House prices inched higher in June, says Land Registry July 28, 2010 HOUSE prices in England and Wales rose 0.1 per cent on the month and 8.4 per cent on the year in June, figures from the Land Registry showed yesterday. The government agency said the average price of a home was now £166,072. House prices are now around the same levels that they were in the [...]
Northern Rock finance boss is fined for fudging figures July 27, 2010 A FORMER Northern Rock finance director has been fined £320,000 and banned from working in banking. David Jones admitted allowing false mortgage figures to appear in a document released along with the firm’s accounts. He allowed the false reporting to continue for almost a year in the firm’s trading updates. The figures masked the extent [...]
Tight credit conditions kept lending subdued last month July 20, 2010 BRITISH firms and households still face tight credit conditions despite an overall improvement in economic activity, the Bank of England’s Trends in Lending report revealed yesterday. Net lending to businesses fell for the third consecutive month in May and by £2.3bn, worse than April’s £1.1bn. But the annual decline eased to 8.1 per cent from [...]
House price gains set to be wiped out July 18, 2010 ALL the gains seen in property prices over the past six months will be wiped out by the end of the year, thanks to more aggressive pricing and an increase in the number of houses coming on to the market, property website Rightmove will say today. The forecast forms part of its monthly survey of [...]
HISTORIC FINANCIAL REFORM BILL PASSED July 15, 2010 US LAWMAKERS last night passed a landmark financial reform bill allowing the broadest overhaul of rules governing America’s largest financial institutions since the 1930s. The Senate approved the bill by a 60 to 39 vote last night and will now send it to President Barack Obama to sign into law next week. The bill, which [...]
Goldman pays SEC $550m to kill fraud case July 15, 2010 GOLDMAN SACHS has agreed to pay $550m (£356m) to settle civil fraud charges over how it marketed a subprime mortgage product, ending months of negotiations that rattled the bank’s clients and weighed on its share price. The investment bank has now paid the largest-ever penalty by a Wall Street firm to the Securities and Exchange [...]
Property prices drop in June July 8, 2010 HOUSE prices in Britain dropped 0.6 per cent in June, the third successive monthly fall, a survey from mortgage lender Halifax has shown. Halifax said the decline was a continuation of a trend since the start of this year and was in line with its view that house prices would be broadly flat over 2010 [...]
M4 money supply feels QE effect June 29, 2010 THE supply of money in the UK grew at its fastest rate since the fourth quarter of 2007 in the three months to May as the impact of the Bank of England’s quantitative easing policy starts to be felt, data issued by the central bank showed yesterday. The Bank reported that the three-month annualised growth [...]
Mortgage approvals fall June 29, 2010 MORTGAGE approvals fell unexpectedly in May, new figures from the Bank of England show. Last month 49,815 loans were approved – marginally down from April and well below the 51,000 forecast by economists. However, mortgage lending picked up more strongly than expected, rising to £1.184bn from £0.979bn in April – a figure that was sharply [...]
Aldermore to deliver profit June 28, 2010 ALDERMORE, Britain’s first private equity-backed bank, expects to turn a profit this year, less than 18 months after it began lending to small businesses and entrepreneurs. The institution, which is owned by buyout house AnaCap and investment bank Morgan Stanley, is eyeing a small gain after its commercial mortgages, asset finance and invoice finance arms [...]