In order to avoid participating in the Government’s Asset Protection Scheme (APS), Lloyds Banking Group is looking at ways to raise cash with one option being tapping investors for £15 billion – which would be the biggest ever rights issue in UK corporate history. The banking giant, which is 43% owned by the taxpayer, is [...]
Lloyds Banking Group is in discussions with the Government with regard to its participation in the Asset Protection Scheme (which insures against losses arising from toxic assets). The banking giant, which is 43% owned by the taxpayer, enrolled in the scheme in March and planned to put £260 billion of loans and investments into the [...]
The Elysée Palace has today announced that French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, may walk out of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh next week unless an agreement is reached with regard to bank bonuses. France has long been arguing that excessive bankers’ bonuses reward the risk-taking that led to the financial crisis. At last week’s meeting of [...]
Supermarket giant Tesco is continuing its expansion into financial services by agreeing a partnership with Fortis, which will form a new motor and household insurance company. Tesco, which has a 30% share of the grocery market, already offers credit cards, savings accounts and insurance via its Tesco Personal Finance (TPF) brand and announced plans late [...]
Irish pay-TV sports broadcaster Setanta has been unable to meet its financial obligations and has therefore lost its rights to broadcast 46 Premier League football matches next season. The loss of the rights will prove to be disastrous for Setanta since the Premier League games are the main reason its customers subscribe. As a result, [...]
Steel producer Corus may cut 2,000 jobs at its Teesside Cast Products plant after four international slab buyers, Marcegaglia, Dongkuk Steel Mills, Duferco Participations Holding and Alvory, have terminated a 10-year supply contract. As their main customers, the consortium have failed to fulfil their part of the contract which has been signed for ten years [...]
Retailer JJB Sports has managed to escape the clutches of administration as landlords and creditors have come to an agreement which will save 10,000 jobs. Landlords of more than 400 stores have agreed to accept new payment terms and without the backing of 75 percent of the landlords, JJB would have fallen into administration. Creditors [...]
The online gambling and gaming company PartyGaming has announced that they have reached an agreement with US authorities which will mean they will not be prosecuted. This is in relation to PartyGaming’s activities before the industry was banned by legislation that was introduced in 2006, and this does open the door to some sort of [...]
As the recession has kicked in, small retailers to well established chains have struggled with cashflow problems, which has caused many to go bust, and as a result has caused huge difficulties for retail landlords. However a positive step has now been made by some landlords to be more accommodating, as the British Property Federation [...]
The G20 leaders have come to an agreement to toughen up regulations within the financial markets today and have agreed to blacklist tax havens. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will be in charge of publishing this and within the documentation a scale of white, grey and black list havens. This will be [...]
A deal was announced yesterday between O2 and Vodafone whereby they plan to share a pan-European network that includes Spain, Ireland, Germany, and the United Kingdom over the next 10 years. As part of a cost cutting exercise it means they will be jointly building new sites for base stations within the UK as well [...]
After a weekend of negotiations, America’s $700 billion (£380 billion) bailout plan has finally reached a conclusion. US Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, managed to convince Republican and Democratic leaders to agree to a compromise, prior to the opening of the Asian stockmarkets. However, the announcement did little to allay fears in the global stock markets, [...]
Phone fraudsters stealing bank card pins
Fraudsters using a phone scam to trick bank card holders into revealing their pin numbers stole £750,000 in the first four months of this year. This is the same amount stolen through this scam in the whole of last year. The fraudster telephones a bank customer, often someone elderly or vulnerable, telling them that their [...]
FSA rules out ban on interest-only mortgages
Speculation that the Financial Services Authority would ban interest-only mortgages as part of its Mortgage Market Review has proved to be unfounded. However, lenders will be required to monitor the performance of the investment product taken out by the customer to repay the mortgage at the end of its term. Investments are performing poorly because [...]
Bank of England may end free in-credit banking
A director of the Bank of England has warned that official intervention could be considered to end the ‘dangerous myth of free in-credit banking’. Andrew Bailey has already spoken out against free banking in relation to the mis-selling of financial products. In a speech made available to media, he reiterated his concern, saying that it [...]
Bank of England votes against more economic stimulus
The Bank of England voted against a further round of quantitative easing, at its latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Just one member, David Miles, voted for further asset purchase to encourage growth in the UK economy, while the other eight members voted to keep the Bank’s quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn. The minutes [...]
Catalogue debt growing says helpline
Calls from people concerned about their debts with mail order catalogues accounted for more than 12 per cent of all calls received by National Debtline last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2007. More people were concerned about catalogue debt than about payday loans, mortgage or rent, according to the Money Advice Trust [...]
Homeserve faces mis-selling investigation
HomeServe, which provides emergency insurance cover and domestic repairs to households in the UK, is to be investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Issues over the possible mis-selling of household emergency policies were uncovered last October during an internal review at the Walsall-based company. Homeserve’s call centre staff were found to be selling ‘Complete [...]
OFT warns Wonga over debt collection methods
Payday loan company Wonga used aggressive and misleading methods to collect debts from customers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found. Wonga sent letter and emails to certain customers suggesting they had committed fraud and threatening to report them to the police if they did not act in the way Wonga suggested. The company [...]
NS&I re-launches investment account
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has re-launched its Investment Account at a higher interest rate than it previously offered. The account now offers 0.75 per cent before tax, compared with between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent previously, depending on the account balance. Deposits and withdrawals on the account can no longer be made at Post [...]
Rightmove reports property downsizing trend
Two in five property owners planning to sell in the next year are planning to ‘trade down’, compared with one in four who plan to ‘trade up’. A survey by property website Rightmove found that moving to a smaller home is the main reason for moving in nine out of the ten regions in the [...]
More people failing to save for retirement
The proportion of people with no pension savings has grown from 20 per cent to 22 per cent over the past year, according to Scottish Widows’ latest survey. The pension provider surveyed 5,200 adults in the UK, aged 30 or over, and earning at least £10,000 a year, for its annual review of pensions. Ian [...]
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