Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced plans to cut its operating schedule and reduce headcount by almost 7,000. The loss-making airline said that a total of 6,800 jobs will go as it embarks on a cost-cutting exercise and is making plans for fuel-efficiency and a focus on business customers. The news comes as there are rumours [...]
A major restructure at US pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly, is set to put UK jobs at risk. The company has announced details of a restructuring programme, which it described as the most significant in its history, will see global headcount reduced by 14% over the next two years. The Indianapolis-based drugs company, which has a [...]
Network Rail, which owns Britain’s railway infrastructure, is embarking on a cost-cutting programme, which will see the loss of 1,800 positions. The rail operator said it hopes to avoid any compulsory redundancies and said the jobs will be eliminated by April 2011. The firm, which has a workforce of 33,000 people throughout the country, said: [...]
Short-haul passengers are the latest victims in the British Airways’ attempt to steer clear of administration. Passengers on short-haul flights taking off from London after 10am will no longer receive a free meal, a bread roll, bottled water or sandwiches, as part of cost-cutting measures that could save the airline up to £22 million a [...]
British Airways (BA), which recently asked 40,000 members of staff to work for nothing in a bid to cut costs, has now had a response from its employees. The airline, which recently admitted it was fighting for survival, said 6,940 members of staff applied for voluntary pay cuts, including 800 workers who have volunteered to [...]
Insurance company Axa has today announced plans to axe 560 jobs in the UK over the next few months. Around 120 jobs are set to go at its main operations in Ipswich, which has a workforce of around 1,600 and employs staff in sales, claims and administration. The company also has offices in London, Bolton, [...]
Lloyds Banking Group has confirmed it is to axe 985 jobs over the next two years at its motor finance unit, after a detailed review established that the division was “no longer financially viable”. The move comes as Lloyds looks to cut costs after the bank was created following the merger of Lloyds TSB and [...]
Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson has revealed a pre-tax loss of €358 million (£316 million) in the first quarter of 2009 and has announced plans to cut 2,000 jobs. The group said continued weak global demand meant it had to make savings of €400 million and the 2,000 job losses are on top of 2,000 [...]
Nokia, the largest mobile phone company is struggling through the recession as sales have slumped leaving huge holes in sales forecasts as revenues have fallen by 27 percent to just €9.3bn (£8.2bn). This has been caused by the fact that 18 million fewer handsets were sold in the first quarter of 2009 – a fall [...]
March is traditionally the month when drivers renew their insurance policy, and according to research by Saga, nearly three million motorists have downsized to a smaller car in recent months to save on insurance costs at policy renewal. Eight percent of motorists – 2.7 million drivers -have opted for a car with a smaller engine [...]
Japan’s largest stockbroking firm, Nomura, has reported its worst ever quarterly loss blaming the integration of Lehman Brother’s Asian and European operations, which it bought last September. Its quarterly loss (which related to the October to December 2008 period) amounted to 342.9 billion yen (£2.7 billion), compared with 400.37 billion yen for the same period [...]
The credit crunch is a lot like the World War II Blitz, new research has revealed. The poll by Cahoot, Abbey’s online branch, found that recession induced penny pinching is bringing families closer together in a ‘Blitz’ type spirit. Brits are choosing to spend time at home with loved ones instead of going out and [...]
Struggling Swiss banking giant, Credit Suisse, has announced it is axing a further 5,300 jobs, with the majority of job losses in its investment banking division. The bank, which is one of the biggest casualties of the credit crunch and has been forced to write-off assets worth billions as a result of toxic loans, has [...]
Swiss insurance giant, Zurich Financial Services, has announced a cost-cutting exercise which could result in a reduction of headcount of up to 900. In a bid to cut costs by 10% by the end of the year, Zurich staff have been informed that between 700 and 900 jobs, in its general insurance arm, are going [...]
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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