The European Union has today announced that Greece has met the conditions of its loan and will therefore receive the second instalment of its bailout loan on 13 September. In May, the EU and the IMF agreed to loan €110 billion. The three-year rescue deal comprises €80 billion from the EU, with the rest coming [...]
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union (EU) auditors have today said Greece has made “considerable progress” in dealing with its public deficit. For many months now, Greece has been making big cuts to public spending. However, this has met with strong opposition from unions. Greece’s two main unions have launched several strikes this year [...]
Two of Ireland’s most important financial institutions demonstrated their resilience this week by passing a European stress test. The Bank of Ireland and AIB passed the test conducted by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors in partnership with the European Central Bank. The test measured the banks’ potential to survive intact through difficult economic circumstances. [...]
From January next year, restrictions on bankers’ bonuses will take effect, the European Parliament has announced today. Under the deal agreed by the EU members last month, cash bonuses will be capped at 30% of the total bonus. 60% of bonuses should be variable and for future payment only, with at least 40% having to [...]
European Union proposals to tighten regulation on credit rating agencies (CRAs) have been praised by a financial expert. Martin Bamford, chartered financial planner at Informed Choice, welcomed the EU Commission’s plans to better regulate CRAs. “The opinions of CRAs can have a big impact on markets and economies, so better regulation of these bodies is [...]
EU’s statistics agency Eurostat today revealed the euro zone economy grew by 0.2% in the January to March period – unrevised from the previous estimate. However, Eurostat also announced that the euro zone economy actually expanded by 0.1% in the October to December period last year, against its previous estimate of zero growth. Consequently, the [...]
The European Union has announced that the first tranche of financial aid will become available to Greece today. EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, Olli Rehn, said €20 billion (£17.6 billion), from the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will be transferred on 18 May. The funds are designed to help Greece overcome its [...]
EU finance ministers have agreed a €500 billion (£433 billion) emergency rescue package, designed prevent the Greek debt crisis from spreading to other euro zone nations. The bail-out came after 11 hours of discussions in Brussels last week as fears grew for other heavily indebted European countries such as Ireland, Spain and Portugal. The 16 [...]
The euro has lost ground again today after it emerged that Greece has requested talks with the European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to discuss its rescue package. On Sunday, finance ministers of the euro zone nations agreed to provide emergency loans to Greece. The deal will see €30 billion [...]
Greece’s woes intensified today after ratings agency Fitch downgraded the country’s credit rating amid fears over its rescue plan. Fitch downgraded Greece’s rating by two notches, from BBB+ to BBB-, as the cost of Greek borrowing continues to soar. The BBB- rating is significant since it is the lowest rating that qualifies as an investment [...]
There were further fears for debt-stricken Greece today after the country’s central bank, the Bank of Greece (BoG), said economic growth will fall this year by 2%, worse than the Government’s forecast of between 1.2% and 1.7%. According to the BoG: “The Greek economy has fallen into a vicious circle with only one way out: [...]
In order to tackle the UK’s deficit, tax hikes could well be on the agenda, according to reports today. Last week, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne suggested that no new tax rises will be required in order to cut the UK’s ballooning deficit. However, in a dramatic u-turn, asked by the BBC yesterday [...]
A report due to be released later this week by the European Commission is expected reveal the Government’s plans for reducing the budget deficit are not ambitious enough. A draft document, which has been seen by the Reuters news agency, warns Britain is not on target to trim its deficit in accordance with EU rules [...]
Unemployed people across Europe will be given the opportunity to set up their own business with money from a new EU micro-loan fund. Up to 45,000 budding entrepreneurs could be helped by the initiative over the next eight years. The €100 million fund was announced this week by the European Union’s Employment and Social Affairs [...]
As a result of the Greek debt crisis, the euro zone may get its own version of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the EU said today. The proposed institution, which could be known as the European Monetary Fund (EMF), is being considered to prevent a repeat crisis but would not be set up to organise [...]
The 10-year search and advertising deal between Microsoft and Yahoo has been approved today by both the US Department of Justice and the European Commission. Both companies said they plan to begin the tie-up in the next few days and the deal will be finalised by early 2012. The deal, which was agreed in July [...]
After the summit meeting in Brussels today, EU leaders have agreed to work with Greece to tackle its spiralling debts. Last week, the Greek Government announced tough austerity measures to tackle the country’s spiralling debt. The country’s runaway budget deficit is currently more than four times the EU limit of 3%. It currently has the [...]
In an attempt to reduce its high levels of debt, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, has unveiled tough measures which include a public sector pay freeze and a hike in fuel taxes. Further measures to reduce debt levels include a 10% cut in social security spending, as well as a massive 90% tax on the [...]
Figures from Eurostat have today revealed that the number of people unemployed across the euro zone grew to 15.8 million in December. The latest figures mean that the unemployment rate across the 16 countries that use the euro is 10% – the highest rate since 1999. Analysts believe that the unemployment rate will continue to [...]
Official figures have revealed that Spain’s unemployment rate has reached 19.3% (one of the highest of any European region) as the economy has been hit by a severe slump within the construction industry, which has led to a significant amount of job losses. Spain’s jobless rate is more than double the 9.2% rate for the [...]
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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