The British Chambers of Commerce’s (BCC) quarterly report has suggested that a recession in Britain is looming with the credit crunch and soaring costs denting the most important sectors of the economy. The BCC said that activity in the UK services sector (which makes up for 75% of the UK’s economy) had slumped to levels [...]
Fortis, the Belgian-Dutch bank, has announced fundraising plans of €1.5 billion (£1.2 billion). It said current circumstances necessitate these measures. Following the announcement, its shares dropped by 6.9% in Brussels trading this morning. The bank, like many others, needs extra capital to ride out the credit squeeze. It also requires the cash to fund its [...]
Research from Birmingham Midshires has revealed that savings level are increasing in spite of the credit squeeze having an impact on struggling households. The study shows that people in the UK appear to be prepared to take action to safeguard their spending. Britons are topping up their savings account and dipping less into funds. Over [...]
The 2008 National Management Salary Survey published by Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has revealed that redundancies in the UK are at a 7-year high. According to the CMI, redundancies have risen to 3% this year, double the 1.4% reported last year. This represents the largest increase since 2001 when it reached 3.7% after the economic [...]
Experts believe that the number of top bankers leaving the US for Asia is set to increase as a result of the credit squeeze. As investment banking profits are squeezed in US and Europe by the credit crunch, institutions are looking to Asia where many Chinese and Hong Kong firms are flush with cash, having [...]
Citigroup has said it plans to close two of its UK lending arms putting 670 jobs at risk. The world’s largest bank is proposing to shut down mortgage supplier Future Mortgages and CitiFinancial, a personal loans business. Both businesses stopped lending to new customers last week. Future Mortgages has around 26,000 customers and less than [...]
HSBC, the UK’s largest bank, has announced it is to write-down a further $2.6 billion (£1.3 billion) in addition to the $12.2 billion of write-downs last year. However, profit in the first three months of 2008 exceeded that of a year ago, as growth in Asia helped counter some $5 billion in hits from bad [...]
Swiss banking giant UBS has announced it is to axe 5,500 jobs as a result of the global credit squeeze. It is understood that 2,600 of the job cuts would be in its investment banking unit, which has a workforce of 19,000 people but which has been hit by a 40% contraction in global deal [...]
As the credit squeeze continues, Citigroup, the world’s largest bank, has announced its second consecutive quarterly loss and has confirmed 9,000 job cuts. The US investment bank made a loss of $5.1 billion (£2.7 billion) in the first quarter, however, this was less than the $9.8 billion loss reported in the final quarter of last [...]
Yesterday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown met with bank chiefs from Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Nationwide as the City struggles with fallout from the US sub-prime crisis and the credit squeeze. No. 10 said the talks were to discuss ways to improve confidence in the housing market and was not a crisis [...]
Analysts at JPMorgan said as a result of the fallout from the US sub-prime mortgage crisis and the credit squeeze, job losses London’s City financial district could be around 40,000. This is double the figure first feared and amounts to one in 10 jobs. Some companies in the Square Mile and Canary Wharf are grinding [...]
London headhunter, Morgan McKinley, said job vacancies in the financial sector declined 23% in March as the credit squeeze continued to take its toll. The announcement casts further doubt over the state of the British economy. Yesterday saw an eagerly awaited interest rate decision for many years. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) [...]
A report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows that British banks will have to take an extra £11 billion from sub-prime losses – in addition to the £9.6 billion write-downs already announced. UK lenders are sitting on far larger undisclosed mortgage-related losses than its European counterparts, according to figures in the Global Financial Stability [...]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that losses from the worldwide credit crunch could reach $1 trillion (£503 billion). The IMF, which oversees the global economy, said the impact of the credit squeeze will be ‘broader, deeper and more protracted’ than previous downturns, due to the degree of securitisation and leverage in the financial [...]
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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