Frugal February: Brits paid off £1.2bn in credit card debt and overdrafts in final month of full lockdown March 29, 2021 Frugal February: Brits paid off £1.2bn in credit card debt and overdrafts in final month of full lockdown
City may never be the same as five-day-a-week commute ends, says former Bank of England deputy March 29, 2021 Home working is here to stay and the end of the five-day-a-week office commute will change the shape of London dramatically, according to former Bank of England deputy governor Sir Charlie Bean. The switch will impact the economy “in ways we don’t fully foresee”, the former deputy governor for monetary policy at the Bank said [...]
Stamp duty holiday extension boosts mortgage lending to five-year high but approvals slip March 29, 2021 The stamp duty holiday extension boosted net mortgage borrowing to its highest level since March 2016, according to new Bank of England data. Net mortgage lending hit £6.2bn in February, with mortgage approvals for house purchase reaching 87,700. Andrew Montlake, managing director at mortgage broker Coreco, said the stamp duty extension was pivotal in fuelling [...]
BoE demands lenders seek its approval before relocating jobs to the EU March 29, 2021 The Bank of England is demanding that lenders seek its approval before relocating UK jobs or operations to the EU. The move comes after the BoE became concerned that European regulators are asking for more to move than is necessary for financial stability post-Brexit, the Financial Times first reported. The BoE reportedly heard of several [...]
Covid: UK bank lending surged £29.3bn since March, surpassing EU March 29, 2021 UK bank lending has surged by eight per cent to keep businesses afloat since the pandemic began, surpassing EU lending, according to a new study by UHY released this morning. Banks have offered around £29.3bn in businesses loans over the past year, as lending in the EU increased by an average of 5.3 per cent. [...]
David Cameron gave banker Lex Greensill access to 11 government departments March 28, 2021 David Cameron gave scandal hit banker Lex Greensill access to 11 government departments to create a new cross-Whitehall financial product, it has been revealed. Greensill, whose finance firm Greensill Capital went bust just weeks ago, was brought into the upper reaches of government by then cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood in 2012. Cameron went on to [...]
David Cameron cleared of breaking lobbying rules after Greensill reports March 26, 2021 Former PM David Cameron has been cleared of breaking lobbying rules just days after reports he asked Downing Street officials to help Greensill Capital. “The Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists has concluded his investigation into whether the Rt Hon David Cameron has engaged in unregistered consultant lobbying,” the registrar said in a statement. “His decision is [...]
City A.M. TV: Daily Market Snapshot (video) March 26, 2021 Since the Fed’s reiteration of its super dovish stance last week (Wednesday), global markets have struggled, up until yesterday. With that, there has been marked rotation out of many of the recently popular (reflation) trades and into unloved parts of the global markets. Many of the key mid cap country equity indices, for example, have [...]
BoE urges banks to keep lending as government schemes come to an end March 26, 2021 The Bank of England has urged banks to continue lending through the recovery as the government starts to wind down its coronavirus loan schemes. While the vaccine rollout has boosted confidence the Financial Policy Committee (FPC), which looks at the risks facing the system, has warned SMEs will need to finance cash-flow deficits this year [...]
Post-Brexit City must be freed from European-style over regulation March 26, 2021 It has always been perceived wisdom that it was greedy bankers to blame for the financial collapse of 2008/9. The truth, however, is very different. Looking back, years of Establishment “too big to fail” support for uneconomic banking and financial institutions which began in the 1970s and culminated in the Greenspan intervention to save markets [...]