February 26, 2009
Nationwide launches new range of bonds
Story link: Nationwide launches new range of bonds
Savers now have something to be happy about, especially if they are saving over at Nationwide.
The UK building society, the largest in the UK for that matter, will be offering its loyal customers a fixed rate, four year deal, based on a rate of 3.75 percent per annum, very reasonable considering the current low interest rates at the Bank of England.
Nationwide launches new range of bonds
Nationwide, the UK’s largest building society, has announced the launch of a new range of bonds for savers.
The new offerings are all fixed-rate bonds and include a four-year fixed-rate bond, paying up to 3.75 per cent annual interest.
National Savings and Investments to reduce rates
Story link: National Savings and Investments to reduce rates
Savers will be hit hard, again, by the latest news from National Savings and Investments (NS&I), who have announced that they will be chopping a full 1.35 percent from the current savings rates.
There now seems like little or no point for savers to be storing their cash in banks, with little or no return on their investment!
National Savings and Investments to reduce rates
National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has announced that it will reduce the rates of interest it offers on its fixed-rate savings accounts by up to 1.35 per cent.
The savings account provider blamed the reductions on the fall in value of gilt-edged government bonds, which are known as gilts for short.
Newcastle Financial Services wins award
Story link: Newcastle Financial Services wins award
Newcastle Financial Services have been provided excellent services to their customers, something which has finally paid off for their company.
The team over at Newcastle Financial Services has managed to be nominated and actually win the award at the annual industry conference, a great achievement for any financial institution
Newcastle Financial Services wins award
Newcastle Financial Services has been announced as the winner of an award at an annual industry conference.
The building society picked up the top large practice for investment sales accolade at the annual Openwork meet in Birmingham for its Investment and Portfolio ISAs.
February 17, 2009
Currencies bottom out
Story link: Currencies bottom out
Currencies will continue to be devalued if their rate of interest in the said country is below the rate of inflation, and rightly so.
So that includes the Sterling, where inflation stands at around 3% while the interest rates set by the Bank of England are just 1.5%.
Of six central banks voting on interest rates last week, only the European Central Bank in Frankfurt failed to reduce its cost of money to either record or multi-year lows, holding rates steady at 2.0%.
The market’s reaction? Forex traders trashed the euro vs. those currencies now paying way less than inflation.
Shares rights, keep your money!
Story link: Shares rights, keep your money!
While shares rights are generally a good option for investors, they need to be careful in times of instability like now.
While the shares rights will allow investors to purchase the new shares at a highly discounted rate, its advisable to treat this as a new investment rather than getting excited over the discount!
Shares rights, keep your money!
There’s about to be a rush of companies issuing new shares. And it could well be a trap for investors.
Companies use rights issues to try to tap their shareholders for cash by offering them first dibs on new stock offerings, normally at a chunky discount. And some analysts reckon this dash for cash is a harbinger of better times ahead. (More on that bullish view in a minute).
PFI Needs Government Funds
Story link: PFI Needs Government Funds
The recession has hit the PFI hard. Usually they are setting up new projects like schools or hospitals, but the recent reccession means they have been receiving a huge lack of funding, meaning they cant complete their projects. The only way forward Is Government Funding.
The government could have to bail out Private Finance Initiative projects to the tune of £4bn in the next 18 months, an industry spokesman has warned.
Tim Pearson, of the PPP (public-private partnership) Forum, said the recession was limiting loans to firms on PFI projects like schools and hospitals.
February 11, 2009
Barclays PLC report high profits
Story link: Barclays PLC report high profits
The start of 2009 was likely to be a challenge for many businesses based within or just outside the banking sector.
However, that wasn’t the case for Barclays, who have reported profits a lot higher than what analysts expected.
Barclays PLC report high profits
Barclays Plc reported second-half profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates, and President Robert Diamond said the investment bank had an “extremely strong” start to 2009 after buying Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. assets.
Barclays, the third-biggest U.K. bank by assets, rose 11 percent in London trading after saying credit writedowns this year will be less than last year’s 8.1 billion pounds. Net income jumped to 2.66 billion pounds ($3.9 billion), or 31.3 pence a share, in the six months ended Dec. 31, up 49 percent from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on full-year results posted today.
Banks face difficulty
Story link: Banks face difficulty
The UK banking sector has ques of people, with hundreds of people wanting to ask questions about various decisions that are being made. The decisions are being made, but the purposeof the decisions is questionable!
RBS and HBOS are likely to be in the limelight for question time, seeing as though they are subject to taxpayer bail outs.
The former chief executives and chairmen of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and HBOS will be quizzed by UK politicians on Tuesday to discuss where mistakes were made during the banking crisis.
Fred Goodwin, the former RBS chief executive, is likely to attract most attention for his role in the near-collapse of RBS.
Rise in currency hedging
Story link: Rise in currency hedging
All professionals are forced to diversify their operations in times of hardship, such as now, with the UK and Global economy in their current state.
Businesses need to expand into new markets, just like Global Investors need to try hedge funding.
Global institutional investors are poised to hedge their currency risk in the face of dramatically increased volatility in the foreign-exchange market, experts say.
“What we have been seeing more recently is people asking about hedging,” said Diane Miller, principal at Mercer LLC’s London office. “We’re getting quite a lot of queries.”