The world’s largest advertising group WPP has reported that pre-tax profits almost halved for the first half of 2009 but said the latter half of the year was “forecast to show a marked improvement in profitability”. Pre-tax profit for the six months to the end of June plunged 47% to £179 million, while like-for-like revenue [...]
Nationwide has cut rates by up to 0.5% on some of its fixed-rate and tracker mortgages, from today. Reductions have been applied to its two-year and three-year fixed-rate loans and two-year tracker deal, both for new customers and remortgagers. However, also from 4th August the building society will be retaining £99 of its existing reservation [...]
Budget airline Ryanair aims to slash costs and boost profits by asking passengers to stand during flights. Chief executive, Michael O’Leary, has already spoken with US plane manufacturer Boeing about the possibility of designing an aircraft with standing room. Should the proposal gain approval, Ryanair plans to order new jets or refurbish its existing fleet. [...]
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has again downgraded Ireland’s credit rating by one notch to AA, from AA+ amid fears that the Government is set to incur a bigger than expected cost for supporting banks. At the end of March, the agency downgraded Ireland’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ amid debt fears and put Ireland [...]
Britain’s largest clothing retailer, Marks & Spencer (M&S) has dealt a blow to its shareholders today by announcing it is slashing its dividend to 15p a share for the 12 months to the end of March, down 7p from the previous year. The cut was larger than analysts had expected but M&S said the cut [...]
As widely expected, the European Central Bank (ECB) has today opted to cut rates by 0.25% to 1% for the euro zone. The new rate is a record low and is the seventh cut in as many months. Rates have been reduced since October 2008 when they stood at 4.25%. The news follows that from [...]
Woolwich is cutting rates across its range of mortgages, by up to 0.7%. A two-year fix at 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is available at 4.99%, representing a reduction of 0.4%, while a three year fixed-rate deal at 70% LTV comes 0.5% cheaper at 3.99%. In addition, the Barclays-owned lender’s offset tracker mortgage is down 0.5% [...]
The Brazilian central bank has cut interest rates by 1 percent to 10.25 percent, while the move was widely expected, many investors are disappointed that the reduction was not greater with a 1.5 percent rate cut being mooted. This was evidence that the central bank has reduced their policy of monetary easing, although the benchmark [...]
As expected the New Zealand central bank Governor, Alan Bollard, has cut interest rates for the seventh consecutive time, as the recession has slowed exports and reduced business investment on the island. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has officially cut interest rates by 0.5 percent to a record low of 2.5 percent. After 18 [...]
Lithuania, which is in the worst recession since 1993, has been hit by declining industrial output, weakening demand for exported goods, a shortage of credit and falling wages. As a result, the country’s economy contracted by 12.6% in the first three months of the year, compared with the first three months of 2008, and is [...]
Nationwide has announced that customers taking out fixed-rate mortgages will no longer revert to its base mortgage rate (BMR), when the fix comes to an end. The building society’s BMR, which is the equivalent to a standard variable rate (SVR), has been falling in line with reductions in the base rate and currently stands at [...]
Analysts have suggested that the central bank of Russia has cut interest rates by 0.5 percent following pressure from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, since the reduction came a day after Putin met business leaders who called for a reduction in lending rates. The key refinancing rate fell to 12.5 percent and the government has given [...]
The Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, has decided to cut repo rates by half to just 0.5 percent, and it is hoped that the reduction in the interest rate will soften the blow of unemployment. The inflation target of 2 percent is still attainable and as a result, the low rates are expected to [...]
The central bank of India has reduced interest rates for the sixth time in sixth months to a new record low, with the economy expanding at its slowest rate since 2003. The reverse repurchase rate has been cut from 3.25 percent from 3.5 percent, although economic forecasts are still indicating that economic growth may fall [...]
Pakistan has cut interest rates for the first time since 2002, with a 1 percent cut bringing down lending rates to 14 percent for commercial banks. The central bank raised interest rates by 2 percent back in November, which was the fourth consecutive increase since the global economic outlook receded in 2008. However, since the [...]
Over the weekend Jordan’s central bank announced that it will cut the benchmark lending rates by 0.5 percent in order to increase liquidity and make sure that the availability of cheap credit will help the country avoid the downward spiral of the global financial turmoil. The rate will fall to 5.25 percent with the overnight [...]
Britannia Building Society has cut the cost of some of its fixed-rate mortgages by up to 0.6% The lender is now offering its two-year fixed-rate deal from 3.59%, meaning that new customers borrowing £150,000 at 60% loan-to-value face monthly payments of £760.21 on a 25-year term. An arrangement fee of £549 will be added to [...]
Figures from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) have revealed that the Government’s VAT cut, implemented on December 1st, is working after it led to £2 billion of additional sales. Douglas McWilliams, the CEBR’s chief executive, described the growth in retail spending as “remarkable” and said: “There was an immediate boost to the [...]
There is more bad news for Ireland after ratings agency, Moody’s, has downgraded ratings on a dozen Irish banks, just 24 hours after the country unveiled an emergency budget. The downgrades suggest that Moody’s believes the banks are in a weaker financial position and this can mean borrowing in the future can be expensive. According [...]
Economists believe the Bank of England will keep interest rates at 0.5% on Thursday, bringing an end to the aggressive cuts it has implemented to bring inflation down and fight off a prolonged recession. In as many months, interest rates have been cut six times, taking the rate from 5% to 0.5% – the lowest [...]
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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