London leads national house price growth March 12, 2015 London and the south east are leading national house price growth despite slowing substantially, new figures show today. Average UK house prices were 6.8 per cent higher in February than they were in the same month last year, according to figures released by property services firm LSL today. If London and the south east are [...]
Turkey rocked by hostage situation and day-long power cut, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu unable to rule out terrorism as cause March 31, 2015 Turkish markets and its currency were down today as the country suffered a huge power black out lasting several hours, causing widespread disruption. There was chaos in Istanbul, where the transport system was down, while homes and offices across the city of 14m people had no electricity. By this afternoon power was getting to just [...]
PayPal and Shell partner up for mobile payments at the pump February 9, 2015 Mobile payments are coming to the petrol pump from April as part of a partnership between PayPal and Shell to enable drivers to pay directly on their smartphone when filling up at Shell’s nearly 1,000 UK petrol stations. Using either the Shell motorist app or the PayPal app drivers can select the station and pump [...]
Barclays U-turn on account fees: Bank will pay customers £4 a month as competition hots up April 14, 2015 Barclays will offer to pay current account customers from next week, intensifying the battle sweeping the high street since the seven-day switching service made it easier to move banks 18 months ago. The bank has been losing customers to rivals through the seven-day service, as other lenders have won clients by offering financial rewards. Barclays’ [...]
Britain likely to reach a record low for inflation – London Report March 23, 2015 CONSUMER price inflation is likely to have fallen to a new record low of 0.2 per cent in February, moving Britain closer to deflation. Official figures out tomorrow look set to show the fall in the index, which comes after the previous low of 0.3 per cent in January. Howard Archer, of IHS Global Insight, [...]
UK national rail strike: Disruption could ruin bank holiday Monday, cause train travel chaos and cost Britain £600m May 18, 2015 Yesterday’s peace talks continue into today in a bid to avert a strike that could cost Britain £600m. In terms of timing, next week’s proposed national rail strike, the first in 21 years, could hardly be worse. Starting on Bank Holiday Monday, the planned day-long industrial action by 25,000 workers would cut short [...]
UK house price growth slows again: Can stamp duty save the market in 2015? December 30, 2014 We know the drill by now – slowing house price growth in many areas as demand wanes and the murmurings about a base rate rise reflect the logic that no matter what, it’s getting closer. Why exactly demand is waning remains something of a mystery (more of that later). Nationwide’s figures this month [...]
Barclays, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Lloyds and RBS credit ratings slashed as states promise no more bailouts February 3, 2015 Britain’s biggest banks saw their credit ratings chopped back last night by Standard and Poor’s, as the agency believes the government is serious in its promise to let bad banks fail. While ratings are normally cut when a firm performs poorly, in this case the move reflects the shift in risk from the taxpayer and [...]
Mark Carney: Stress test proves banks are “significantly more resilient” December 16, 2014 Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England (BoE), has said the results of today’s stress tests prove the new-found resilience at the core of the banking sector. Seven banks and Nationwide building society were tested, with only one, Co-operative Bank, failing. The test scenario was considered especially harsh and included two years of [...]
Belgian unions strike over pension reforms December 15, 2014 Belgian unions grounded all flights, halted all trains and closed hundreds of factories and offices in a nationwide strike yesterday in protest over the government’s planned pension reforms and budget cuts. In Brussels, police held back striking workers who rioted outside the offices of Flemish separatist party N-VA, one of the four parties in the [...]