October 24th, 2008
Only around a third of women reaching retirement age currently qualify for the whole amount. To get the full state pension, women must have 39 years of contributions and men 44 years. But millions fail to build up enough years because they take time off work to care for their families. The new legislation will slash the qualifying period for women from 39 to 30 years. It will also introduce new weekly national insurance credits which will recognise caring for children or the severely disabled in the same way as paid work.
Ministers say the reforms will mean an extra million people – 90% of them women - will build up entitlement to a state second pension from 2010, and by 2025 over 90% of women reaching pension age entitled to a full state pension.
Tags: national insurance credits, Pension, pension reform, state pension
Posted in Finance, Government, Pension | No Comments »
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 »
October 9th, 2008
Thousands of UK customers of two of the collapsed Icelandic banks will receive application forms for compensation for their lost savings in the next week. Most customers of Kaupthing and Heritable Bank will have compensation automatically transferred to ING Direct (its new owner). ING Direct is acquiring £2.5bn of deposits and 160,000 customers from Kaupthing and £538m of savings held by 22,200 people with Heritable Bank.
Icesave customers should learn on Friday how to claim their compensation. The UK Treasury said the three banks were in default but savers’ money was safe.
Tags: compensation, Heritable Bank, Icesave, ING Direct, Kaupthing
Posted in Kaupthing Edge, Savings | No Comments »
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 »
October 8th, 2008
So far, Iceland has claimed that it has the funds to compensate the UK’s 300,000 savers who have deposits with its Icesave accounts, so all customers will have to sit tight for the time being. Compensation must be provided within three months under EU rules.
However, if this turns out to be incorrect, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has said that it will not pay back the full £50,000 if the Icelandic system finds it is unable to pay back any individual’s funds owed up to its guarantee of 20,000 EUR (£16,000). So if you have £50,000 saved with Icesave and the Icelandic system cannot meet its obligation of £16,000 owed, then the UK system will only provide the ‘topped-up’ additional sum of £34,000.
Tags: compensation, Financial Services Compensation Scheme, FSCS, Icesave, savers, savings guarantee
Posted in Credit crisis, Kaupthing Edge, Savings | No Comments »
October 7th, 2008
Icesave savers are still unable to withdraw their cash after the internet bank’s parent company was put into receivership by the Icelandic government. About 300,000 UK savers have spent a day unable to access their cash and face a nervous overnight wait to see if they must go to compensation schemes for their savings to be returned. Although a Landsbanki spokesperson said: ‘The bank is still operational and is in receivership. It has not gone bankrupt and so no ‘compensation’
arrangements are triggered.’
Meanwhile, the Icelandic government has guaranteed all its citizens’ savings 100%, but the guarantee does not extend to UK savers and people logging on to Icesave’s website were greeted with a message telling them that the group was not currently processing any deposits or any withdrawal requests on its internet accounts.
Tags: bankrupt, Icelandic government, Icesave, Landsbanki, receivership, UK savers
Posted in Credit crisis, Kaupthing Edge, Savings | No Comments »
October 6th, 2008
The Post Office is now the safest bank in Britain. The Post Office, which distributes National Savings & Investments (NS&I) deals and Post Office-branded accounts operated by the Bank of Ireland, last week became the outlet for the safest savings available anywhere. This is because NS&I is 100% guaranteed by the Government and all savings with major Irish banks, including Bank of Ireland, are guaranteed by Dublin until September 2010. But what a shame about the queues - in London, where more than 150 branches have shut recently, customers have to wait as long as half an hour.
Tags: 100% guaranteed, Bank of Ireland, National Savings & Investments, NS&I, Post office
Posted in Credit crisis, Savings | No Comments »
September 4th, 2008
The Bank of England left interest rates on hold at 5.0 percent for a fifth month running on Thursday. Given the speed and scale of the economic slowdown, however, most are convinced a rate cut is just a matter of time. Britain’s economy failed to grow in the second quarter of this year for the first time since the early 1990s and many analysts believe the country has already tipped into recession. With unemployment rising and real incomes falling, consumer confidence is at rock bottom and retailers are feeling the pinch.
Tags: Bank of England, base rate, Rate hunch, recession, unemployment
Posted in Bank of England, Credit crunch, Rate hunch | No Comments »
September 3rd, 2008
The Post Office has launched a cash Isa paying a market-leading 6.25% tax-free on a minimum investment of just £1. But the rate is boosted by a 1.5% bonus for the first 12 months. The account guarantees to pay at least Bank of England base rate (currently 5%) minus 1% until January 1, 2010.
It can be opened by branch or post, and application forms can be requested by phone. Transfers in from other providers are accepted. Withdrawals can be made only by post. Those tempted by this account, which, like all Post Office accounts, is run by Bank of Ireland, should be prepared to move once the bonus ends.
Tags: Bank of Ireland, ISA, Post office
Posted in Finance, Savings | No Comments »
August 17th, 2008
Britain’s economy may be one step away from recession, with City economists warning that figures due this week could show that growth in the second quarter of the year is already at zero. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King already warned last week that it was a real possibility this year. This week will see the updated figures for growth for the second quarter. The first estimate issued two months ago showed growth at 0.2%. But economists expect the official figure to be revised down this week, possibly to as low as zero, barely above the definition of true recession.
Tags: Bank of England, economists, economy, estimates, Mervyn King, recession
Posted in Credit crisis, inflation | No Comments »
