First-time buyers: Where do millennials stand on the property ladder? July 21, 2021 Around two-thirds of people aged in their 20s and 30s hope to buy a new home in the next five years, according to a survey. Some 66 per cent of people in their 30s and 67 per cent in their 20s are considering buying a property in the next five years, compared to 38 per [...]
Lenders set to increase interest-free periods on credit cards July 15, 2021 Households could be offered longer interest-free periods on credit cards over the summer, according to a survey of lenders. Banks and building societies also anticipate that mortgage availability to households will rise, according to the survey published by the Bank of England. The Bank’s Credit Conditions Survey is carried out every quarter to help it [...]
UK banks expect a rush of defaults in coming months July 15, 2021 UK banks expect defaults to rise over the coming months as households struggle to service debt taken on to cope with the financial pressures of the Covid crisis, new figures released today reveal. According to the Bank of England’s latest Credit Conditions Survey, banks expect default rates on unsecured lending – or credit card lending [...]
High risk clients: Furloughed workers and self-employed with Covid grants refused mortgages July 15, 2021 Furloughed workers and self-employed people who have received government grants during the pandemic have been refused mortgages by some of the UK’s major banks. This comes as some brokers argued that banks see people who have received Covid-related grants as high risk. Two of the UK’s biggest high street banks, NatWest and the Royal Bank [...]
DEBATE: Do banks still need a high-street presence? July 8, 2021 Monzo, Revolut and Starling are all household names. People can open accounts without ever speaking with an employee and most don’t have any branches at all. High-street banks are also closing down and the mass transition towards online banking has only been expedited by the pandemic. Do banks still need a high street presence? Gareth [...]
House prices fall for the first time this year as stamp duty holiday winds down July 7, 2021 The price of the average UK property fell last month for the first time this year, as the end of the most generous stamp duty holiday loomed. House prices fell 0.5 per cent in June, down £1,284 to an average price of £260,358, according to figures from Halifax. The new figures mean annual house price [...]
HSBC launches lowest ever fixed-rate mortgage at 0.94 per cent July 6, 2021 HSBC UK has launched a fixed-rate mortgage at 0.94 per cent, its lowest fixed-rate mortgage ever, but the product will only be available to those with a 40 per cent deposit. The lender will charge a £999 fee to access the mortgage, or alternatively, people can take out a ‘fee-saver’ version with no product fee [...]
Alibaba founders pledge company stock to secure bank loans July 2, 2021 Chinese tycoons Jack Ma and Joe Tsai have pledged part of their combined $35bn (£25bn) stake in Alibaba in exchange for large loans from investment banks. The share pledges, which were made to lenders including UBS, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs, were made by offshore companies that control half of the two billionaire’s stake in [...]
Credit Suisse ‘wooed’ Sanjeev Gupta before Greensill collapse June 11, 2021 Credit Suisse has been embroiled in further controversy over its links to Sanjeev Gupta after details emerged about the Swiss lender’s direct relationship with the tycoon. Former executives at the bank told the Financial Times that leadership wooed Gupta, offering him a string of services as his private wealth manager, as well as VIP treatment. [...]
Inflation might be the only cure for our bubbly housing market June 8, 2021 House prices in the UK (and many other parts of the world) are soaring, squeezing affordability yet further. Rising inflation looks like the most obvious candidate to prick this bubble. House prices in the UK rose by 10.9% in the year to May. That’s the most rapid growth seen in almost seven years, according to [...]