British retailing giant, Marks and Spencer (M&S), has today announced UK same-store sales grew in its first quarter (13 weeks to 3 July), while food sales rose 1.5% and general merchandise was 6% higher. While the figures represented the third quarter of sales growth in a row, it was slower than the 5.1% increase in [...]
Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, has today said pre-tax profits fell to $7.07 billion (£4.6 billion) last year compared with $9.3 billion in the previous year. The banking giant said loan impairments charges and other credit provisions were $26.5 billion in 2009 – a rise of 9% compared with the previous year. Stephen Green, chairman of [...]
According to reports, banking giant HSBC has bowed to shareholder pressure and abandoned plans to raise its chief executive’s salary. The Financial Times said the bank had consulted shareholders on proposals to raise Michael Geoghegan’s salary by 36% to £1.4 million ($2.2 million). The FT also reported that the bank had planned to up the [...]
A study by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has found that a growing number of managers resigned from their jobs in the past year, citing insecurity and restructuring as the reason for their departure. According to the CMI, resignations grew to 4.7% from 4.5% of the workforce with 225,600 managers quitting their jobs in the [...]
The Obama administration is proposing to cut the salaries of top executives at firms which have received billions of dollars in Government aid. The institutions that are affected are Bank of America, American International Group (AIG), Citigroup, General Motors, GMAC, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial. According to reports, these seven companies will see their 25 highest [...]
Dairy Crest has become the latest company to announce it will close its final salary pension scheme to existing members, having closed the scheme to new employees in 2006. The group, which is one of the UK’s largest milk firms and makes brands such as Country Life and Clover butter, Davidstow cheese and Frijj flavoured [...]
Despite major losses among FTSE 100 companies, directors at these companies saw their basic salaries soar 10% last year. In the midst of the worst global recession in decades, these companies lost nearly a third of their value but their salary continued to rise. The Guardian’s annual survey of boardroom pay discovered that full-and part-time [...]
IBM, the computer giant, is considering closing its final-salary pension scheme to current members, affecting over 25% of IBM’s 20,000 UK workforce. An e-mail to staff from IBM’s UK and Ireland general manager Brendon Riley, said the pension fund was being re-evaluated because of rapidly-rising costs and liabilities. The e-mail said: “For IBM UK also, [...]
Oil giant BP announced yesterday it is to close its UK final salary pension scheme to new members from April next year, in a bid to cut costs for the company. The scheme currently has more than 60,000 members, with 12,000 staff paying in. In the meantime, banking giant Barclays has announced today that it [...]
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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