Tight mortgage rules slow down lending growth June 23, 2014 TOUGH new affordability checks have knocked mortgage lending, Bank of England data showed yesterday. Lending is still growing, but at a slightly slower pace after the mortgage market review (MMR) rules came into force in April. The number of banks reporting rising demand for prime mortgages outweighed those reporting a fall by a margin of 27.5 [...]
Partnership Assurance cuts 100 jobs following annuity overhaul June 23, 2014 INSURANCE group Partnership is to cut 100 jobs, one in five of its current workforce, in a bid to cut costs following the government’s overhaul of the annuities market. The company is trying to reduce its running costs by £21m, about a fifth of its annual operating costs, after chancellor George Osborne announced that Britons [...]
Savers put cash into ISAs despite low rate June 23, 2014 HARD-PRESSED savers are continuing to put their cash on deposit at banks, despite falls in interest rates, Bank of England figures showed yesterday. The change in the ISA rules is behind the change, the Bank believes, with savers able to put up to £15,000 in the tax-free accounts, across cash and the stocks and shares [...]
£110bn for UK nuclear clean June 23, 2014 THE BILL for cleaning up the UK’s nuclear waste has reached an estimated £110bn, according to a new report from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The figure represents a £6.6m increase on bill quoted in last year’s annual report, owning to the way the clean up costs are calculated and a rise in the cost of [...]
Music streaming rises to top of the charts June 23, 2014 Music played on Spotify, Deezer and Blinkbox will soon count towards the UK singles chart, the Official Charts Company said. Starting on 6 July, the top 40 chart will incorporate streaming data from seven services, with 100 streams of a song being equivalent to one single bought. Katy Perry’s track “Dark Horse” was in the [...]
BNP near $8bn bill for breaking US sanctions June 23, 2014 FRENCH bank BNP Paribas is understood to be close to a settlement with American regulators over allegations it broke sanctions against countries including Iran and Sudan. The bill is now expected to come in at more than $8bn (£4.7bn), less than the $10bn recently feared but still far in excess of the $1.1bn the bank had [...]
Banks want easier capital rules to let challengers compete fully June 23, 2014 UNFAIR capital rules are stopping challenger banks competing with big lenders by forcing them to hold bigger buffers against the same loans, the British Bankers’ Association said today. The biggest banks can hold less capital than smaller lenders against the same debts, because they have enough data to prove to regulators exactly how safe the [...]
Europe’s airlines cancel flights ahead of French air traffic control strikes June 23, 2014 European air passengers will be hit with widespread delays and cancellations today and during the rest of the week as the French air traffic controllers hold their fourth strike in the space of a year. France’s aviation authority has asked airlines to cancel a fifth of flights passing through most major French airports. The body [...]
Queen opens Heathrow’s new Terminal 2 June 23, 2014 The Queen and Prince Philip yesterday officially opened Heathrow’s Terminal 2, almost six decades after the monarch cut the ribbon on the airport’s original second terminal. The new £2.5bn building opened for passengers three weeks ago, with airlines gradually shifting their flights to T2 to avoid the disruption that plagued Terminal 5 when it launched [...]
Fired American Apparel chief Dov Charney seeks shake-up June 23, 2014 American Apparel’s founder Dov Charney said yesterday that he wants to hold talks with the company and its shareholders about shaking up the board after he was ousted as chairman last week. In a US regulatory filing, the 45-year-old who owns a 27 per cent stake said “certain persons” including other shareholders had approached him [...]