Category Archives: Banks and building societies

Nationwide stops lending on some flood-risk properties

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Banks may follow suit after UK weather-related claims on home insurance reach new high

Britain’s biggest building society has stopped granting mortgages on some properties where there is a high risk of flooding but said this affected only “a very limited number” of homes.

Nationwide’s head of property risk, Rob Stevens, said the lender used mapping technology to identify which homes were vulnerable to flooding, and it would decline to grant a mortgage to buy a property it deemed to be at high risk.

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Barclays profits tumble 12% as UK interest rates hit mortgage demand

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Pre-tax profits drop to £2.3bn between January and March, down from £2.6bn last year

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Profits at Barclays tumbled 12% in the first quarter, as higher UK interest rates weighed on demand for mortgages and loans and its investment bank was hit by a backdrop of economic uncertainty.

The UK bank said pre-tax profits fell to £2.3bn in the first quarter, down from £2.6bn last year, when it reported the strongest quarterly profit since 2011 after a string of interest rate hikes by the Bank of England.

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Nationwide agrees £2.9bn deal to take over Virgin Money

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Richard Branson has already indicated he will back takeover that will require the agreement of the group’s shareholders

Nationwide Building Society is lined up to take over its smaller rival Virgin Money after the pair formally agreed a deal worth £2.9bn.

The deal, which will solidify Nationwide’s position as the UK’s second largest mortgage lender, will also trigger the resignation of Virgin Money boss David Duffy, and is likely to lead to job cuts as well as an official “review” of the combined group’s workforce.

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Virgin Money bosses in line for £6m if Nationwide takeover goes ahead

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Chief executive David Duffy would be biggest winner on £3.5m, with large paydays for about 12 other staff if deal goes through

Banking bosses at Virgin Money are in line for a £6m windfall if Nationwide Building Society pushes ahead with a proposed takeover of the lender, with more than half of that sum set to be pocketed by longtime chief executive David Duffy.

Public shareholder data suggests that 13 executives, board members and senior staff are poised for big paydays from the potential £3bn deal, after accumulating stock through years of service at Virgin Money, which was co-founded by billionaire Sir Richard Branson in 1995.

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UK savers should pick accounts beating rising cost of living while they can

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Many best rates are easy access and notice options rather than ones that lock money away

This week’s news that inflation stayed steady at 4% in January means it is still possible to put your money in a savings account with an interest rate that beats the rising cost of living.

Returns on fixed-rate savings accounts have been falling, but, so far, variable rate deals have remained unchanged.

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Nationwide’s Dominic West ad prompts complaint from rival

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Watchdog receives complaint, reportedly from Santander UK, that advert paints misleading picture of bank branch closures

Dominic West’s portrayal of an arrogant, smoothie-drinking, branch-closing banker has landed Nationwide in potentially hot water, with the building society now facing a formal complaint over its TV advert from a rival lender.

Santander UK is understood to have lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over the television commercial, on the basis that it “discredits and denigrates” Nationwide’s rivals and paints a misleading picture about bank branch closures.

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Dublin not expecting EU objections to new trade rules for Northern Ireland – UK politics live

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Irish foreign minister says he does ‘not anticipate any particular difficulties in respect of the EU side’

Back at the home affairs committee James Daly (Con) asks why so few police investigations end up in people being charged.

James Cleverly, the home secretary, says the Crown Prosecution Service is independent. He wants to make sure investigations are as professional as possible.

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HSBC fined £57m over ‘serious’ deposit protection failings

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Regulator says bank failed to properly implement Financial Services Compensation Scheme

HSBC has been fined £57m by the Bank of England’s financial stability arm for failing to protect customer deposits in the event of a banking collapse.

It is the second-highest fine imposed by the Bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and reflects the seriousness of the failings, the watchdog said. The highest fine was £87m, imposed on Credit Suisse last July.

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Savings passbooks popular as Britain turns to cash amid cost of living crisis

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While some banks and building societies scrap system, others report increase in usage by customers

While some banks are scrapping passbook savings accounts amid suggestions they are past their sell-by date, other providers have reported an increase in their usage as people turn to cash to help them manage the cost of living.

Newcastle building society said that in 2023 it issued about three times as many passbooks as it did in 2021, and that it is getting new customers on the back of decisions by rivals to axe them.

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Lifetime Isas: calls to increase price cap that ‘fines’ first-time buyers

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People who want to buy property costing more than £450,000 say they unfairly face losing money

Campaigners are pressing for changes to a UK government scheme for would-be first-time buyers that “fines” people if they use it to buy a home costing more than £450,000.

Martin Lewis, the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, is among those calling for an urgent revamp of the rules that apply to lifetime Isas, which let people save for a first home or for their retirement.

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UK savers urged to act quickly for best returns as rates drop

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NS&I, Shawbrook and Tandem among providers to make reductions amid flurry of such moves

Savers have been urged to act quickly if they want to get the best returns on their money after a flurry of interest rate cuts on top-paying accounts.

This week NS&I reduced the rate it offers on its three-year green bonds from 5.7% to 3.95%, while Shawbrook, Tandem and Ford Money were among other providers making cuts.

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Don’t get caught out by tax on cash interest, UK savers told

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Higher interest rates and move away from cash isas means hundreds of thousands more people may be hit

Higher interest rates look set to land hundreds of thousands more people with an unwelcome tax bill for their savings, a financial advice firm warned this week.

A couple of years ago it was typically only the wealthiest with very big nest eggs who had to pay tax on their savings interest – but now someone with an emergency savings pot of about £8,000 could find themselves falling foul of this little-known tax trap.

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Supply shortages and mortgage rate rises push UK rents to highest point ever

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Average rental property receives three times more enquiries from prospective tenants than in 2019

Private home rents in Great Britain have increased to their highest point on record after shortages in supply and mortgage rate rises combined to push the cost up by 10% over the past 12 months.

The average rent for new properties being put on the market now stands at a record £1,278 per calendar month outside London in the July to September period, according to Rightmove.

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UK ‘mortgage meltdown’ looms amid ‘terrifying’ growth in arrears

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Jump in borrowers unable to make payments with landlords particularly hit and ‘worse to come’

Mortgage arrears jumped by 13% in the second quarter of the year to the highest level since 2016, according to Bank of England figures that underscore the stress in the UK mortgage market.

Rising interest rates and unemployment over recent months have put pressure on household disposable incomes, forcing some families to cut or suspend their monthly mortgage payments.

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Ex-Nationwide teller in London jailed for part in £130,000 bank fraud

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Nathan Gilbert, of Enfield, changed the account details of customers and fraudulently issued passbooks

A former teller at a London branch of Nationwide has been jailed for more than two years for his part in a £130,000 bank fraud.

Nathan Gilbert, 26, of Enfield, north London, who was said to have abused his position of trust at the bank, pleaded guilty at Southwark crown court to committing fraud and was sentenced earlier this year.

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UK banks will have to ensure access to cash within three miles, ministers say

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Treasury hints at concessions on guarantee but banks will face fines for falling below minimum service level

High street banks will have to ensure customers can find access to cash within three miles of their local communities, and those falling below the minimum service level will face a fine, the government has confirmed.

After the closure of thousands of local branches in recent years, and the switch to digital payment methods, ministers are looking to banks to help protect vulnerable groups and elderly customers by maintaining present levels of cash access across the UK.

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UK savings: more accounts now offering 6%-plus interest

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Government-backed NS&I increases its rates, as building societies and banks launch better deals

Amid the mortgage misery, there was more good news this week on savings rates, with a growing number of accounts now paying 6%-plus interest.

Meanwhile, the government-backed NS&I – a favourite of many in these uncertain times – has upped the rates on some of its popular fixed-rate accounts.

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Average rate on five-year fixed mortgage deal in UK climbs above 6%

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Rate is at highest level since last November, and average two-year fix is now 6.47%

A typical five-year fixed mortgage deal in the UK now has an interest rate of more than 6%, putting further pressure on borrowers who are hoping to buy a home or reaching the end of their existing deals.

Data from the financial information firm Moneyfacts shows the cost of a five-year deal for homeowners rose to 6.01% on Tuesday, up from 5.97% on Monday. It is the highest level since last November, after mortgage rates had been driven up by the mini-budget chaos of last autumn.

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Watchdog summons UK bank bosses to discuss weak savings rates

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Financial Conduct Authority to meet executives on Thursday as part of its investigation into savings market

UK bank bosses have been summoned to a meeting with the financial watchdog this week amid mounting concerns that they are profiting from rising interest rates by offering paltry savings rates to customers.

Executives from the big high street names Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest, HSBC and Barclays, as well as from smaller lenders, are due to attend a meeting at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Thursday to discuss concerns that savings rates are lagging far behind the soaring costs of mortgages and loans.

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‘We’re kicking ourselves that we didn’t do a five-year mortgage fix in 2021’

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Anguished families talk about how the Bank of England’s 13th consecutive interest hike is affecting them – and their fears for the future

Liam, 36, a senior IT manager and married father-of-one from Newcastle upon Tyne, is one of millions of homeowners whose mortgage payments will rise even higher after the Bank of England on Thursday put up the base interest rate to 5% – a 15-year high.

Together with his husband, Liam bought his four-bedroom house in 2019 for £269k, and the couple’s three-year mortgage deal, refixed at 1.64% in 2020 just before the first lockdown, expired in March.

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