Decline in UK house prices slows in June July 8, 2009 BRITISH house prices fell less than expected in June, Halifax’s monthly survey showed yesterday, but the mortgage lender warned that the outlook for the housing market remained uncertain. The Halifax data showed UK house prices falling by 0.5 per cent in June, compared to a 2.6 rise during the previous month. The annual rate of [...]
ONE YEAR ON, FORMER LEHMAN STAFF SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES WITH CITY A.M. September 14, 2009 BISHER ARMANAZII was working as a trader in structured indices derivatives in London when Lehman Brothers went under. I was at home on the Sunday and happened to turn on the TV to see the story that the bank would not be receiving a government bailout. I went straight to a bar with a couple [...]
ONE YEAR ON, FORMER LEHMAN STAFF SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES WITH CITY A.M. September 14, 2009 BISHER ARMANAZII was working as a trader in structured indices derivatives in London when Lehman Brothers went under. I was at home on the Sunday and happened to turn on the TV to see the story that the bank would not be receiving a government bailout. I went straight to a bar with a couple [...]
Latest big bank to shut down hits US August 16, 2009 US BANK Colonial BancGroup, which has assets of $25bn (£15.1bn), became the largest American bank to fail so far this year when it was shut down by federal officials on Friday. On the same day, regulators also shut down two institutions in Arizona – one in Las Vegas and one in Pittsburgh – pushing the total [...]
Nationwide defends its 125pc loan July 9, 2009 BRITAIN’S largest mutual Nationwide yesterday defended its decision to launch a mortgage allowing customers to borrow up to 125 per cent of the value of their property. The product is aimed at homeowners in negative equity who want to move to a house worth more than their own. But critics warned yesterday that the mortgage [...]
Fewer Brits to lose home this year June 22, 2009 FEWER homeowners will face having their houses repossessed in 2009 than previously thought because of low interest rates and government intervention, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said yesterday. The CML said it has cut its prediction for the number facing repossession this year to 65,000 from 75,000, but this is still much higher than [...]
Play the Bank’s QE decision with a punt on gilts October 25, 2009 THIS year we have witnessed the Bank of England take the unprecedented step of buying billions of pounds worth of assets – mostly government bonds – in order to loosen monetary policy further than can be achieved through interest rate cuts alone. It goes without saying that this policy of quantitative easing (QE) has had [...]
Paulson gambles on US banking revival August 13, 2009 HIGH-PROFILE hedge fund manager John Paulson has taken a bet of more than $2.5bn (£1.5bn) on the recovery of US banks, handing a vote of confidence to a beleaguered Wall Street. Regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show that Paulson bought 168m shares in Bank of America (BoA) during the second [...]
Paulson gambles on US banking revival August 13, 2009 HIGH-PROFILE hedge fund manager John Paulson has taken a bet of more than $2.5bn (£1.5bn) on the recovery of US banks, handing a vote of confidence to a beleaguered Wall Street. Regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show that Paulson bought 168m shares in Bank of America (BoA) during the second [...]
House prices boosted by fall in stock July 13, 2009 THERE were more definitive signs yesterday that the UK housing market is beginning to recover, according to June data from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The seasonally-adjusted balance of surveyors reporting falling rather than rising prices improved to -18.1 in June from -43.8 in May, the highest reading since September 2007. Housing market [...]