UK Finance News

A staggering £13.2bn has been paid out in bonuses to City workers so far this year, down just 1% on the same stage last year, suggesting that the credit crunch has yet to hit the pockets of bankers.
The figures will infuriate the general public, currently caught in the aftermath of the diabolical greed and extraordinary [...]

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Figures from the Office for National Statistics show growth in the Finance and Business Sector -.’The City’ - to be just 0.4 per cent for the first quarter of 2008.
The City is responsible for over 30% of UK output and has brought the whole economy to its own level  - a far cry from Alistair Darling’s budget [...]

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The big high street banks and one building society have lost their test case against the OFT over bank charges.
As noted on UK Finance News, the case has revolved around whether the OFT has the right to rule on overdraft charges - not necessarily whether the charges themselves are fair - although the implication is [...]

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So far Northern Rock has not managed to pass on the Bank of England’s quarter
per cent base rate cut to variable rate customers - those on 7.59%.
Whilst the emperor’s clothes of interest rates have become apparent to the wider public - that banks base their borrowing on LIBOR, not the BoE base rate - and [...]

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In an attempt to head off the risk of pension buy-out firms removing scheme profits and thereby leaving members more heavily exposed to the chance of schemes falling into deficit, the Pension Regulator is planning tougher new powers. 
The trend towards companies outsourcing their pension schemes to “for profit” suppliers, allows surplus assets to be sold off, leaving members [...]

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