Mortgage lending has another healthy month in November December 11, 2015 Mortgage lending climbed last month, according to new figures published this morning. There were 70,511 house purchase approvals in November, the data from surveyors e.surv show. Compared with the same month last year, the number of approvals is up 19 per cent. If accurate, the figure also surpasses August’s year-high of 70,748 approvals. E.surv's figures [...]
Peer-to-peer lender MarketInvoice is lending £14,700 a minute as small businesses turn to alternative sources of finance December 10, 2015 More small business are turning to non-traditional forms of finance as they shun expensive overdrafts and bank loans. One peer-to-peer lender, MarketInvoice, which collects cash from individuals and lends it to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) against invoices, had its busiest ever morning today. Between 9am and 12 noon it lent £2.65m to SMEs, around £14,700 per minute, [...]
Bank of England votes eight to one to hold interest rates as oil prices are expected to weigh further on inflation in the coming months December 10, 2015 The Bank of England will be in no mood to lift interest rates any time soon as it said today there was a high chance that inflation will remain near zero in the coming months due to a renewed fall in oil prices. The Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) also warned about uncertainty over the market [...]
Banks are still betting on blockchain over bitcoin December 10, 2015 Bitcoin is back in the limelight, with speculation again swirling around the mysterious identity of the creator of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency. Intense media coverage caused a spike in the bitcoin price, following the publication of parallel investigations by tech news sites Wired and Gizmodo into the identity of the founder. In Wired’s own words: [...]
How P2P can take the strain of tighter bank capital rules December 10, 2015 Harriet Green asks Assetz Capital where platforms will go from here – and where the pitfalls lie Should retail investors be worried about the rise of institutional money in the peer-to-peer (P2P) industry? What should we think about the growing role of funds within it? And is it just banks who will find their [...]
With the Bank of England set to keep interest rates at record low City A.M.’s shadow MPC votes six-three to hold December 10, 2015 A renewed drop in oil prices to below $40 a barrel has led many of the members of City A.M.’s shadow monetary policy committee to vote to keep interest rates at their record lows this month. Inflation remained in negative territory in October, well below the Bank of England’s two per cent target. While a [...]
Bubble fears as average London property hits £600,000 with outer boroughs seeing highest rises December 10, 2015 The average price of a London property is now just shy of £600,000, reigniting fears of a bubble and prompting talk of a market correction. The average London house price was £598,173 in October, 5.6 per cent higher than the same month last year, according to figures released today by estate agents Your Move and Reeds [...]
After Brent crude dipped below $40 per barrel, do we have anything to fear from lower oil prices for longer? December 9, 2015 James Butterfill is head of research & investment strategy at ETF Securities, says Yes The risk with a lower oil price lies in its combination with Fed/Bank of England rate rises. Loan delinquencies in the energy sector are likely to rise as rates go up. The most recent oil and gas survey from IHS highlighted [...]
How banks can defeat tomorrow’s cyber villains today December 9, 2015 If a bunch of crooks in masks were picking their way into your bank vault most days, would you wait another couple of years before considering a new kind of lock? The threat to our banks from cyber crime intensifies every month. Yet the UK banking sector continues as if firewalls, email scanning and web controls are all [...]
UK manufacturing in terminal decline as growth rate revised down through to 2017 December 9, 2015 The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has downgraded its UK gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for the year to 2.4 per cent, from a previous prediction of 2.6 per cent. At the same time its scaled back expectations for the next to years with 2016 and 2017 now both forecast for 2.5 per cent [...]