CITY VIEWS: SHOULD THE BANK OF ENGLAND RAISE INTEREST RATES TOMORROW? April 5, 2011 ANTHONY JEFFERYS | AXA INSURANCE “Yes I think it should start to increase Bank rate. Mainly because inflationary pressures are too heavy at the moment, and the rise in oil prices means an interest rate increase is all but inevitable at some stage.” OLIVER STAPLE | HORN & CO “As someone with a mortgage, I [...]
Shock rise in mortgage defaults in 2011 March 31, 2011 MORTGAGE defaults have unexpectedly shot up in the first three months of the year, the Bank of England revealed yesterday. A positive balance of 11.5 per cent of respondents to the Bank’s credit conditions survey reported a rise in defaults on secured loans to households. Worse, even more – a positive balance of 14.3 per [...]
House prices turn upwards in London yet continue to slump in rest of the UK March 30, 2011 LONDON is the first UK region to register a rise in house prices for eight months, the Hometrack monthly national housing survey announced today. While prices across the UK fell by 0.1 per cent in March, in the capital they rose by 0.2 per cent. The upturn was driven by a 25 per cent increase [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS March 30, 2011 OFGEM FORCES NOTICE CHANGES Ofgem has responded to pressure from consumers to force energy suppliers to give increased notice of rate changes. Suppliers have been ordered to give their customers 30 days notice before implementing price hikes. Geared towards protecting consumers from shock utility bill increases, the energy industry regulator Ofgem has issued new changes [...]
Why we shouldn’t bail out Portugal March 25, 2011 HERE’S a heretical thought: let’s not bail out Portugal. The near-bankrupt country has just seen its Prime Minister resign after losing a key vote on his government’s fourth austerity package in a couple of years, while Fitch has just downgraded the country’s credit rating. Yet the talk now is of a bailout – even though [...]
Why we shouldn’t bail out Portugal March 24, 2011 HERE’S a heretical thought: let’s not bail out Portugal. The near-bankrupt country has just seen its Prime Minister resign after losing a key vote on his government’s fourth austerity package in a couple of years, while Fitch has just downgraded the country’s credit rating. Yet the talk now is of a bailout – even though [...]
Mortgage approvals from UK high street banks remain low March 23, 2011 MORTGAGE approvals for house purchases remained near their lowest level for two years, the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) reported yesterday. The 29,923 mortgage approvals in February were just a slight upgrade from the 29,159 in January and the 23 month low of 29,029 in December. Mortgage approvals were down about 11 per cent on the [...]
What the other papers say this morning March 1, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES TOP 10 HEDGE FUNDS MAKE $28BN The top 10 hedge funds made $28bn for clients in the second half of last year, $2bn more than the net profits of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Barclays and HSBC combined, according to new data. Even the biggest of the hedge funds have only a [...]
Fault Lines at the heart of UK politics February 28, 2011 THERE is a new, fascinating argument in British politics, one which will frame the debate for a long time to come. If Ed Miliband is to be believed, the demand for cheap credit prior to the crash was “because wages weren’t keeping up with the pressures on families: too many were forced to borrow to [...]
What the other papers say this morning February 28, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES NORTHERN ROCK TO OFFER 90 PER CENT MORTGAGES Northern Rock is poised to launch a range of mortgages offering up to 90 per cent of a property’s value, marking the nationalised bank’s return to riskier lending three years after its collapse and government bail-out. The lossmaking lender could make the new high loan-to-value [...]