Co-operative Group has reported a fall in first-half underlying profit to £230.8 million, down from £262.3 million a year earlier. The mutual has been hit by declining food sales in the face of strong competition, reduced government funding for prescriptions and a change in the income recognition policy on the sale of its funeral bonds. [...]
Manchester-based Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) has announced plans to axe more than 600 jobs as part of a strategic review. The group said 670 field based jobs will go after conducting a review of its life insurance and savings division following its merger with the Britannia Building Society in August 2009. CFS, which has 8 [...]
The Co-operative Financial Services and Ecclesiastical Investment Management were named yesterday as sponsors of the third annual National Ethical Investment Week (NEIW). NEIW 2010, on 7-13 November, is a series of events and other activities across the UK to raise awareness of green and ethical investment options. UKSIF, the sustainable investment association behind NEIW, said [...]
Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) secured the accolade of sustainable bank of the year at this year’s Financial Times Sustainable Banking Awards. HSBC was announced as the runner up, while Itau Unibanco, Brazil won the award for emerging markets sustainable bank of the year. “We are seeing a much greater commitment by financial institutions in both [...]
According to reports this weekend, Coventry Building Society is in merger talks with its smaller rival, the Stroud & Swindon. The talks follow a series of recent mergers between Britain’s building societies and, should a deal be successful, will bring more consolidation to the mutual sector. The news comes as Coventry, which is the country’s [...]
The Co-operative Financial Services (CFS), which recently completed its merger with Britannia Building Society, has reported its interim results for the 28 weeks to 25 July 2009. CFS, which is part of The Co-operative Group, is the UK’s biggest mutual retailer with more than 4 million members, over £14 billion turnover and has over 5,000 [...]
The merger of Britannia building society with Co-operative Financial Services has resulted in 3,600 of the mutuals’ conveyancing panel members being dropped. Typically, solicitors on a lender’s approved panel act for the buyer and the lender. However, the system is open to abuse and could facilitate mortgage fraud because the solicitor involved is responsible for [...]
Britannia Building Society has reduced rates on its two, three and five-year fixed deals by up to 0.95%. The new home loans are available from today (27th February) and the range includes a five-year fix with a rate of 4.24% for a 60% loan-to-value ratio. An arrangement fee of £999 applies. The lender is also [...]
The Britannia Building Society is set to merge with Co-operative Financial Services (CFS). The merger will create a business worth £70 billion in assets with nine million customers and over 12,000 employees in more than 300 branches. The combined group will be a wholly owned subsidiary of The Co-operative Group and Britannia members are to [...]
Gender directive could slash men’s annuity payouts
The EU Gender Directive, which came into force today, could see men losing up to £10,000 from their annuity payouts, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Under the new rules insurers are no longer allowed to take gender into account when setting annuity rates and premiums on insurance products. Men previously enjoyed higher annuity rates than [...]
Home rental costs down in November
The cost of renting a house in England and Wales fell by 0.4 per cent in November, its first dip since March, according to a survey by LSL Property Services. Average rent was £741m during the month, returning to the level seen in September. However, it was 3.4 per higher than in November last year. [...]
Lloyds TSB halts sale of packaged accounts in branches
Lloyds TSB will stop selling packaged account in its branches from 1 January 2013, until its sales procedures are brought into line with those operated by sister bank The Halifax. Lloyds TSB is one of the main providers of packaged accounts in Britain, with around one in three of its customers choosing to pay fees [...]
Housing market recovery to continue next year
Recent improvements in the housing market should continue into next year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) Gross lending is estimated to have increased to £12.9 billion in November, helped by the Funding for Lending scheme which provides banks and building societies with lower-cost funding, which they are then supposed to pass on [...]
Newcastle Building Society exits interest-only mortgages
Newcastle Building Society has stopped offering interest-only mortgages to new borrowers, following the lead of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide, Co-operative bank and Coventry Building Society. The decision will not affect existing Newcastle customers and applications for interest-only mortgages received before 14 December will still be processed. Prior to the credit crunch, interest-only mortgages [...]
Less than half of Brits considered creditworthy
Fifty-seven per cent of UK adults are at risk of having an application for credit turned down by a mainstream lender according to a new report. The ‘Mind the Credit Gap‘ report commissioned by aqua credit cards suggests that even people with a good credit rating and earning more than £50,000 could have a credit [...]
Monthly incomes £22 lower in 2012
The average monthly income of UK households fell by £22 in real terms compared with last year, according to a survey carried out for the Bank of England (BoE) by NMG Consulting. People on lower incomes have seen their income eroded more than higher earners and households still have high levels of debt the BoE [...]
Savers dig deep to fund Christmas
New research from the Halifax suggests that savers are funding their Christmas spending with money set aside for other purposes. Thirty-seven per cent of 2,138 savers surveyed by the bank at the end of November had withdrawn savings in the last three months. The average amount withdrawn was £1,186, more than double the average savings [...]
Financial data at risk from unsafe passwords
According to a survey by the Payments Council the problem of having to remember a different password for several accounts means that many internet users are compromising the security of their financial data. Internet users have 22 password-protected accounts on average and many use the same log-in details for more than one account, even though [...]
Wonga launches Paylater loans on retailer website
Payday loan company Wonga has launched a new Paylater service on furniture firm Cotswold Company’s website. The service, which allows customers to “buy now, pay later” will be introduced on other retailers’ sites in the near future. Although the Paylater branding is similar to Wonga’s, the Wonga name only appears in the small print. A [...]
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