Archive for the ‘Banking’ Category
Friday, October 24th, 2008
British savers have rushed to withdraw money from foreign banks and many more are planning to steer clear of them in the wake of the Icelandic banking crash. British banking brands are expected to attract tens of millions in savers’ cash as a result. The irony however is that the top ‘British’ brand on interest rates, Bradford & Bingley, is not technically British following its recent acquisition by Spanish bank Santander.
It must be said however that Indian own ICICI and Nigerian own FBN are fully covered up to £50,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and do not operate under a foreign passport compensation system like Dutch bank ING Direct or the Turkish Akbank (or even the UK branch of the fallen Icelandic banks).
Tags: FBN, Financial Services Compensation Scheme, foreign banks, foreign passport compensation system, FSCS, icici, Savings
Posted in Abbey, Banking, Savings | No Comments »
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
The Chancellor yesterday morning announce his £500bn banks bailout plan which will see some of the banks part-nationalised. The plan consists of the following:
- At least £200bn for short-term lending to banks to replace funds they normally borrow through the inter-bank market.
- £25bn recapitalisation facility for Abbey, Barclays, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered to boost their balance sheet. However, Abbey, HSBC and Standard Chartered have already declined the offer.
- £25bn top-up fund if the first capitalisation proves inadequate.
- £250bn government guarantee of bank bond issues - again to help shore up the banks’ strained balance sheets.
Click here for more information.
Tags: Abbey, bailout plan, Barclays, Government bailout, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, part-nationalisation, RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered, £500 billion
Posted in Abbey, Banking, Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Finance, Government, HSBC, Halifax, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, Politics | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
The major banks have made nearly £500m more from UK customers in six months despite the credit crunch through account holders by charging more for mortgages, loans and credit cards. Figures show five of the country’s biggest banks - Lloyds TSB, Royal Bank of Scotland Barclays, HSBC and HBOS - made combined half-year profits of £4.294bn, nearly £500m more than the £3.808bn raised during the same period last year.
The figures reveal the Royal Bank of Scotland increased its profits from its UK businesses by 9.2%. This is despite the global company announcing losses of £691m last week - one of the biggest in UK banking history.
Tags: Credit crunch, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, major banks, profits, Royal Bank of Scotland Barclays
Posted in Banking, Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Finance | No Comments »
Saturday, August 9th, 2008
Abbey has toppled Halifax as the UK’s biggest mortgage lender by taking more than a quarter of all business in the first six months of the year. Chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said that while other lenders were withdrawing from the market, it was increasing mortgage lending to low-risk customers. However, he warned Abbey is unlikely to continue at such a rate for the rest of the year as other lenders return to the market. It came as Abbey, which is owned by Spanish giant Santander, reported a 20% rise in first-half profits to £485m. Santander, which has agreed to buy struggling Abbey rival Alliance & Leicester, said group profits jumped 22% to €4.73bn (£3.73bn).
Tags: Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, Halifax, lender, mortgage, Santander, top lender
Posted in Abbey, Banking, Finance, Halifax, Home loans, Mortgages | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
Northern rock has issued its first competitive mortgage rates since a run on the bank almost brought it to its knees last summer. It has two-year fixed-rate loans that, while not the very best on the market, are good enough to bring in new customers. For buyers there is a rate of 6.39% and for remortgagers a rate of 6.49%. Both have a £995 fee. The lowest rates for two-year fixed deals are available from First Direct and Yorkshire BS.
Northern Rock has been trying to move existing customers to rivals since last September. Its rates have got progressively more expensive as it tried to price itself out of the market to avoid taking on new business. These new rates are not available for existing customers. While these rates are not the very best, where they have a big advantage is that they are fully flexible, meaning you can overpay as much as you like without penalty.
Tags: buyers, existing customers, First Direct, fixed rate, mortgage, new rates, no repayment penalty, Northern rock, remortgage, two-year fixed rate, Yorkshire BS
Posted in Banking, Credit crunch, Finance, Government, Mortgages, Northern rock, Re-mortgage | No Comments »
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Business bank account customers will no longer be able to reclaim unfair overdraft charges from their bank following this week’s landmark High Court ruling. Although the judge at the centre of the case ruled on Thurday that the excessive penalties levied on personal account holders by eight High Street banks could be assessed for fairness by the Office of Fair Trading – he cast business account customers out in the cold. Business accounts are covered by common law instead of the consumer law governing individual’s current accounts, even though each can suffer charges of up to £39 a time for incursions into ‘unauthorised’ overdrafts. This is a major blow to small businesses hoping to reclaim their hefty overdraft charges.
Tags: bank charges, business accounts, Office of Fair Trading, OFT, overdraft charges
Posted in Banking, bank charges | No Comments »
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
The Office of Fair Trading has won its High Court battle against UK biggest banks on unfair charges. A judge has decided that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) can rule on the fairness of the charges, which many customers have been trying to reclaim. Mr Justice Andrew Smith said his judgement did not necessarily mean the charges were unfair. This judgement means the OFT should be able to decide what a fair charge would be for unauthorised overdrafts. Both the banks and the courts have been deluged with claims since the beginning of 2006, which they were finding very difficult to deal with. But since both sides agreed to stage the test case, tens of thousands of claims have been put on hold in either the county courts or with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). Banks earn approximately £3.5bn a year from the charges, which are believed to affect one in 10 of bank’s 45m customers, according to price comparison group uSwitch. Go here or more details.
Tags: bank charges, charges case, high court battle, Office of Fair Trading, OFT, overdraft charges, test case, unfair charges
Posted in Banking, bank charges | No Comments »
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
Some are questioning whether the financial turmoil has rendered the Bank of England powerless to direct how much the biggest financial names on the High Street charge for credit and pay customers for their deposits. For many, today’s predicted cut in base rate will be meaningless. While banks and building societies have been cutting savings rates, they have also been raising mortgage rates for new borrowers. The only people to benefit would be existing mortgage customers on the track rates which follows the movement of the base rate. The current market turmoil could however be providing banks and building societies with the opportunity to rebuild their profit margins after being hit (at various levels) by the subprime market. Once again, the consumers are paying for the cost of the financial industries’ imprudence.
Tags: Bank of England, banks, base rate, building society, lost control, new borrowers, tracker
Posted in Bank of England, Banking, Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Finance, First-time buyers, Mortgages, Property Market, Rate reduced, Savings, Sub-prime | No Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
New banks from foreign shores are tempting savers with top rates of interest on internet accounts. Kaupthing Edge is owned by Icelandic Bank Kaupthing and its UK subsidiary Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. ICICI Bank UK, a subsidiary of the huge Indian ICICI Bank, operates in 18 countries and has 24m customers worldwide. FBN (UK) Ltd, whose account, under the brand name FirstSave, is also in the best buy tables, is a subsidiary of First Bank of Nigeria. With all three banks the money in your savings account always stays in the UK and is invested mainly in cash and short-term bonds - or near cash - to finance the bank’s UK business. Your money will not end up in Nigeria, India or Iceland. Given the distinctly dodgy reputation of some Nigerian operations - it is the home of internet fraud and corruption is rife - this should provide reassurance to anyone considering FBN’s account. Savings in any of these three banks are covered by the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). If any of these banks go bust then you can claim up to £35,000 per person per bank as they are all fully authorised by the FSA.
Tags: FBN, FBN Bank, FSA, HiSave, Icelandic, icici, Kaupthing, Kaupthing Edge
Posted in Banking, Consumer, Investments, Personal Finance, Savings | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
Rival banks protested that the nationalised company could enjoy a huge competitive advantage over them and steal business away. And MPs complained that the Rock was risking repossessions by attracting new customers with offers to lend them far more money than their homes are worth, by offering cheaper rates on loans of up to 125% of property values - where a quarter of the debt is unsecured. The political crisis deepened after the Government refused to deny claims that taxpayers face a £100m bill for the cost of advice from banks and lawyers during the failed efforts to secure a private sale. The Prime Minister has said nationalisation was a temporary measure, although new Northern Rock boss Ron Sandler has said it will be ’some years’ before the bank can repay its debts. Today’s emergency Bill will give the Government special powers for 12 months to nationalise any bank, not just Northern Rock where it is necessary to protect “the stability of the UK financial system”.
Tags: Government, mortgage rates, nationalisation, Northen Rock, Northen Rock mortgages
Posted in Banking, Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Finance, Government, Mortgages, Northern rock, Politics | No Comments »
