Lending leaps at Virgin Money but it’s cautious over Brexit November 1, 2016 Challenger bank Virgin Money shrugged off post-Brexit vote volatility, increasing mortgage and credit card lending – although it warned it was exercising caution. The figures Gross mortgage lending rose 19 per cent to £6.5bn in the nine months to the end of September, putting its total mortgage balances at £28.9bn. That pushed Virgin's share of total mortgage lending up to 3.6 [...]
Know your benefit crystallisation event from your pension input period with our A to Z of pensions jargon October 28, 2016 National Pensions Awareness day came and went last month, with no apparent impact on people’s understanding of one of the best ways of saving for retirement. The Bank of England’s media-savvy chief economist Andy Haldane said in May that even he was unable to understand pensions because the system is so complicated. This situation is [...]
Time to remortgage? The rates on two-year fixed deals are very low, but watch out for additional fees October 27, 2016 Brexit has been kind to mortgage holders. As the Bank of England’s interest rate has come down, banks have been able to borrow more cheaply, allowing competition to increase and mortgage rates to fall. Borrowers have been quick to take advantage of the deals on offer; in August, the number of people remortgaging hit a [...]
Get ready for a more mature Autumn Statement – which might mean you get ignored October 27, 2016 All Autumn Statements are political, but some Autumn Statements are more political than others. Under George Osborne, we have become used to very political Budgets and Autumn Statements. The former chancellor consistently engaged the media with policy tweaks – from pensioner bonds to corporate tax cuts. The changes were generally small, but their appeal to [...]
Deutsche Bank could cut another 10,000 jobs October 14, 2016 Deutsche Bank could be preparing to cut another 10,000 jobs in a massive cost-saving drive. According to a Reuters report, the German lender's finance boss, Marcus Schenck, told staff in September the bank will need to "cut another 10,000 staff" on top of the 9,000 job losses announced by chief executive John Cryan last October. Read more: Deutsche [...]
Housing market activity picked up in August following July’s dip October 12, 2016 Lending for house purchases increased 11 per cent in August as confidence started to return to the UK housing market. Homeowners borrowed £12.2bn in August, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), up 14 per cent month-on-month and up 11 per cent year-on-year. Read more: This is how sterling's unstoppable slide will affect UK [...]
This is how sterling’s unstoppable slide will affect UK house prices October 12, 2016 After a freak six per cent fall when markets opened in Asia last week, sterling is in free fall. The fall obviously has implications for people going abroad – but what about people here at home? We asked the experts what the flash crash will do to UK house prices. Read more: This is how the [...]
The new centre ground: The full text of Theresa May’s Conservative Party conference speech October 5, 2016 In the speech which closed the Conservative Party conference, Theresa May spoke of a country in transition, and new opportunities. The full 7,600 words is below – although if you'd rather a cut-down version, her best quotes are here – or you can read how businesses reacted. The new centre ground: May's speech in full When [...]
Philip Hammond is wrong to assume an infrastructure splurge will boost growth October 3, 2016 Mention the name Philip Hammond in Westminster, and invariably someone will describe him as “a safe pair of hands”. The man who has been chancellor for three months had been largely inconspicuous in his role prior to yesterday’s conference speech. But after almost two decades of a Treasury dominated by micro-managers and tinkerers, primarily in [...]
Deutsche Bank’s woes signal the fall of the House of Merkel October 3, 2016 “And the deep and dank tarn closed silently over the fragments of the House of Usher.” – Edgar Allan Poe With mighty Deutsche Bank, the largest lender in Germany and symbol of the country’s economic might, in dire straits, Germans are belatedly waking up to the nightmarish reality that the supposedly masterly inactivity of their wildly [...]