Sir George Mathewson, former chief executives of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Sir Peter Burt, former chief executive of Bank of Scotland (BoS), are trying to convince HBOS shareholders they will not benefit from the current Lloyds TSB deal on the table. The merger of the two banking giants, which will create Lloyds Banking [...]
Last week, Barclays announced it was looking to raise £7.3 billion, primarily from Middle East investors. The bank has secured a £5.8 billion cash injection from investors in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s Royal Family, is investing up to £3.5 billion in the bank, while [...]
Former building society, Alliance & Leicester (A&L) has sent information to its 564,000 shareholders on the £1.3 billion proposed takeover by Spanish bank, Santander. Roy Brown, acting A&L chairman, is strongly encouraging shareholders to vote for the deal and has warned if the move is rejected by shareholders, the bank would be exposed to the [...]
It has been confirmed this morning that only 8.29% of shareholders of HBOS have signed up to the £4 billion rights issue. This amount was marginally worse than the market was expecting after Sunday papers suggested yesterday that the amount was a little as 10%. HBOS, which is the UK’s largest mortgage lender, will still [...]
UK troubled lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B) held its extraordinary general meeting today in Sheffield and its shareholders are backing the £400 million rights issue to shore up its balance sheet. Existing shareholders, who voted in favour of the rights issue, will now have the opportunity to purchase new shares. B&B, which is the UK’s [...]
US banking giant, Bear Stearns is no more as its shareholders have approved the $2.2 billion sale to rival JP Morgan Chase. A meeting took place earlier this week at Bear’s headquarters in New York where investors backed the $10-a-share bid. The original offer of $2 a share infuriated some Bear Stearns shareholders who said [...]
Shareholders of crisis-torn Northern Rock have commenced legal proceedings against the Government to claim compensation for nationalising the bank as they believed it was still a viable company. The UK Shareholders Association (UKSA) has submitted an application for judicial review which questions the terms under which the bank was nationalised, which will leave its 15,000 [...]
The Government took Northern Rock into public ownership on February 22 and shareholders were believed not to be in favour of the nationalisation and have since been threatening legal action. The UK Shareholder’s Association (UKSA) (acting on behalf of the Northern Rock’s shareholders) believes that the UK Government confiscated the shares even though there was [...]
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
