Nationwide profit plunges by 46pc May 26, 2010 NATIONWIDE Building Society has reported a 46 per cent drop in annual profits as low interest rates continue to take their toll. Underlying pre-tax profits dropped to £212m for the year to 4 April compared with £393m a year earlier. The group said it expected the difficult conditions to continue throughout the year. Meanwhile it [...]
FORTY YEARS ON AND WE SEEM TO HAVE LEARNED VERY FEW LESSONS May 24, 2010 WHEN you are older than God, as I am, I think you tend to become rather blasé as yet another political or financial crisis unfolds. I was 23 and working as an impecunious bank clerk at Hill Samuel (now part of Lloyds Banking Group, for the youth among you) when I was exposed to my [...]
US banks face fresh home loans inquiry May 24, 2010 A COMMISSION set up by the US government to investigate the roots of the global financial crisis is probing the banks’ sales of billions of dollars worth of bad home loans. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) is understood to be planning to help an investigation by the New York Attorney-General into whether banks caused [...]
American house sales jump to a five month high on the back of tax credit May 24, 2010 AMERICANS rushed to benefit from a tax credit for first-time homeowners during April, pushing house sales up 7.6 per cent. The five-month high is due in part to an $8,000 (£5,540) offer of government-funded credit for new homeowners, which expired on 30 April. The increase in sales was the highest jump in a decade and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 23, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES PRINCE ANDREW’S TRADE ROLE DEFENDED Buckingham Palace defended Prince Andrew’s globetrotting role promoting British business on Sunday after a newspaper sting appeared to show his former wife selling access to him for £500,000, offered by a reporter posing as a tycoon. Both the royal household and the government said the Duke of York’s [...]
Q&A: LETTING May 20, 2010 CEO OF ONLINE LETTINGS AGENT WWW.UPAD.CO.UK Q. I’ve heard I need planning permission to let a house to three people sharing. Can this really be true? A. As of 6 April, if property previously occupied by one household (family) is let to three or more unrelated sharers, forming two or more households, this will need [...]
Fed upbeat about US economy May 20, 2010 ECONOMIC forecasts by the US Federal Reserve remained positive despite a continued move to hold interest rates around zero. During an April meeting of the bank’s Open Market Committee, chaired by Ben Bernanke, the bank said that the labour market was showing signs of improvement, while housing market spending was also picking up. The Fed [...]
Nasty double whammy for investors May 18, 2010 WITH all the focus on growth and the deficit, too little attention has been paid to inflation. Yesterday’s disastrous figures show how unwise this has been. The rise in the official consumer price index inflation to 3.7 per cent is bad enough – but I suppose it can be tolerated, given the ending of quantitative [...]
Inflation jumps to 17-month high May 18, 2010 UK inflation rose more than expected to 3.7 per cent in April. Bank of England governor Mervyn King must now write to new chancellor George Osborne to explain why the cost of living – set out in the consumer prices index (CPI) – is more than a percentage point above the target of two per [...]
Investors may flip homes to avoid taxes May 16, 2010 FLIPPING is set to become the norm amongst second homeowners, say tax experts, as they look to avoid paying the government’s planned increase in capital gains tax. “Flipping homes is a real possibility for second home investors and is one way of avoiding capital gains tax,” said John Whiting, president of the Chartered Institute of [...]