More than three quarters of savers are unaware that everyone aged 16 and over is allowed to put £5,340 into cash ISA this year, according to research from uSwitch. Only half of savers are planning to put any money at all into a cash ISA, and just a quarter are using their total allowance, the [...]
The government’s purchase of Northern Rock in February 2008 and its recent sale of the bank to Virgin Money, is expected to result in a net profit of up to £11bn for UK taxpayers. According to UK Financial Investments Ltd (UKFI) which manages the Government’s stakes in banks bailed out by the state during the [...]
Consumer group Which? is calling for unfair overdraft charges to be stopped after finding that charges are too complicated and impossible to compare. Which? asked a number of volunteers to calculate how much an unauthorised overdraft would cost at RBS-NatWest, HSBC/First Direct, Lloyds, Barclays, Halifax, Nationwide and Santander. The volunteers, who included a maths PHD [...]
Virgin Money, the new owner of Northern Rock, is to begin charging all new customers for current accounts, even if the account remains in credit. Virgin Money’s chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia “Most people know there is no such thing as free banking. “Banks have to cover the cost of free current accounts with hidden charges [...]
Savers with money in both Northern Rock and Virgin Money will not be disadvantaged by Virgin’s takeover of the Newcastle-based bank if either of the banks collapses. Both Virgin Money and Northern Rock will keep separate banking licences following the £747 million deal, which is expected to be rubber-stamped in January. This means that the [...]
The government has announced the sale of Northern Rock to Virgin Money for £747m, representing a loss of £650m on the £1.4bn of public money it injected into the Newcastle-based bank. The chancellor, George Osborne said that the deal was “an important first step in getting the taxpayer out of the business of owning banks”. [...]
In a further massive shake-up of the UK’s banking industry, the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) is looking at ways to increase competition and choice among high street banks. One option could see existing banking giants broken up and new names enter the industry. The ICB, which is headed by Sir John Vickers, was established [...]
Virgin Money is to bring 200 jobs to Edinburgh, it has been announced today. The financial division of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group was granted a banking licence by city watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, earlier this year. The launch of the retail bank later comes at a time when consumers have lost confidence in [...]
NBNK plans to compete with other High Street banks and has raised £50 million via a share issue. The institution, set up by two City financial-sector heavyweights, is set to build a significant presence in the UK and is now trading on London’s AIM. The bank said it will use the funds to buy branches [...]
US billionaire investor, Wilbur Ross, has invested £100 million in Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Money in order to help it in its quest to bid for Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) High Street branch network, believed to be worth up to £2 billion ($3 billion). RBS, which is 84% state-owned, was ordered by European Union [...]
Consumer watchdog, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), has today revealed UK banks may soon be offering customers the ability to opt out of unarranged overdraft facilities. Should the procedure be put in place, it would mean consumers would avoid hefty fees if they slipped into the red. The announcement comes as the OFT took [...]
Virgin Money, which is set to launch as a retail bank later this year, has announced it will charge a monthly fee for current account customers. However, the company said the fees will be low and will replace high overdraft charges. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Money recently acquired regional bank Church House Trust. Virgin Money, [...]
City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has granted a banking licence to Metro Bank - which is set to become Britain’s first new high street lender for more than a century. Metro Bank, which is backed by US billionaire and former Commerce Bank owner Vernon Hill, is planning to open two branches in central [...]
The government’s ISA allowance increase for savers over-50 has proved hugely popular, with older investors more than doubling their lump sum contributions into share-based ISAs, according to new research from Virgin Money. Income funds have proved the most popular, with contributions rising 130% in the three months from 6 October 2009 to 5 January 2010 [...]
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Money has announced it is to buy regional bank Church House Trust for £12.3 million and will invest £37.3 million into the business. Virgin Money, which was unsuccessful in acquiring crisis-torn Northern Rock two years ago, already offers savings, credit card and investment products to around 2.5 million customers. The purchase [...]
Last week, it was announced that nationalised Northern Rock is to be split into two, after receiving the necessary approval from the European Union (EU). Meanwhile this weekend, it has been confirmed by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, that Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) are to broken up. The new banks [...]
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Money has applied to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for a banking licence, which would enable the consumer credit arm of the Virgin Group to offer deposit accounts. The move comes at a time when consumers have lost confidence in existing High Street banks following the financial crisis and Sir Richard [...]
Investors opening a Virgin Money Climate Change ISA might expect their money to be invested in firms carefully screened for their ethical credentials. In truth, however, their savings could be invested in arms manufacturers, mining firms, tobacco companies, and oil giants. This shocking discovery was made by ethical business blogger Toby Webb. “I had expected [...]
Good deals on personal credit continue despite the credit crunch, research by Defaqto has discovered. Although personal loan rates remain high, with the best interest rates available at around 8%, credit with 0% interest is available on overdrafts and credit cards. Seven in ten (69%) credit cards offer a 0% introductory interest rate on balance [...]
Savers disillusioned by low-interest rates should spread their tax-free ISA allowance across bonds and income-funds, Virgin Money said this week. With the Bank of England’s base rate at an all time low, Cash ISA interest rates offer meagre returns, hitting an average of 0.96% at the end of February. Meanwhile, the ongoing volatility of the [...]
Strikes threatened as public sector pension talks conclude
Talks over public sector pensions have now ended with the government producing a final set of proposals. While the Treasury said the talks were constructive, unions claim that ‘serious matters’ have been left unresolved, leading to the threat of further industrial action. The proposed changes to health, education and civil service pensions are designed to [...]
Payday loan company’s licence revoked
Credit broker Yes Loans has had its licence revoked by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) over concern that its business practices ‘deceitful and oppressive’. Two associated businesses, Blue Sky Personal Finance and Money Worries Limited, have also been found to be unfit to hold a consumer credit licence. Following a long-term investigation, the OFT [...]
Card fraud falls to 11-year low
The amount of money lost due to credit and debit card fraud fell to £341m in 2011. This was 7 per cent less than the amount lost in 2010 and 44 per cent lower than in 2008, when £610m was lost through card fraud. Since 2010 the number of fraudsters impersonating people to use or [...]
Pensioners hammered by QE and rising living costs
The value of final salary pension schemes has been slashed by £90 billion due to the government’s latest round of quantitative easing (QE), the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) warns, while pensioners’ incomes have also been hit by soaring living costs. A new study by LV= suggest that pensioners’ day-to-day living costs have increased [...]
Second salvo of QE knocks £90bn off pensions funds
Falling gilt yields have pushed final salary pension funds £90bn deeper into the red since the second wave of quantitative easing (QE) started last October, pension experts said today. The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) said the Bank of England’s printing of £125bn within the past six months had hit pension funds harder than [...]
Bank of Ireland raises cost of mortgages
The Bank of Ireland has become the latest lender to increase the standard variable rate (SVR) on its mortgages. Around 100,000 UK customers will be affected when the bank increases the SVR from 2.99 per cent, to 3.99 per cent in June There will be a further increase in September, when the SVR will rise [...]
House prices down 1.1% in February
House prices fell 1.1 per cent in February according to The Halifax, contradicting earlier figures from Nationwide suggesting that property prices have increased. According to the Halifax’s three monthly index, house prices were 1.1 per cent lower in February than in the previous three months. The mortgage lender’s annual index showed that property prices fell [...]
Debit card transactions declined by Yorkshire and Clydesdale
Customers of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank have been experiencing problems with debit cards being declined due to computer changes. The problem initially occurred while the banks, which are both part of the National Australia Bank (NAB), were transferring their systems operations to an external contractor on Sunday morning. Problems with some Mastercard debit transactions persisted [...]
Banks write to customers over PPI mis-selling
Banks are writing to millions of customers advising them that they may have been mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI), following the release of new guidelines by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The FSA estimates that between four million and 12 million letters will be sent out, but not everyone who has been mis-sold PPI will [...]
Confidence in pensions plummets ahead of auto-enrolement
Public confidence in pensions has fallen to an all-time low just months before the Government starts automatically putting every worker into one, new research showed today (Weds). A survey for the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) found 54% of all employees are not confident in pensions compared to other ways of saving. 37% said [...]
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