Financier Clive Cowdery, who runs Resolution investment group, has walked away from Bradford & Bingley (B&B) after he planned to pump £400 million into the troubled UK lender. Following the news, shares in B&B plummeted 19% to an all-time low of 64½p on Friday. Mr Cowdery, who is believed to be worth £130 million, built [...]
The Institutional Voting Information Service (IVIS), which is operated by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has warned there are “breaches of sound governance” in the proposals for Bradford & Bingley’s (B&B) rights issue and the sale of a 23% stake to Texas Pacific Group (TPG). The IVIS has placed an ‘amber top’ on the [...]
Resolution is in discussions with leading investors at Bradford & Bingley (B&B) about injecting £400 million ($787 million) into the troubled UK lender. B&B shares were up 15% in early trading today following the news. B&B is subject to criticism with its 4 biggest shareholders, Prudential’s M&G, Standard Life, Legal & General and Insight and [...]
Britain’s big five banks have agreed to back Bradford & Bingley’s (B&B) £258 million rights issue after the Financial Services Authority (FSA) urged them to help banks throughout the ongoing credit squeeze. It is understood that Barclays, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland, have each agreed to sub-underwrite £20 million worth of [...]
Buy-to-let specialist, Bradford & Bingley (B&B), saw it shares dive 16% yesterday which has caused concern over its £300 million rights issue. It is the latest UK bank to ask its shareholders for additional funding to shore up its balance sheet. Should the shares fall a further 20% between now and July 11, the deadline [...]
Buy-to-let specialist, Bradford & Bingley, has today raised £300 million in an emergency rights issue to shore up its balance sheet. It is the latest UK bank to ask its shareholders for additional funding and confirmed it would raise the £300 million in a rights issue, which offers existing investors the opportunity to purchase additional [...]
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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