The bosses of Britain’s top six banks are to establish a taskforce to address the shortage of lending to businesses. In a letter to Chancellor George Osborne, British Bankers’ Association (BBA) chairman, Stephen Green, said there was a “need to make sure that viable businesses are able to obtain the finance they need to support [...]
British banks will unveil their first-half profits this week with the five biggest banks expected to reveal they are back in the black. Banking giant HSBC will kick off the reporting season tomorrow, with Lloyds Banking Group and Standard Chartered announcing their results on Wednesday, Barclays on Thursday and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) on [...]
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) has today revealed a marginal rise in the number of new mortgages approved by the major banks in April. According to the BBA, mortgage approvals for the month stood at 35,729 – up by just 685 on March. The BBA said there is little evidence of the traditional “spring bounce” [...]
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) has reported that gross mortgage lending amounted to £8.7 billion in March, with the figure 0.4% down on a year earlier and below the average of the previous six months (£9.2 billion). According to the BBA, repayments were stronger than usual as lenders actively encouraged borrowers to use surplus cash [...]
In yesterday’s Budget, Chancellor Alistair Darling said that every UK citizen will have the legal right to have a bank account. According to the Treasury’s Financial Inclusion taskforce, there are 1.75 million people in the UK that do not have a bank account. The taskforce said half of the 1.75 million come from the poorest [...]
In tomorrow’s Budget, Chancellor Alistair Darling is expected to announce that a basic bank account will be available to everyone. The announcement, which was leaked to the BBC today, will mean everyone has a legal right to have a bank account. According to the Treasury’s Financial Inclusion taskforce, there are 1.75 million people in the [...]
New figures from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) show February’s gross mortgage lending at £8.6 billion, having staged a recovery from January’s low of £8 billion. The number of house purchase loans approved by the UK’s banks leapt 16% year-on-year, to 35,276, having managed a slight increase on January’s figure of 35,154. Furthermore, the value [...]
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) has reported that mortgage lending in January was “relatively weak”, as adverse weather conditions and an inflated December market impacted on house sales. Last month, BBA members approved 35,000 loans to home buyers, down from 46,000 in December but up 37.8% on a year earlier. Remortgaging approvals stood at 20,252, [...]
Mortgage lending by Britain’s High Street banks strengthened slightly in December, although the end of the stamp duty holiday is likely to have prompted a surge in completions before the New Year. The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) reported net lending of £3.5 billion during the month, up from £3.4 billion in November and showing an [...]
Gross mortgage lending in November showed a slight monthly rise, according to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA). The figure stood £9.2 billion but was still 12% down on a year earlier. However, banks approved £6.6 billion in house purchase loans, up from £6.1 billion in October and a 200% increase on November of last year. [...]
Over the weekend, it emerged that Chancellor Alistair Darling is expected to announce a windfall tax on British banks in Wednesday‘s Pre-Budget Report. The measure is one of many being planned by Mr Darling to target high earners. Other measures include increasing the number of people liable to pay inheritance tax, as well as an [...]
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) has reported that in August, gross mortgage lending by the UK’s High Street banks followed a similar pattern to earlier months of the year. Net lending (gross lending with repayments and redemptions stripped out) returned to trend, increasing by £2.8 billion, compared to a rise of £1.9 billion in July. [...]
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) has published its latest mortgage lending statistics showing that in May, the number of loans approved for house purchases rose to 31,162. The figure is up from 29,018 in April and sports an increase of 15.8% on May 2008. However, gross lending fell to £7.7 billion last month, a figure [...]
According to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), the number of mortgages approved for house purchases rose by 4% in April compared with the previous month, rising from 26,671 to 27,685 approvals. However, compared with April 2008, this represented a fall of 15.5%. Furthermore, net new mortgage lending (which takes into account repayments and redemptions) hit [...]
New figures from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) show mortgage approvals for house purchases falling by 7% in March. The decline follows three consecutive months in the level had increased. The Association’s members approved 26,097 new home loans last month, down from 28,024 in February and trailing 25% behind March 2008 numbers. More positively, last [...]
Figures from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) show a rise in the number of mortgages approved for house purchase in February, signalling the third consecutive monthly increase. Last month 28,179 loans for house purchases were sanctioned, up from 24,278 in January and significantly ahead of November’s record low rate of 17,878. However, February’s figure is [...]
According to the Building Societies Association (BSA), over one million people opened a new building society savings account last year. Building societies have benefited since the collapse of Icelandic banks, Icesave and Kaupthing Edge, and the near collapse of Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley, RBS, HBOS/Lloyds. The BSA said an additional 1.2 million accounts (net [...]
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) has reported a slight rise in the number of mortgages approved by its members for house purchases, in January. By volume, approvals rose to 23,376, compared to 22,416 in December, however, the figure was still 43% down on a year earlier. According to the BBA, High Street banks are currently [...]
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) has reported that lending for house purchases fell by 52% during 2008. However, in December the Association’s members approved 22,000 home loans, up from 17,000 a month earlier, although still down 47% on December 2007. The BBA is cautious about the monthly rise, suggesting that it does not indicate a [...]
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) has reported that UK mortgage lending fell sharply in November. Approvals for house purchases were down 14% on October and 60% year-on-year, to a record low of 17,773. The average amount borrowed was £117,000, down nearly 24% on November 2007. Meanwhile, remortgaging approvals fell in volume to 29,798, compared with [...]
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 [...]
About | Privacy | Disclaimer | Resources | XML Feeds | Press Releases | Directory | Contact us
