Minutes of the Bank of England’s June meeting have been released today and have revealed that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 7-1 earlier this month to keep interest rates at the historic low of 0.5% – where they have been since March 2009. The usual nine-strong committee comprised of only eight members this month [...]
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has published the minutes of its April rate-setting meeting which reveal that the decision to keep the base rate at its historic low of 0.5% was unanimous. The minutes state: “All members agreed that the events of the past month had not been significant enough to substantially alter [...]
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is scheduled to announce the UK inflation rate tomorrow morning, with analysts expecting the annual rate to be around 3.1%. Last month, the ONS reported Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) rose to a 14-month high of 3.5% in January – a figure that was expected by analysts. The rise was [...]
Minutes of the Bank of England’s March meeting have been released today and have revealed that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously earlier this month to keep interest rates at the historic low of 0.5%. Furthermore, all nine members of the MPC opted to keep the quantitative easing (QE) on hold. QE, also known [...]
Minutes of the Bank of England’s February meeting have been released today and have revealed that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously this month to keep interest rates at the historic low of 0.5%. Furthermore, all nine members of the MPC opted to put the brakes on the quantitative easing (QE) programme. QE, also [...]
Minutes of the Bank of England’s December meeting have been released today and have revealed that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously this month to keep interest rates at the historic low of 0.5%. Furthermore, the Bank also opted to leave its quantitative easing (QE) programme unchanged at £200 billion. In November, the MPC [...]
Minutes of the Bank of England’s November meeting have been released today and have revealed that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously this month to keep interest rates at the historic low of 0.5%. However, the minutes show that the MPC was split three ways over whether to increase its quantitative easing (QE) programme. [...]
Minutes of the Bank of England’s September meeting have been released today and have revealed that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously this month to keep interest rates at the historic low of 0.5%. Furthermore, the Bank also opted to leave its quantitative easing programme unchanged at £175 billion and said it would not [...]
The Labor Department has today revealed that the US unemployment rate has hit a 26-year high of 9.7% – analysts had been expecting a rise to 9.5%. Figures show that 216,000 jobs were lost in August in the world’s largest economy and since the start of the recession in December 2007, the economy has lost [...]
Minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting have revealed that policymakers are optimistic that the US downturn is coming to an end. However, the minutes did say that the economy is “likely to recover only slowly during the second half of this year and all saw it as still vulnerable to adverse shocks.” Furthermore, policymakers [...]
Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank, is predicting that interest rates could remain at historically low levels for many years to come. Interest rates currently stand at 0.5% – the lowest level since the Bank of England was established over 300 years ago. According to Mr Lyons, it is quite likely that the [...]
Minutes of the Bank of England’s August meeting have been released and revealed that the Bank of England’s Governor, Mervyn King, wanted to inject more cash into the economy but was outvoted by fellow policymakers. Quantitative easing (QE) also known as printing money, is a process whereby the Treasury injects funds into the financial system [...]
Minutes of the Bank of England’s July meeting have been released today and have revealed that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously this month to keep interest rates at the historic low of 0.5%. As well as the unchanged interest rate, there were no plans to expand the current £125 billion programme of quantitative [...]
Minutes from the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, published today, revealed that extra money supplies were being considered to boost the economy and encourage lending. According to the minutes, all members of the MPC voted in favour of increasing the quantitative easing plan by £50 billion, taking the total to £125 billion. [...]
Last week, official figures revealed that the UK’s annual rate of inflation surged to a record high of 4.4% in July. Inflation is now at its highest level since current records began in 1997. Consequently, hopes of an interest cut were slim as economists said the Bank will face an even tougher decision as inflation [...]
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 [...]
About | Privacy | Disclaimer | Resources | XML Feeds | Press Releases | Directory | Contact us
