The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has today unveiled a loss of £1.4 billion for the six months to the end of June. The bank, which is 84% owned by the taxpayer, said its exposure to the Greek debt crisis and costs relating to the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) pushed it into a [...]
Banking giant Barclays is the latest bank to report its half-year profits and announce job losses. The bank said pre-tax profits came in at £2.6 billion for the six months to the end of June, down one third from the same period a year ago. However, chief executive Bob Diamond said he was pleased with [...]
UK banks are set to lose billions following a High Court ruling over Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). The controversial insurance has been a hot topic for sometime now and the Financial Services Authority introduced a review of the insurance after millions of policies were mis-sold and thousands of complaints were received. Under a PPI policy, [...]
Norwich & Peterborough Building Society (N&P) has today confirmed it has received an approach about a possible merger. The building society, which is Britain’s tenth largest, said it had received “a number of expressions of interest,” as well as the possibility for the injection of fresh capital. In a statement, the firm said: “Like other [...]
The Financial Services Authority (FSA), has announced a delay on its plans to reform the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) market. The City Watchdog said its consultation will be delayed by six weeks due to a heavy amount of criticism from the financial industry. Under a PPI policy, an agreed sum of money is paid out [...]
The Guardian has reported on a case in which the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has ruled that a previous homeowner, whose property has been repossessed by their lender, was mis-sold their mortgage in the first place. According to the newspaper, the ruling could set a precedent that would prevent repossession where it can be shown [...]
Research from Fairinvestment.co.uk has established that 87% of British homeowners believe they were sold an endowment policy under false pretences. During the 1980s and 1990s, endowment policies were a popular choice for homeowners and it is believed that over 10 million mortgage endowment policies were sold in the UK during the period. Endowments were primarily [...]
A report, which is due to be published next month, reveals that 2 million customers have been sold potentially worthless payment protection insurance (PPI). The policies cover monthly payments for goods, services or loans during illness and redundancy. Over the last 5 years, 6 million have signed up for the deals but the Office of [...]
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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