Spanish banking giant Santander has announced it will return all of its call centres to the UK from India after complaints from its customers. It will create 500 jobs as part of the process and it is the latest in a series of customer service focus initiatives from the bank. Santander has a major UK [...]
Figures today have revealed Ireland’s economy returned to growth in the January to March period, following a 1.4% contraction in the final quarter of last year. According to the Central Statistics Office, the economy grew by 1.3%, partly attributed to net exports, which grew 20% on an annual basis. However, consumer demand continues to be [...]
Northern Rock Asset Management (NRAM), the so-called bad bank, returned to profit in 2010, it was reported today. The crisis-torn bank, which was the first victim of the credit crunch, said pre-tax profits for the 2010 year were £200.1 million, against a £166.5 million loss in 2009. At the start of 2010, Northern Rock was [...]
Taylor Wimpey, which was formed by the merger of Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey, today said it had returned to profitability but remains cautious. The housebuilder, which is the country’s third largest by value, said pre-tax profit before exceptional items came in at £75.1 million for the 2010 year – against a loss of £96.1 [...]
Swiss banking giant has posted its first annual profit since 2006. The bank, which is Switzerland’s largest, has today reported a net profit of SwFr7.2 billion (£4.7 billion) for the 2010 year – this compares with a loss of SwFr2.7 billion in 2009. However, the bank still has a long way to go after full-year [...]
Property website Rightmove has suggested that first-time buyers (FTBs) are returning to the housing market. According to a report by the property website, which questioned 25,584 potential buyers last month, FTBs are encouraged by house price falls. It found that around 33% of FTBs expect the cost of property to be lower this time next [...]
Oil giant BP has today announced its results for the July to September period. These were delayed by one week because of account complexities relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The company said third-quarter replacement cost profit dived 63% to $1.85 billion (£1.15 billion), this compares with the $17 billion loss reported in [...]
Lloyds Banking Group, which is 41% owned by the Government, has today reported it returned to profit in the first six months of 2010, revealing profits of £1.6 billion, against a loss of £4 billion a year earlier. The rise in profits was primarily due to reduced writedowns with bad loans falling from £13.4 billion [...]
Nationalised lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B) today announced it returned to profit in the first half. The bank posted a pre-tax profit of £896 million for the six months to the end of June, after posing a loss of £160 million in the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, operating costs fell from £65 million [...]
The Munich-based Ifo think tank today announced confidence among German firms has returned. The Business Climate Index jumped to 106.2 points in July from 101.8 the previous month – the strongest rise for 20 years. The reading also exceeded expectations of a fall to 101.5 points. Germany, which is Europe’s largest economy, contracted by a [...]
Budget airline Ryanair has today announced it returned to profit for the year to March after reporting its first annual loss a year ago. The airline unveiled pre-tax profits of €341 million (£289 million) for the year and said it intends to pay a one-off dividend to shareholders totalling €500 million – the first one [...]
Lloyds Banking Group, which is 41% owned by the taxpayer, today said it has returned to profit during the first quarter of 2010, as a result of a reduction in bad debt. The banking giant also said it expects to continue to be profitable for the remainder of the year. The announcement comes just a [...]
Global markets rallied this morning as fears over the Dubai debt crisis started to ease. As the facts of Dubai’s debt crisis unravelled at the end of last week, shares across the world plunged but have today recovered as confidence returns. It emerged last week that state-owned company Dubai World wanted a six-month holiday from [...]
The Building Societies Association (BSA) is urging the Government to return Northern Rock to the mutual sector, arguing that mutuals take less risk than banks owned by shareholders. Mutual building societies are owned by their members, not by shareholders, and are run for the benefit of those members. The BSA said a new report points [...]
Government-backed National Savings & Investments (NS&I) said it has been hit by a return in confidence in banks. The financial crisis led to many British savers withdrawing their funds from banks and choosing safer havens, such as the NS&I. In the final quarter of 2008, which covered the height of the banking crisis, NS&I reported [...]
Halifax is recommending that “straightforward” home improvements are most likely to offer the highest return in terms of adding value to a home. According to the lender’s research, fuel efficiency and energy saving measures head the list, with the potential for more than double the amount laid out to be reflected in a property’s value. [...]
UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the body set up to manage taxpayers’ interests in rescued banks, has today admitted that returning investments to the private sector will be “challenging”. According to the body, each household in the country has over £3,000 invested in Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which are 43% and [...]
Northern Rock is reversing its post-nationalisation strategy of running down its mortgage book and will begin offering new loans of up to 90% of a property’s value. The move offers hope to the UK’s beleaguered housing market, which despite the recent rise in new buyer enquiries reported by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and [...]
The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has reported that first-time buyers are making a tentative return to the housing market. In a survey of its members, the NAEA found that in June first-time buyer sales represented 11.8% of the housing market as compared with 9.8% a year earlier and up from 10.6% in May [...]
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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