UK house prices: Brexit clouds lift, but coronavirus threat looms March 6, 2020 UK house prices rose 2.8 per cent in February compared to the same month last year, Halifax data showed today. Homes’ values increased 0.3 per cent month on month and 2.9 per cent on a quarterly basis, Halifax’s House Price Index found. That left the average UK house price at £240,677 in February. But while [...]
UK mortgage approvals hit highest in four years March 2, 2020 UK banks approved the highest number of mortgages for four years in January, official statistics have shown, in a sign the housing market is recovering after a rocky 2019. Mortgage approvals for house purchase rose to 70,900 in January, up 4.4 per cent from December’s 67,930 figure, the Bank of England said today. The jump [...]
Co-op Bank losses deepen amid tougher mortgage competition February 27, 2020 The Co-operative Bank has reported an increased pre-tax loss for 2019, as the high street lender struggled with tough mortgage competition and PPI compensation payouts. The figures Co-op Bank posted a loss before tax of £152.1m for 2019, an eight per cent rise on the £140.7m recorded the previous year. It said that its underlying [...]
PPI, profit drop, and a mixed 2020: Five takeaways from Lloyds’ results February 20, 2020 Lloyds reported a 26 per cent drop in annual profit on Thursday, with Britain’s largest domestic lender hit by a rise in bad debts and billions of pounds of customer compensation payout. Chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said the results demonstrated a “solid financial performance in a challenging external market”, but analysts have described them as [...]
RBS to rebrand as Natwest as bank posts £4.2bn profit under new boss Alison Rose February 14, 2020 Royal Bank of Scotland reported profit of £4.2bn for 2019 today, beating its financial targets as new boss Alison Rose outlined a rebrand of the bank to its Natwest name. But RBS’s share price sank 6.4 per cent to lead the FTSE 100 fallers today. Traders reacted badly to a cautious outlook on growth amid [...]
DEBATE: Should the Bank of England cut interest rates this week? January 29, 2020 Should the Bank of England cut interest rates this week? Simon Ward, economic adviser at Janus Henderson Investors, says YES. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) keeps making mistakes because it ignores monetary trends. It hiked rates in August 2018 even though 12-month broad money growth (as measured by non-financial M4) had slumped from 6.5 per [...]
Cautious lenders left companies with lowest level of credit since 2008 January 16, 2020 The amount of credit made available to corporates last quarter fell to a level not seen since the Global Financial Crisis. The Bank of England’s (BoE) credit conditions survey released today showed that available credit for corporates fell for its sixth successive quarter in the fourth quarter of 2019. It dropped to minus 9.2 in [...]
Bank of America profit slips but beats expectations January 15, 2020 Bank of America’s (BoA) profit fell four per cent in today’s fourth quarter results, with the firm announcing $7bn (£5.4bn) in net income, down from $7.3bn in the same quarter last year. The small decline is due to lower interest rates squeezing the US lender’s ability to earn more from its loans. Read more: JPMorgan [...]
Home is where the heart is: how to revolutionise the house buying process January 9, 2020 For too many people, home ownership is a distant dream. In today’s Britain, only about 27 per cent of people aged 25 to 34 own their home — a huge dip compared to 1990, when ownership for this age group was 50 per cent, according to the Resolution Foundation. Sky-high property prices, the need to [...]
Co-op owners sound out potential buyers December 18, 2019 The hedge fund owners of the Co-op Bank are reportedly on the hunt for potential buyers. Two-and-a-half years after the lender was rescued from collapse, the US investors which took control of the Co-op have started holding talks with possible bidders, according to Sky News. The broadcaster cited sources as saying that several British retail [...]