Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is 84% owned by the taxpayer, has announced it has completed the sale of its metals, oil and European energy business, Sempra Commodities, to US investment bank, JP Morgan, in a $1.6 billion (£1.1 billion) deal. Sempra, which is based in San Diego reported 2009 revenues to be in [...]
Santander has announced plans to charge customers up to £50 per month for using their unauthorised overdraft. The £5 per day charge, capped at a maximum of £50 in any one month, will apply to new current accounts opened from December. Customers who use their authorised overdraft will be charged 50p per day, up to [...]
Spanish bank giant Santander has today confirmed it has submitted an offer to buy Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) Williams & Glyn’s network of branches. The deal will give Santander approximately 1,645 branches, or 12% of the market, and cement its status as the second largest mortgage loan provider. The Spanish bank already has a [...]
Single people now outnumber married couples as first time buyers, according to new research published this week. Mortgage provider Santander found that over the last five years 37% of first time buyers were singletons, compared to 29% who were married. This is the first time single people have outnumbered married couples as first time buyers. [...]
From 1 July, Alliance & Leicester (A&L) will attempt to reduce its queues by making customers with cash cards withdrawing less than £300 to use the branch cash machine. The bank, which is to be renamed Santander later this year, said the change will bring the bank brand in line with other banks in the [...]
More and more Brits are converting their garages into living space and evicting their cars onto the driveway, according to new research published this week. The study by Santander found one in ten garage owners have converted or plan to convert their garage. Only a third (34%) of garage owners now use their garage to [...]
Britain’s economy is on the road to recovery, Santander has claimed. Barry Naisbitt, chief economist at Santander UK, pointed out that economic growth during the fourth quarter of 2009 has been revised from 0.1% to 0.4%. He added that the economy has continued growing during 2010. “Some recent indicators, particularly survey indicators of output, are [...]
Spanish banking giant, Santander, has today posted a 6% rise in first quarter net profit, fuelled by strong growth in Brazil and the UK. The bank said net profit totalled €2.215 billion (£1.93 billion) against €2.10 billion in the same period a year ago. The bank’s results come just one day after credit rating agency [...]
According to reports, US buyout firm Blackstone and UK medical research charity, the Wellcome Trust, have dropped their joint bid for Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) 318 Williams & Glyn’s branch network. The branch network is being sold under the orders of the European Commission as a punishment of the billions of pounds in state [...]
Spanish banking giant, Santander, has announced it will begin to withdraw cheque guarantee cards for its customers. The move comes after the UK Payments Council announced months ago that it would axe the cheque guarantee service, which has been established for forty years, from June 2011. Santander, which owns Abbey and Alliance & Leicester, said [...]
Cowboy builders have caused almost £7 billion of damage to UK homes, according to new research published this week. A study by Santander found that nearly one in five (18%) UK households has fallen victim to “Bodger the Builder”, at an average cost of £1,592 per botched job. Santander estimates the total cost of sloppy [...]
Santander’s ISA has been rated top in Moneynet.co.uk’s best buy charts. The ISA, paying 3.5%, pipped Barclay’s offering to the top spot. Both Barclays and Santander are paying high rates than the best one-year fixed-rate ISAs. “The Isa market is really taking shape as we approach the annual hot bed of activity as providers look [...]
According to a report in The Times, Spanish banking giant Santander is the frontrunner for taking over Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) 318 Williams & Glyn’s branch network since it is believed to be one of the few bidders with enough resources. Santander became a household name in the UK when it acquired Abbey for [...]
Brits travelling abroad last year wasted £122 million on unnecessary foreign exchange fees when using their credit cards, according to research by Santander. Overseas holidaymakers spent £1.5 billion on credit cards last year, an average of £600 per traveller. Many credit card providers charge foreign exchange fees of up 2.75%, Santander revealed, equivalent to £16.50 [...]
Spanish banking giant Santander has today revealed a 13% rise in fourth-quarter net profit to €2.2 billion (£1.9 billion). Meanwhile the bank, which is the second largest banking group in the world after HSBC, said gross income grew almost 24% to €10 billion. For the 2009 year as a whole, net profit was up 1% [...]
Santander has launched new two year tracker and fixed rate mortgage products, and has reduced the rate on its five year fixed rate mortgage. The two year mortgages are available to both first time buyers and home-owners at up to 70% loan-to-value (LTV) Interest on the fixed-rate mortgage is 3.44%, while interest on the tracker [...]
Spanish banking giant Santander is to begin its integration of UK High Street banks – Abbey and Bradford & Bingley (B&B). Santander, which is the second largest banking group in the world after HSBC, became a household name in the UK when it acquired Abbey for £9.5 billion, back in 2004. In July 2008, it [...]
Santander’s high street banks have launched a range of new fixed-rate bonds paying interest at up to 4.1%. The bonds, available through Abbey, Bradford & Bingley, and Alliance & Leicester, can be opened by new and existing customers with a minimum deposit of £1. The one year bond pays interest at 2.5% gross per annum/AER [...]
Mortgage borrowers with Santander will soon be able to take advantage of a bank current account that attaches no fees to overdrafts, whether authorised or unauthorised. The Spanish banking giant is launching a “Zero” current account on 11th January 2010 to coincide with its rebranding of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester to [...]
Santander is attempting to lure new customers into opening a premium current account with an introductory special offer. New customers opening a Premier 50 Current Account at Alliance & Leicester or a Reward Bank Account at Abbey will pay account fees of just £5 per month for the first three months. After this introductory period, [...]
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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