Oil giant BP has today posted a 45% fall to £8.75 billion in 2009-annual profit compared with the 2008 year. Meanwhile profit for the fourth quarter of 2009 rose 33% to £2.16 billion ($3.45 billion) compared with the $2.59 billion posted a year earlier, as a result of the recovery in oil prices. However, the [...]
Exxon Mobil is the latest oil giant to report its third quarter profits and has announced a 68% fall in net profit to $4.73 billion, compared with $14.8 billion a year ago. Exxon, which is the world’s largest oil company, has been hit by weaker oil prices. Although oil prices have increased recently to around [...]
Royal Dutch Shell has today posted a 73% fall in profits for the July to September period. The Anglo-Dutch oil giant warned that the outlook remains “very uncertain” and according to The Times, is to eliminate 5,000 positions, around 10% of its workforce. The group said its cost-cutting exercise means that 5,000 staff would leave [...]
Oil giant BP has announced a sharp fall in quarterly profits due to lower oil prices. Although oil prices have increased recently to around the $80 a barrel mark, prices are still way off the peak of $147 set in July 2008. BP said third quarter profits were $4.98 billion (£3 billion) – down 50% [...]
Dairy Crest has become the latest company to announce it will close its final salary pension scheme to existing members, having closed the scheme to new employees in 2006. The group, which is one of the UK’s largest milk firms and makes brands such as Country Life and Clover butter, Davidstow cheese and Frijj flavoured [...]
IBM, the computer giant, is considering closing its final-salary pension scheme to current members, affecting over 25% of IBM’s 20,000 UK workforce. An e-mail to staff from IBM’s UK and Ireland general manager Brendon Riley, said the pension fund was being re-evaluated because of rapidly-rising costs and liabilities. The e-mail said: “For IBM UK also, [...]
A survey by accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has revealed more worrying news for the retirement prospects of Britons. The survey by PwC, which polled 1,000 companies, established that 55 respondents are considering freezing their final-salary pension scheme for existing members within the next five years. It appears the trend is growing after banking giant Barclays [...]
Oil giant BP announced yesterday it is to close its UK final salary pension scheme to new members from April next year, in a bid to cut costs for the company. The scheme currently has more than 60,000 members, with 12,000 staff paying in. In the meantime, banking giant Barclays has announced today that it [...]
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has followed rival firm BP and announced a sharp fall in quarterly profits as oil prices fall and demand weakens. Profit for the first quarter plunged to $3.3 billion (£2.24 billion), down 58% compared with the same period in 2008 and represents a 31% fall compared with the fourth quarter [...]
Oil giant BP has announced a sharp fall in quarterly profits as oil prices fall and demand weakens. Net profit for the first quarter was $2.4 billion (£1.64 billion), a fall of 62% compared with the same period in 2008. However, today’s results have exceeded analysts expectations and shares in the company were up 1.1% [...]
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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