Research from financial advice website, Unbiased.co.uk, indicates that around 2.5 million UK homeowners are reluctantly keeping out of the property market because of the credit crisis and economic downturn. Twenty five per cent of those questioned said they were staying put because house price falls mean they can’t achieve the asking price they want or [...]
Banks are pocketing extra cash rather than passing on lower interest rates to mortgage customers, a Daily Mail investigation revealed this week. Homeowners are paying an average of £1,788 per year more than they should be as banks use the historically low base rate of 0.5% to shore up their ailing coffers. Twelve months ago [...]
HSBC, which is set to announce full-year profits this week, is expected to reveal plans for a £12 billion rights issue – the largest ever held in Britain. The bank, which is Europe’s largest, is expected to disclose a 22% fall in 2008 profits. Last August, it revealed a 28% fall in half-year profits despite [...]
According to Reuters, US investment bank Morgan Stanley is in talks with Wachovia and China Investment Corp (CIC) about a possible takeover or an investment opportunity. Last week, shares in Morgan Stanley plummeted after the collapse of Wall Street giant, Lehman Brothers, the rescue of US insurance giant AIG and Bank of America’s takeover of [...]
Fortis bank has today warned it is facing a tough time after it posted a 41% fall in first-half profits. The Belgian-Dutch bank, which last year joined with the Royal Bank of Scotland to buy ABN Amro, said credit market turbulence and rising bad loan charges was responsible for the fall in profits. Profits for [...]
HSBC, Britain’s largest bank, has reported a 28% decline in first-half pre-tax profits to £5.1 billion ($10.2 billion). The news from HSBC follows that from other banks including Alliance & Leicester, who last week announced that half-year profits have nearly been wiped out after taking a £209 million hit on risky assets and higher funding [...]
Investment banks in the US are being given access to emergency funds from the Federal Reserve if the current financial turmoil continues. The Fed’s chairman, Ben Bernanke, announced the decision yesterday and hopes it will allay the banking giant’s fears on Wall Street who are facing a challenging time currently due to the credit crisis. [...]
US investment banking giant, Goldman Sachs, has announced an 11% fall in quarterly profit. However, the results were below analysts’ expectations and the company’s share price saw a boost after the news. In the quarter to the end of May, Goldman reported net income of $2.09 billion (£1.1 billion), compared with $2.33 billion a year [...]
Yesterday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that as a result of the credit squeeze, the global economy will grow much more slowly in the next 2 years. The IMF warned that the US will slump into recession following the largest financial shock since the Great Depression. It is the first major international institution 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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