Holidaymakers look set to have their summer travel plans disrupted after it emerged today that Virgin Atlantic pilots have voted for industrial action – the first time in the airline’s 32-year history. According to the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) union, 97% of its members voted for strike action after pay talks with the company [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is being sued by a division of the US Government for millions of dollars over failed US mortgage bonds – residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). Investors lost hundreds of billions of dollars when these types of investments went sour and resulted in the financial crisis in autumn 2008. RBS, which is [...]
Crisis-torn Northern Rock has today unveiled an underlying loss of £232.4 million for the 2010 year for its so-called “good“ bank. Despite the loss, the Newcastle-based bank will pay more than £13 million in bonuses to its 4,000-strong workforce. The bonus comes despite executive chairman Ron Sandler describing the losses as “disappointing”. He comments: “2010 [...]
London-based accountancy giant, Ernst & Young, is being sued by New York’s attorney general over the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers. Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008, which then led to a crisis that swept through global financial markets. It has been claimed that Ernst & Young used an accounting method known as [...]
Spain has featured heavily in the news recently after speculation mounts that the country will need to seek an emergency bailout from the EU. However, the country’s Government continues to deny the claims. Earlier this month, Spain’s finance minister, Elena Salgado, said: “Our fiscal adjustment is on track… we have done all the things that [...]
Two former directors of the collapsed foreign exchange company, Crown Currency Exchange, Peter Benstead and Edward James, were arrested and have been questioned in connection with the failure of the company. However, police have said the two men have since been released on bail until July next year. The two men have been named as [...]
There are fears that the debt crisis in Ireland will spread to Spain and Portugal – and other weak euro zone economies. However, Klaus Regling of the European Financial Stability Facility has stated it is “inconceivable” that the 16-nation euro currency will fail. The Irish debt crisis has caused the euro to fall more than [...]
Figures have revealed that Spain’s economy stalled in the July to September period. The disappointing 0.2% annualised growth will be a blow to the economy, which is stalling due to measures taken by the Government to trim its spiralling budget deficit. The country is also battling with the highest unemployment rate in Europe. However, last [...]
Firefighters will go ahead with industrial action over the crucial bonfire night weekend after talks collapsed between the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and the London Fire Authority yesterday. The strike, which will take place from 10am on November 5 to 9am on November 7, incorporates Bonfire Night – the fire service’s busiest period. Members embarked [...]
Crown Currency Exchange has today been placed into administration. Its collapse has been attributed to the downturn in the travel industry. MCR has been appointed as administrator and said it believes 13,000 consumers will be directly affected by the collapse. Paul Clark, of MCR, said that Crown had been affected by the downturn in the [...]
More than a year after declaring itself bankrupt, US carmaker General Motors (GM) is planning an initial public offering (IPO) – which is set to be the second largest share sale in US history. The company has filed an official application (called an S-1 document) with the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to analysts, the [...]
Approximately 13,000 British holidaymakers are stranded abroad after budget travel firm Kiss Flights has collapsed. The firm, which operated flights to Greece, Egypt, Turkey and the Canary Islands, is the latest in a long line of travel firms that have recently gone bust. The collapse has meant the travel plans of 60,000 Britons are ruined [...]
The Japanese economy, which is the world’s second largest, faces many risks, one of them is deflation and the other is the country’s debt – which at nearly 230% of GDP is the highest of any industrialised nation. The debt is the result of decades of stimulus spending and low tax receipts. Japan’s new Prime [...]
British insurance giant Prudential has abandoned its $35.5 billion (£24.6 billion) takeover of AIA, the Asian arm of US company American International Group (AIG). Several Prudential shareholders said they would not approve the takeover unless the Pru trimmed between $3 billion and $5 billion from the original price. Pru attempted to renegotiate the deal and [...]
British insurance giant Prudential has failed to renegotiate the price of its takeover of AIA, the Asian arm of US company American International Group (AIG). The deal now looks set to collapse after AIA snubbed the lower price tag of $30.375 billion. It emerged last week that the Pru, which is Britain’s second largest insurer, [...]
Savers with Northern Rock have today lost the 100% guarantee on their cash. The move, which was announced back in February, means the crisis-torn bank is back in line with its rivals but savers will still benefit from the £50,000 guarantee to all savers under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The 100% guarantee was [...]
British Airways (BA) cabin crew will embark on a five-day strike today after eleventh-hour talks collapsed. Over the weekend, the Unite union’s joint general secretary, Tony Woodley, offered to cancel the latest strikes if travel perks for cabin crew were reinstated. However a spokesperson for BA said: “We have already offered to reinstate travel concessions [...]
The 10,000 Presbyterian Mutual Society (PMS) members who lost their savings after the society collapsed will welcome the news that the Northern Ireland Executive has agreed a £50 million rescue package. After a run on withdrawals, the PMS was forced into administration in 2008 and its members lost access to their savings. The run began [...]
Accountancy firm Ernst & Young (E&Y) has been criticised in a 2,200-page report over the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and could face legal action as a result. The report has accused E&Y of negligence, while senior management at the bank were said to be involved in “lazy accounting gimmicks” to conceal the fact that the [...]
Talks aimed at averting industrial action at British Airways (BA) have collapsed and failed to reach an agreement. Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said: “Despite a prolonged period of negotiations it has not been possible to reach agreement between BA and Unite.” Last month, BA‘s 12,000 cabin crew members voted to [...]
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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