Finance Matters

• 09Oct

  Early overdraft victory for banks

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Banks have largely won the latest round of a High Court battle over the fairness of overdraft charges.
  Judge Mr Justice Andrew Smith says most customers will not be able to use common law to challenge bank charges levied mostly between 2001 and 2007.
  But NatWest customers might still have this legal avenue open to them after he failed to give their terms a clean bill of health.
  This is one of a series of legal hearings about overdraft fees.
  OFT investigation
  The OFT wants legal confirmation that it can rule if these charges of up to £35 are fair or not.
  Customers have complained they have been unfairly overcharged hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of pounds when falling into the red.
  But the banks want to protect the estimated £2.6bn a year of income they gather by charging people for going overdrawn.
  The OFT has been investigating bank charges since April 2006.
  Frozen
  The judge’s ruling on Thursday followed a three-day hearing in July.

  His ruling has an impact on the th…

  Click to read the full article »
• 09Oct

  Any St, Anyshire

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  What began as a credit crisis in banking now seems to have spread to other parts of the economy, with some experts saying the UK is already in recession.
  But how is it affecting shopkeepers? We visited Shirley High Street in Southampton which has the kind of retailers found on shopping streets up and down the country.
  We asked shop owners and customers whether the crisis was affecting them. And we’ll return there in the weeks ahead.
  Click on the shops above to find out what people had to say.

  Kerry Hewitt, pub landlady
  Ms Hewitt, who has been landlady of The Crown for four years, says she is not panicking at the moment, as her business has “very strong” foundations.
  “We’re quite lucky as we have a strong customer base of regulars who come in at specific times and drink.”
  Ms Hewitt says she has seen a “minor drop” in sales in the past few weeks, but overall trade is slightly higher than this time last year.
  “We’ve seen a drop in trade with food sales. People come in an…

  Click to read the full article »
• 09Oct

  Norton Antivirus firm buys rival

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  US anti-virus software firm Symantec has agreed to buy web security firm MessageLabs for 5m (£401.2m).
  Best known for its Norton range of PC security software, the move is set to allow Symantec to expand its internet services business.
  MessageLabs produces security products for instant-messaging, e-mail and the internet.
  Subject to regulatory approval, the firms hope the deal will be completed by the end of the year.
  Analysts welcomed the acquisition, but some were cautious about Symantec’s prospects in the face of global economic problems.
  MessageLabs, which has regional headquarters in the UK, US and Australia, has more than eight million end users at more than 19,000 businesses.
  California-based Symantec provides online backup, storage, and remote access products, which makes it possible for clients to access information and applications on their PCs from any location where there’s web access.
  Symantec said the deal would enable the two companies to cross-sell to each oth…

  Click to read the full article »
• 09Oct

  UK’s trade gap narrows slightly

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  The UK’s goods trade gap with the rest of the world narrowed slightly in August to £8.20bn from £8.24bn in July, the latest official data has shown.
  Analysts said they had expected a bigger fall and that global economic uncertainty had limited the positive impact of the weaker pound on exports.
  The services trade surplus was £3.5bn in August, the same as July, said the Office for National Statistics.
  “The figures are very disappointing,” said Investec economist Philip Shaw.
  “In the grand scheme of things, these are relatively minor figures, particularly in a week like this, but they do show the extent to which the UK economy is imbalanced,” he added.
  Oil exports
  The UK’s deficit on trade in both goods and services was £4.7bn in August, compared with a revised deficit of £4.8bn in July.
  The goods trade deficit with other European Union nations narrowed to £3bn in August from £3.5bn in July, while that with the rest of the world expanded to £5.2bn from £4.8bn.
  Exports of…

  Click to read the full article »
• 08Oct

  Staying cool

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  It is difficult to escape the effect that the financial crisis is having in Iceland.
  It starts at the airport with massive advertisements for the Icelandic banks and the mutter that could be heard was: “Why don’t they take these down?”
  There has not been an issue that has so engulfed this small island state in living memory.
  On the streets of the capital, Reykjavik, the mood is sombre and there were not many people who wanted to stop and talk about the situation early in the morning.

  A few passers-by commented that, actually, things were perhaps not that bad. They didn’t have any money anyway, so they had nothing to lose.
  Well, that is one way of dealing with it.
  Moral support
  By midday a crowd of Icelanders had gathered in the square in front of parliament to show unity, they said – stressing that this was certainly not a protest.
  And to some degree that was what it felt like – people coming together for moral support.
  Although the turnout was not big, it was still a resp…

  Click to read the full article »
• 08Oct

  Recession rhymes

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
  To celebrate National Poetry Day, BBC News website readers have been sending in their poems on the credit crunch.

  Founder of the Forward Poetry prizes, William Sieghart, read some of your poems out on the BBC News channel.
  Earlier, Poetry Day’s resident poet, Paul Farley, sent us his comments.
  Read poet Paul Farley’s comments
  Send us your comments

  I’m an unlucky guy, and I’ll tell you why,
  Gary Parker, Slough, UK

  I hate this “Credit Crunch”;
  Ed

  I started saving money
  Marian Barker, Preston, Lancs

  I cannot sell my flat,
  Christina Burton, St Leonards-on-Sea, UK

  The first casualty was Northern Rock
  Tim H, UK

  Don’t lend,
  Christina, Parkstone, UK

  The banker sits behind his desk
  Jean Rice, UK

  Recession’s hit us once again,
  Maximus, Boxgrove, UK

  Remember the days of old,
  Lucy Mungeam, Eastbourne, UK
  More of your credit crunch poems…

  Click to read the full article »
• 08Oct

  Credit casualty

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  The first real casualty of the credit crunch is Iceland.
  Its failure was caused by two distinct factors, the first entirely predictable, and the second less so.
  The predictable element in Iceland’s failure is linked to the actions of its central bank.
  Over the past years, Iceland has pursued a policy of inflation targeting, similar to the UK.
  This means the central bank targets inflation, raises interest rates if inflation is above the target, and lowers them if inflation is below target.
  Such a policy has a sound foundation in economic theory and is often appropriate for large countries.
  In the case of Iceland it was disastrous.
  Wasted opportunities
  Throughout the period of inflation targeting, inflation was above its target rate, resulting in interest rates exceeding at times 15%.

  In a small economy such as Iceland, high interest rates both encourage domestic firms and households to borrow in foreign currency, and also attract currency speculators.
  This led to large infl…

  Click to read the full article »
• 08Oct

  Money gloom

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Six central banks have cut interest rates by half a percentage point in a bid to steady the faltering global economy.
  The co-ordinated move came amid slumping world stock markets.
  BBC News readers from around the world tell their experiences of the economic crisis.

  I don’t think there is a single solution that will solve the financial crisis. The rate cut and bailout will help but there needs to be a long period of adjustment.
  Recently I have seen lots of small businesses close. A friend of mine works for a small IT company.
  Because customers who owe money don’t have the cash to pay, the company is going bankrupt.
  I have a fixed rate mortgage so I’m ok for the time being, but I would like to re-finance.
  Our city hasn’t been hit too hard but I do worry. If New York follows the national trend in the housing market, I may not be able to re-finance for home improvements that can boost the equity.
  I think the main cause of the crisis was the wealth that was created during the dot….

  Click to read the full article »
• 08Oct

  Extra help for Icesave customers

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
  Prime minister Geir Haarde on the Icesave crisis
  Chancellor Alistair Darling has said he will ensure all UK savers with accounts in the closed Icelandic internet bank Icesave get all their money back.
  He told the BBC he was doing this because the Icelandic authorities had reneged on their obligations to ensure compensation could be paid.
  But the Prime Minister of Iceland said later that they were searching for a “mutually satisfactory” solution.
  Customers of other Icelandic banks have also had their savings protected.
  Guarantee
  Iceland took control of Icesave’s parent bank, Landsbanki, on Tuesday.
  The internet bank has about 300,000 customers in the UK and their accounts have been frozen.

  “We guarantee that no depositor will lose any money as a result of the closure of Icesave,” said a Treasury spokesman.
  Dutch bank ING Direct has agreed to take over the £2.5bn of deposits of 160,000 UK customers of Kaupthing Edge…

  Click to read the full article »

   Next Entries »