WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 2, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES LLOYDS DROPS MORTGAGE BROKERS OVER SUSPECTED FRAUD Concerns over suspected fraud have prompted Lloyds Banking Group to cull the list of brokers it allows to sell its mortgages. The UK’s largest mortgage lender has removed some 900 individuals over the past four years from its “approved panel” of brokers, including 300 in the [...]
Davos is over but volatility for the Swissie carries on February 1, 2011 WITH the end of the Davos conference last week, the Swiss franc lost 1.27 per cent of its value. While it would be nice to think of that as the direct result of thousands of politicians, financiers and journalists leaving, and so ending their spending on hotels, booze and so on, the reality was more [...]
UK subprime mortgages vulnerable to shocks January 31, 2011 REPOSSESSIONS could begin to grow again in the UK due to a stubborn core of subprime mortgage-holders who are still falling behind on their payments, according to research by Standard and Poor’s. Despite an overall improvement among subprime mortgage-holders, those with the lowest credit ratings, accounting for around £7bn’s worth of mortgages overall, show little [...]
FED HAS DONE A GOOD JOB ON US EQUITIES January 31, 2011 THE Federal Reserve has so far done an excellent job of goosing US equities through its ongoing asset purchase programme. As Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has intimated, boosting stock prices is now one of the Reserve’s aims, on top of its officially mandated dual role of ensuring price stability and full employment. So investors were [...]
House prices drop in January January 27, 2011 House prices in England and Wales fell for a seventh month in a row in January, dropping 2.2 per cent from a year earlier, property data firm Hometrack said. The monthly survey of more than 5,000 estate agents and surveyors showed prices slipped 0.5 per cent on the month, slightly more than December’s 0.4 per [...]
Property’s mixed prospects in 2011 January 26, 2011 PROPERTY price indices suggest house prices are falling again, but what are the prospects for home owners and property investors? UK house prices fell 0.9 per cent in the final three months of 2010 and were down 1.3 per cent between November and December, the Halifax index shows. Some analysts expect them to fall further, [...]
Mortgage levels fell in December January 26, 2011 LENDING remained sluggish in December, while approvals for mortgages dropped to their lowest rate since January 2009, the British Bankers’ Association said yesterday. The number of approvals from banks dropped from 29,696 in November, to 28,726 in December, the BBA said. Overall mortgage lending rose by £0.9bn, a slower rate than was measured in November [...]
Keep your loan on track January 26, 2011 IT’S a question playing on many homeowners’ minds: with interest rates expected to rise this year, should they fix their mortgage? The Bank of England left the official rate of borrowing unchanged for the 22nd consecutive month recently, but faces a dilemma given slowing economic growth and rising inflation. This week’s disappointing GDP data has [...]
Cameron needs to listen to business January 24, 2011 GOOD on Sir Richard Lambert, the usually mild-mannered outgoing boss of the CBI, for taking the government to task over its abject lack of pro-growth policies. It is a shame he didn’t say as much in such strongly worded terms a few months ago, but better late than never. Crucially, the CBI doesn’t object to [...]
Inflation expectations surge to highest ever level, poll reveals January 23, 2011 INFLATION expectations have soared to a record high this month, as rising prices add to the squeeze on household spending, a survey said today. With 89 per cent of respondents expecting the cost of their purchases to rise this year, the Markit household finance index dropped to its lowest level since April 2009. “The recent [...]