Fewer deals on offer for first time buyers August 22, 2012 THE MORTGAGE market has tightened up over the past six months, but remortgage lending has bounced back, according to reports. The number of high loan-to-value (LTV) mortgages has plummeted, with a collapse in 90 per cent and 95 per cent mortgages offered, MoneySupermarket said yesterday. Its data shows that 95 per cent mortgage availability has [...]
Mortgage lending jumps ahead of Funding for Lending Scheme August 20, 2012 MORTGAGE lending jumped sharply in July, according to industry data published yesterday, with the government’s new Funding for Lending Scheme expected to boost loans further through August. Gross lending rose eight per cent to £12.7bn in the month, reversing the fall to £11.7bn in June, the Council of Mortgage Lenders revealed. However, analysts warn the [...]
Darling calls on Osborne to find economic Plan B August 19, 2012 ALISTAIR Darling yesterday called on George Osborne to find a Plan B for the economy or cause “immeasurable” damage to the country. “It’s as if you’re both saying there’s nothing you can do and nature must take its course,” the former chancellor wrote in an open letter published in The People. “You really must act. [...]
You can bank on Tesco to become competitive in financial services August 6, 2012 TESCO has had a challenging 2012 to date. We saw the rebasing of group earnings in January; an unwelcome slowdown in trading at loss-making Fresh & Easy in the US; decelerating trading conditions in Central Europe; and impacts from restrictions on large store opening hours in South Korea – its most significant market outside the [...]
Bank of England holds rates despite darkening economy August 2, 2012 THE Bank of England held fire on new policy yesterday, despite the darkening outlook for the UK economy. Its Monetary Policy Committee decided not to increase quantitative easing (QE) and kept rates on hold again, an approach analysts have put down to a concern to see how funding for lending (FLS) and the most recent [...]
Fed keeps rates on hold but hints it will act soon August 1, 2012 THE FEDERAL Reserve last night decided to hold fire on fresh action to stimulate growth, despite admitting the economy was slowing. In a noticeably more pessimistic portrait of the US economy than last month, the central bank said that economic activity “decelerated” in July and reiterated its former stance that it would hold interest rates [...]
New lending plan gets off to a shaky start August 1, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT’S latest plan to give banks cheap funds in an effort to boost lending to firms and households received a cautious welcome from banks when it opened yesterday. Majority taxpayer-owned RBS accessed the “Funding for Lending” scheme (FLS) immediately, and cut mortgage and corporate loan interest rates by up to 1.6 percentage points. Lloyds, [...]
Barclays office raided as Libor investigation spreads to Italy July 31, 2012 ITALIAN prosecutors yesterday raided a Barclays office in Milan as part of a probe into possible Euribor manipulation – the euro equivalent of Libor. Police seized documents, computer material and emails, acting on a court order granted in the southern city of Trani. The probe follows an extensive investigation into the key interbank rates by [...]
Italian police seize Barclays documents in rates probe July 31, 2012 Police have seized documents at the Milan offices Barclays as part of an Italian probe into possible manipulation of Euribor lending rates, judicial sources and consumer groups said today. The search took place last Friday and was ordered by prosecutors in the southern city of Trani, the sources said. Barclays has been fined over $450 [...]
Cheap money aids mortgage deals July 30, 2012 NatWest launches its first ever 2.95 per cent five year fixed rate mortgage today, after HSBC and Santander offered similar deals. But the offer is only for mortgages with loan to value ratios of 60 per cent or below, and comes with a £2,495 arrangement fee. Cheap money is finding its way into the mortgage [...]