Treasury wants bank switching to be more like energy market March 17, 2014 PRICE comparisons between different banks’ current accounts will soon become clearer under a plan announced yesterday by the Treasury and the Money Saving Expert website. The two hope that a new system will allow customers to type in their financial details and receive advice on which current accounts are best for them. Currently comparison sites [...]
Lloyds vows to up SME lending March 17, 2014 LLOYDS will give more power to local branch managers to lend to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the bank said today. The managers will now be allowed to approve loans of up to £1m before asking for head officer permission, rather than £500,000. It is part of the state-backed lender’s pledge to lend £1bn more [...]
End to teaser rates at RBS March 17, 2014 RBS ATTACKED the credit card sector yesterday, calling zero-rate offers “debt traps” and promising to end the practice across its brands. It will no longer offer zero per cent purchase rates and balance transfers on its credit cards. “The credit cards industry is absolutely dominated by teaser rates, trapping people into a spiral of debt [...]
Hedge funds hire bankers to run portfolios bought from lenders March 17, 2014 BIG BANKS are selling off major portfolios of loans to shrink down in the wake of the financial crisis, and top staff are leaving too to manage the portfolios, according to a report out today from Interim Partners. Private equity groups and hedge funds are among those buying the loan books, then hiring bankers for [...]
Cameron’s sets out his agenda for EU reform March 17, 2014 THE PRIME Minister yesterday set out his seven point renegotiation plan to tackle the flow of power from Westminster to Brussels. Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, David Cameron vowed to negotiate a new settlement on membership of the EU if he gets re-elected in 2015. He also promised a referendum vote based on the renegotiated [...]
Pimco crashes out of Europe’s top 25 list of biggest selling funds March 17, 2014 PIMCO, the world’s biggest bond manager, has fallen from its perch as Europe’s best-selling fund manager, cementing a torrid few months for the US-based firm. The group, which has UK offices near Baker Street, fell from being the company with the best-selling funds to outside the top 25 last year, according to fresh figures from [...]
Odey joins illustrious group of investors backing biotech firm March 17, 2014 HEDGE fund guru Crispin Odey has added his name to a gilded list of investment royalty by taking a stake in biotech firm Circassia. Odey joins top fund veterans Neil Woodford, Sir Paul Ruddock and Paul Tudor Jones as a backer of the firm, which is developing a drug to make cat allergies a thing [...]
Cafe Rouge set to be offloaded to Apollo funds March 17, 2014 VULTURE fund Apollo Global Management is on the verge of wresting control of the struggling owner behind popular restaurant brands Cafe Rouge and Strada. Apollo, which buys the loans of struggling firms, has snapped up a substantial portion of the debt in the restaurant’s parent company Tragus Group, which is owned by Blackstone. The purchase [...]
London town hall pension fund sells all its UK government debt March 17, 2014 LONDON’S biggest council pension fund boosted its investment returns last year after selling its entire holdings of UK government debt, its chair said yesterday. The London Pension Funds Authority sold about £1bn of gilts in March 2013 last year, making it one of the few town hall funds holding zero UK government debt. But its [...]
Supply shortfall driving London housing market March 17, 2014 EACH property on the London market is chased by 13 buyers, according to shocking new figures that show the strength of demand in the capital. According to estate agents Barnard Marcus, the number of buyers has surged by 25 per cent in the past year, and the number of transactions is up 20 per cent [...]