UK mobilises army, navy and air force reservists for coronavirus fight April 1, 2020 The UK has mobilised 3,000 army, navy and air force reservists to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Defence said today. “It is expected that 3,000 reservists will be required as part of this tranche and will initially be mobilised for six months, to be kept under review,” the ministry said. “The reserve [...]
Nearly 1m people apply for Universal Credit as coronavirus lockdown paralyses economy April 1, 2020 Nearly 1m people in the UK have applied for Universal Credit in the two weeks since Prime Minister Boris Johnson implemented strict lockdown measures, the government said today. There are normally around 100,000 applicants per two week period – in the last two weeks there were 950,000. The government has moved 10,000 staff to process [...]
Nationwide further tightens criteria for new mortgages as coronavirus crisis bites April 1, 2020 Building society Nationwide has further tightened its lending criteria, excluding bonus, overtime and commission as income it recognises for new mortgage applications. The move follows its decision yesterday to withdraw its offering for low deposit borrowers. Nationwide yesterday withdrew mortgages above 75 per cent loan-to-value (LTV) from its online and broker channels and restricted them [...]
Study: UK coronavirus cases will decline in coming weeks April 1, 2020 The UK’s coronavirus lockdown measures should “lead to a substantial impact and a decline in cases” in the coming weeks, a new study said. The research by scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) concluded that the coronavirus lockdown would help delay the spread of the virus but said there would [...]
UK coronavirus death toll jumps by more than 500 in a day to 2,353 April 1, 2020 The number of UK coronavirus deaths has jumped by more than 500 in a day, according to the latest figures from the Department of Health. The Department of Health said that as of 5pm yesterday, 2,352 people hospitalised in the UK who have tested positive for coronavirus have died. That means the death toll has [...]
Coronavirus: Regulators urge savers to avoid rash decisions on pensions April 1, 2020 Regulators today urged savers to not make any rash decisions in relation to their pensions during the coronavirus epidemic. The Pensions Regulator (TPR), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), said fears over the impact of the pandemic on markets and personal finances may make savers more vulnerable to scams [...]
Coronavirus: Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and RBS suspend dividends March 31, 2020 Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group said tonight they are suspending dividend payments this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The banks said they had taken the decision after a request from the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). The PRA also said it expected the banks to suspend [...]
M&A crashes across the globe as coronavirus freezes economic activity March 31, 2020 Dealmaking has plunged across the world as the calamitous health and economic impact of coronavirus sends M&A into the deep freeze. Data from Refinitiv showed global M&A activity in the first quarter is down 28 per cent on the same quarter last year at $697bn (£560bn). By number of deals, worldwide M&A has fallen 14 [...]
Laura Ashley’s administrators make 268 staff redundant and furlough 1,700 March 31, 2020 The administrators of Laura Ashley said today they had made 268 staff redundant and placed 1,669 on furlough. The staff being made redundant are drawn from across head office and back office functions. The administrators said they were in continued discussions with interested parties over a sale of the business. Rob Lewis and Zelf Hussain [...]
US markets open lower following days of gains March 31, 2020 US markets opened slightly lower today following days of gains driven by massive government economic intervention. The S&P 500 opened down 0.8 per cent at 2,604, the Dow opened down half a per cent at 22,207 and the Nasdaq Composite opened down 0.3 per cent at 7,749. Despite clawing back some ground in recent days, [...]