FTSE 100 firmly up on Glenstrata deal October 1, 2012 Banks and miners led the blue chip index up in early trading, as the £56bn mining mega-merger of Xstrata and Glencore stole the headlines. Better-than-expected results from the Spanish bank stress tests boosted UK financial shares. Barclays was up 2.89 per cent in early trading, followed by RBS, which added 2.06 per cent. HSBC was [...]
Three ways to save cash on costly London car insurance September 30, 2012 THE AA recently heralded the seizure of Britain’s millionth uninsured vehicle since 2005 – an average of 500 each day. Car insurance is, of course, a legal requirement for driving in the UK. But it’s also an expensive necessity. According to research by Moneysupermarket.com, London drivers face the highest premiums in the country. If you [...]
OFT launches car insurance probe September 28, 2012 The Office of Fair Trading referred the UK’s car insurance industry to the Competition Commission for further investigation amid concerns that the market is not working well for motorists, it announced today. The decision came after a market study said there was suspicion that some features of the market prevent, restrict or distort competition. The [...]
Direct Line float priced at £2.6bn September 28, 2012 Direct Line today announced that it would price its IPO at £2.6bn, slightly below analysts’ expectations. The insurance firm, owned by high-street bank RBS, will offer up between 375m to 500m shares when it lists on the London Stock Exchange on 11 October. RBS, which is 83 per cent-owned by the government, had to either [...]
UK’s insurance claims costing £200m per day September 27, 2012 BRITISH insurers paid out almost £200m a day in claims during 2011, according to industry figures released yesterday. The Association of British Insurers (ABI), whose members represent 90 per cent of the UK industry, revealed the sum in its annual review of the sector. The motor insurance industry made an underwriting loss for the seventeenth [...]
Traders fear nervous consumers September 24, 2012 THE link between the willingness of a consumer in Indianapolis to go out and buy a new car and the volatility of an exchange-traded derivative may not be immediately obvious. But, in a world where central banks have long since abandoned traditional monetary policy, interest rates are at rock bottom, and the US Federal Reserve [...]
Panda-monium in Washington as investor fuels bearish boom September 18, 2012 BILLIONAIRE private equity investor David Rubenstein, co-founder of Carlyle Group, has added another string to his bow – as panda godparent. On Monday, Rubenstein got the latest return on his investment in the form of a new giant panda cub called Mei Xiang, which was born thanks to techniques developed at a facility in Washington [...]
Insurance fraud hits £1bn a year September 12, 2012 INSURANCE fraudsters filed £19m of bogus insurance claims every week on average last year, an annual increase of seven per cent, a new report out today shows. The study by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) shows insurers uncovered 139,000 bogus claims worth a total of £983m last year, the equivalent of 15 false claims [...]
Cable plans public bank to offer business loans September 10, 2012 BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable will today outline plans for a government-backed corporate lender, as part of his attempt to reignite the coalition’s support for British industry. Cable will say in a speech at Imperial College that the smaller “challenger banks” such as Co-operative and Aldermore could be employed to operate the new business bank, though [...]
Best of the Brokers September 3, 2012 ADMIRAL Credit Suisse has cut the insurance firm’s target price to 1250p from 1300p and downgraded its recommendation to “neutral” from “outperform”. The note cited weak car growth. MORRISON Nomura’s rating of the supermarket giant has been slashed to “neutral” from “buy” while the target price is down to 300p from 350p. A refocused Tesco [...]