August Bank Holiday 2015 blues for Barclays, RBS and NatWest staff as local branches stay open August 27, 2015 In these modern times of accessibility and 24-hour contact, is the Bank Holiday becoming part of Britain’s history more than a cultural event? Three lenders were excited to announce the desecration of the sacred so-called bank holiday weekend by opening branches across the country. While execs and chairs head off to their homes in the [...]
Looming bank tax fails to dampen spirits at OneSavings Bank August 27, 2015 Specialist lender OneSavings Bank yesterday announced a 60 per cent increase in profit in the six months to 30 June, and said it remains confident that it will continue to “exceed financial objectives” in 2016 despite the new UK bank corporation tax. The challenger bank reported an underlying profit before tax of £47.6m, exceeding forecasts [...]
Home purchase lending drops in London as buyers are priced out August 27, 2015 LONDON’S rising housing costs are pricing people out of the market with fewer mortgages being granted. There were 18,800 home purchase loans granted from April to June, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said yesterday, marking an 11.3 per cent drop on the same period last year. The amount lent out for house purchases in London [...]
UK housing market: Remortgaging spurred on by Bank of England interest rate hike threat August 26, 2015 Remortgaging has surged as the prospect of an interest rate rise leads homeowners to lock in better deals. The number of people switching to lower rates was 29 per cent higher in July than in the some month last year, figures released yesterday by the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) showed. “Savvy homeowners are snapping up [...]
Homeowner remortgages surge as fears of base rate hike grow August 25, 2015 MORTGAGE borrowers are locking in record-low interest rates as the prospect of a rate rise and higher loan costs loom. The number of remortgage loans reached 46,423 last month, a massive 89 per cent jump on the same month last year and the most since November 2008, according to estimates from property services group LMS. [...]
UK house prices: No respite in sight for the housing market August 21, 2015 The housing market shows no sign of easing up this summer with prices climbing and mortgage lending seeing its strongest month for seven years. City level house prices are seeing their fastest growth for over a decade, property market analysts Hometrack said today. It said asking prices had increased 4.3 per cent in the [...]
Strong first half for Rabobank as Dutch economy rebounds August 20, 2015 DUTCH lender Rabobank booked 41 per cent higher net profit in the first half of 2015, lifted by a rebounding Dutch economy and a steep fall in provisions for bad loans, it said yesterday. Net profit in the six-month period was €1.52bn, helped by strong retail banking profit in the Netherlands, where an economic recovery [...]
Co-operative Bank losses nearly treble as turnaround plan gets underway August 20, 2015 The figures Co-op Bank said it made a loss of £204.2m in the first half of 2015, up from a £77m loss in the same period last year, however this was slightly better than expected. The bank’s operating income slumped to £236.5m during this period, from £307.3m in the first half of 2014. This included losses [...]
Ill-designed European Union risks fixed-rate mortgage lending in the UK August 20, 2015 Fixed rate mortgages are massively popular with consumers, 68 per cent of all mortgage products from building societies in the first half of 2015 were fixed rate. With the narrative from the Bank of England hinting that the base rate will start to rise later this year or early 2016, the drive from the public [...]
George Osborne facing pressure from UK building societies over ‘perverse’ bank surcharge August 19, 2015 The Treasury is under fire from Britain’s building societies, who say that a new tax will cost them at least £630m over the next five years – and choke off £20bn worth of lending. Mortgage lenders want the government to think again. “As you would expect the sector is positively engaging with HM Treasury,” Building [...]