, taking the average house price to £200,307 and completing a 2.9% gain for the final quarter of [...]
Repossessions fell 13% to 10,200 in the final three months of 2009, compared to the previous quarter. The figure, which includes home-owner and buy-to-let mortgage borrowers, was also 2% down on the same period of 2008, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). However, for 2009 as a whole, mortgage lenders possessed around 46,000 [...]
Having studied the latest figures from the Insolvency Service, Grant Thornton is predicting a glut of company failures in England and Wales during 2010. Last year saw a record 4,161 companies placed in administration (up 1.7% on 2008) and the accountancy firm warns: “There is no light at the end of the tunnel for troubled [...]
According to a report by Capita Registrars Research, UK companies paid out £57 billion to investors last year – 15% less than in the previous year – resulting in a loss of £10 billion. Furthermore, the research found that investors are unlikely to fare any better this year because of a weak economic recovery. The [...]
Spanish banking giant Santander has today revealed a 13% rise in fourth-quarter net profit to €2.2 billion (£1.9 billion). Meanwhile the bank, which is the second largest banking group in the world after HSBC, said gross income grew almost 24% to €10 billion. For the 2009 year as a whole, net profit was up 1% [...]
The popularity of current accounts with ethical provider The Co-operative Bank soared in 2009. Current account sales at the bank increased 38%, with the number of customers switching to The Co-operative Bank from other major providers rising 22%. Research by The Co-operative Bank found that 10% of consumers switching current account providers do so because [...]
Brits have more than doubled the amount they are saving in the past 12 months, according to research published this week. An investigation by Birmingham Midshires found Brits are saving 136% more per quarter compared to this time last year. In the three months to January 2010, the average UK consumer saved £776. This is [...]
Homeowners in England and Wales saw a 20% drop in the proportion of their take-home pay spent on monthly mortgage repayments in 2009. The latest mortgage affordability research from Barclays’ Woolwich lending arm reveals that in December 2008, mortgage borrowers spent an average £196 of every £1,000 of their monthly take-home pay on their home [...]
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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