OFT relaxes rules on financial advisers
The 10-year-old regulatory barriers that strictly separate Britain's 20,000 independent financial advisers from the 50,000 employed in direct sales forces might be abando...
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Halifax says rocketing house prices unlikely to result in 80s-style bust
House prices are rising at their fastest rate for 10 years, with the average UK home now worth £4,400 more than it was just three months ago.
Prices jumped 2.2% in...
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House boom may derail recovery
Mortgage lenders and economists warned yesterday that a repeat of the late 1980s housing boom could derail the economic recovery in Britain.
Rising property prices will...
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Tunnel visionaries miss targets
Inflation targets are de rigueur. Like a fashion accessory, they have been adopted by governments to demonstrate their commitment to price stability. Britain, Finland, Sp...
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Lloyds predicts cull of banks
Sir Brian Pitman, chairman of Lloyds TSB, yesterday predicted the demise of the "mortgage" banks and pledged to be a participant in any mergers and acquisitions.
Speaki...
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Watchdogs will not bite
Some of the worst abuses highlighted by mortgage lenders in last week's Jobs & Money could be halted if the Consumers' Association or the Office of Fair Trading used ...
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Sofa-banking from Abbey
Abbey National customers will soon be able to pay bills, arrange car insurance, seek financial advice and keep tabs on their finances from their sofas after the bank yest...
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A&L frees borrowers from interest rate lock-in
Alliance & Leicester is to market simpler, flexible mortgages which might counter criticism that lenders are cheating homebuyers.
While the bank insists the move is...
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Spurning the seven deadly stings
Psst! Wanna home loan? I'll do you a discount if you sign up now. I can't promise you'll get this offer if you don't say yes now. And don't worry 'bout the contract terms...
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In the jaws of the loan sharks
Experts who advise millions of people on financial decisions that affect the rest of their lives often have almost no training, no formal qualifications and are regulated...
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Low rates bring a home loan record
Mortgage lending rose to a record level last month as borrowers took advantage of the lowest home loan rates for decades.
Gross mortgage lending by banks, building soci...
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Interest rate held as growth picks up
Interest rates were put on hold yesterday amid signs that seven cuts in the cost of borrowing since October have fuelled a boom in the housing market in the south and a r...
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Expect more rate cuts after Bank's respite
These days it is more unusual for the Bank of England's monetary policy committee not to cut interest rates than to take a paring knife to them. Since the downswing in th...
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An uncertain future for your finances, too
Uncertainty over the euro's future is already making itself felt in people's lives. There could be further fall-out, good and bad, depending on which side of the interest...
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Buying to let yourself in for disaster?
If you listen to mortgage lenders and estate agents, everything in the housing market is rosy. Despite fast-rising prices in some areas, fed presumably by easy access to ...
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Our mutual friend
In 1995 you might easily have had a bank account at the TSB, a mortgage with the Cheltenham & Gloucester and a life insurance policy with Abbey Life or Scottish Widow...
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Payouts could top ?25,000
Payouts from demutualising insurance companies are increasing, driven by the rise in the values placed upon mutual businesses over the past five years.
Scottish Widows'...
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House-buying takes off
Renewed optimism about the economy and the lowest borrowing rates for 30 years have led mortgage lenders to predict the biggest year for house buying since the property b...
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Inflation falls to lowest rate in six years
Britain's inflation rate has fallen to a six-year low, with the governor of the Bank of England, Eddie George, acknowledging luck had played its part in the economy's pri...
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Bank cuts rate to lowest since 1977
The Bank of England reduced the cost of borrowing yesterday to its lowest level since 1977, as concern over the strong pound forced the seventh cut in interest rates sinc...
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But what about your home loan?
Britain's biggest mortgage lenders yesterday declined to pass on the full 0.25 base rate cut to borrowers, prompting warnings that they risk leaving customers feeling dis...
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Sterling is the key to any further rate cuts
The cut in the Bank of England's key interest rate by a further quarter point to 5% caps a remarkable few days for the global economy. Finance ministers from the group of...
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Brown's pledge to the poor is just a start
The chancellor, Gordon Brown, has demonstrated that the national commitment to forgiving the debt of the world's poorest countries is profound. At the spring meetings of ...
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Housing boom boosts services sector
Britain's services industries grew for the third month in a row in May, with the biggest gains experienced by mortgage lenders, hotels and catering, although the increase...
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