NBNK plans to compete with other High Street banks and has raised £50 million via a share issue. The institution, set up by two City financial-sector heavyweights, is set to build a significant presence in the UK and is now trading on London’s AIM. The bank said it will use the funds to buy branches [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has confirmed it will sell the 318 Williams & Glyn’s network of branches to Spanish banking giant, Santander for £1.65 billion. The majority of the branches are in the North West and will be turned into Santander banks, with the process expected to be completed by December 2011. Commenting on [...]
It has been announced today that Newcastle Building Society is to close four branches and axe 126 jobs. The Newcastle, which is the UK’s eighth largest building society, said the affected branches are: West Road in Newcastle, Crook in County Durham, Yarm in Stockton-on-Tees and York, and the cuts will bring its branch total down [...]
According to reports, US buyout firm Blackstone and UK medical research charity, the Wellcome Trust, have dropped their joint bid for Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) 318 Williams & Glyn’s branch network. The branch network is being sold under the orders of the European Commission as a punishment of the billions of pounds in state [...]
A major overhaul of the UK banking industry has been confirmed by the Treasury today with plans for Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group to sell off bank branches. The shake-up comes as the Government hopes to create more competition within the industry. The Government holds a 70% stake in RBS and [...]
It has been announced that banking giant Lloyds Banking Group is reviewing its decision to close down its Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) subsidiary. In June, the mega-bank said it was closing all of its 160 UK C&G branches with the loss of hundreds of jobs but the decision may now be reversed. The u-turn has [...]
Lloyds Banking Group is announcing further job losses today with the closure of all its 160 UK Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) branches with the loss of 1,500 jobs. Since April, Lloyds has axed almost 3,000 jobs which resulted in the Unite union accusing the banking giant of a embarking on a strategy of “death by [...]
HBOS is closing 53 branches of it Halifax estate agency. The banking group, which owns leading UK mortgage lender, Halifax, recently reported a 72% fall in first-half profit and has also been embarrassed by its £4 billion fundraising, which attracted the support of only 8% of shareholders. It is now in the process of reviewing [...]
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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