Northern Rock shareholders take legal action

Northern Rock’s shareholders have begun a legal challenge against the Government to receive compensation for the shares lost when the bank was nationalised.
The UK Shareholders Association (UKSA) is hoping to get £5 per share for the bank, saying this was the value of shares at the time of nationalisation.
The bank was originally nationalised with a [...]

Society heads predict 9% fall in net lending for 2008

A poll by the Building Societies Association of the chief executive officers of mutuals found that 70% were optimistic about the year ahead.
And while 96% expect the cost of retail funding to rise in 2008 and 90% expect wholesale funding to go up, a number of CEOs report that the quality of their mortgage books [...]

The Debt Advisor predicts increase in IVAs

Figures published recently by the Insolvency Service show the number of personal insolvencies reached 25,264 in the first quarter of 2008, an increase of 1.7% on the previous quarter.
The figures consisted of 9,614 Individual Voluntary Arrangements, an increase of 4.3% on the previous quarter and 15,651 bankruptcies, representing an increase of only 0.1%
Bev Budsworth, managing director, [...]

New chair for FISA

FISA, the secured loan industry’s standards body, has announced the appointment of Phil Nunnerley as its new chairman.
Nunnerley joins FISA having spent most of his career with Lloyds TSB Bank plc. During his 16 years at the Bank he held a number of senior management roles in retail banking and took responsibility in areas such [...]

Pink ties up with Callcredit

Pink Home Loans has done a deal with Callcredit to offer clients of its appointed representatives access to a full online credit report.
By logging on to www.callcreditcheck.com, clients of Pink’s ARs can request a copy of their credit report. They will receive an instant report which they can access for up to three months and [...]

Personal Finance Society says advisers should whistleblow on other firms

Personal Finance Society chief executive Tim Eadon says advisers should whistleblow on other firms that are not acting in a professional manner.
Speaking at the Adviser 2008 event in London today, Eadon said that in order to maintain the integrity of the profession, advisers should report each other to the FSA if a consumer has had [...]

Council of Mortgage Lenders slams MPC for failing to cut rates

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) says the Monetary Policy Committee has missed an opportunity to ease problems in the housing market by failing to cut interest rates today.
The Bank of England voted to maintain a rate of 5 per cent, a decision the CML says is disappointing but not surprising.
CML director general Michael Coogan says: [...]

Monetary Policy Committee holds rates at 5%

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has decided to keep interest rates at 5%. The move meets most analyst’s predictions that the risks to inflation were too great to warrant a further cut, with rates having dropped three times in the past six months.
However, some had speculated that a spate of poor economic [...]

FSA slams insurance comparison sites over TCF

Comparison websites for insurance products are failing to treat their customers fairly, an FSA review concludes. In a study of 17 comparison sites, the regulator says it found examples of both good and bad practice but says more must be done to provide consumers with “clear, fair and not misleading information”.
The FSA, which is set [...]

MPs ask why wasn’t anyone sacked as FSA staff get full £14m bonuses

FSA staff received their full bonuses this year despite the regulator admitting to a catalogue of mistakes in its supervision of Northern Rock.
At a Treasury select committee meeting on Tuesday, FSA chief executive Hector Sants revealed that FSA staff received bonuses totalling £13.9m for the 2007/08 year, 12.3 per cent of the total salary bill.
Sants [...]