NS&I tells competitors to suck it up Pensioners are getting an extra bonus next year courtesy of George Osborne, and building societies fear it will sink their products. The new retirement bonds will be run by NS&I (National Savings and Investments), who run premium bonds and other savings products – and they have little sympathy for their commercial rivals. But [...]
European Central Bank still sees no deflation dragon to slay Falling prices can have a “benign effect” on the economy, the European Central Bank (ECB) said today, hitting back at critics of the current very low rate of inflation. The ECB has a target of keeping inflation below but close to two per cent. Currently it sits at 0.5 per cent, leading to [...]
Barclays fears Amazon and Google threaten traditional banks Customers will soon use tech firms like Amazon, Google and PayPal instead of banks, Barclays’ chief Antony Jenkins said today, promising to innovate more to compete with digital giants. The sector is already being shaken up by new banks being established, and big firms like Tesco offering current accounts. But Jenkins believes the [...]
One graph that spells doom for bond traders June 5, 2014 Investment banks’ bond traders are under the cosh as the decades-long bull market comes to an end and new regulations squeeze their profitability. As a result, banks are looking for ways to save money. One of those is to replace expensive staff with machines wherever possible. This chart from consultants GreySpark Partners [...]
Queen denies housing bubble exists June 4, 2014 There is no housing bubble, we are all safe from the spectre of another boom and bust. Or so says the Queen’s speech and the accompanying notes the government published today. “My ministers will continue to promote the Help to Buy and Right to Buy schemes to support home ownership,” she said this [...]
Bad bank sneaks another three months into its year June 3, 2014 High-pressured City types tend to wish for more hours in the day to squeeze in all their work, plus tacking on a play-hard attitude outside of the office. Britain’s bad bank, made up of the remains of Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley, today stepped some way towards making this a reality by reporting [...]
Sex and drugs worth more to UK economy than rock and roll May 29, 2014 Britain’s economy gets a £10bn boost every year from sex and drugs, official figures show today – far outweighing rock and roll’s (and other music’s) £3.5bn contribution. Drugs add £4.43bn to GDP, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates, while prostitution adds £5.27bn, a total of £9.7bn per year. By contrast, UK Music [...]
Proof that foreign call centres are best May 28, 2014 Barclays wants to keep its customers happy, so when its mortgage borrowers said they wanted British call centres, the bank agreed. It closed its overseas sites and hired Brits to help customers instead. Unfortunately, the new setup has not been as smooth as the bank hoped, and the local staff didn’t make customers [...]
The numbers that prove Nationwide is beating three of the big four banks May 28, 2014 As the name suggests, Britain’s Big Four banks are usually considered the biggest lenders in the country. But the country’s biggest building society, Nationwide, today released numbers showing it is firmly the second-biggest mortgage lender in the county. On top of that, it's growing far faster than RBS, Barclays and HSBC, pulling further [...]
How the Co-op’s botched deal has cut TSB out of half of the mortgage market May 27, 2014 New high street bank TSB can only access half of the mortgage market because it does not have the systems in place to sell through mortgage brokers, chief executive Paul Pester said today – and it is thanks to the Co-op’s botched attempt to buy the lender. As 40 to 50 per cent of [...]
