It came as no big surprise to anybody when the Bank of England (BOE) announced that they will be holding interest rates at their record low of 0.5%, and for the twelfth consecutive month.

The BOE’s decision gained a consensus of approval by UK economists, who pronounced, individually and collectively that rises in the cost of borrowing could set the UK’s fragile economic recovery back into the red.

The announcement that the bank will be standing firm on the amount of money that will be pumped into quantitative easing program (QE) programme was also met with a similar apathy.

BOE governor Mervyn King has long since made clear his opinion on increasing interest rates raising QE quotas, and all the rest of the UK’s financial programs by simply stating that that it was “far too soon” to make any changes to the status quo.

Sterling has now dropped in value for six consecutive trading days, with the bulk of opinion on the Pound’s increasingly weak position being because of speculation that the forthcoming general election is liable to see a hung parliament which translates to a government that will be too weak to mend the UK’s financial problems. Since the beginning of 2010, the pound has dropped by seven percent against the dollar, reaching a ten month low of $1.4783 on March the 2nd. The pound closed on Thursday on $1.5051 while the Euro was stabilising at 1.1078.

Financial Service Institute (FSA) chairman Lord Turner has voiced his opinion that that the size of banks was also not the main reason behind the economic turmoil, and even some of the UK’s smaller financial institutions could have been pronounced equally guilty of “over-exuberant lending” and taking “risky short-term wholesale deposits, Turner explained “Everyone was seduced by the long boom and were often led astray in the past by complicated mathematical rules. The Bank’s regulators were the ones who failed to notice the inherent weakness in that position.”

The FSA chairman also went on to explain that when the time comes to add up the cost of bailing out the financial services industry at the height of the global financial crisis may in the end turn out to be a lot less than first predicted.

“It is quite possible that the total overt costs of the UK’s big bank rescues may not exceed five-ten per cent of GDP," Turner predicted in a recent interview "and perhaps considerably less as indeed was the case in the Swedish banking crisis of the 1990s.” He summed up.

Recent research is pointing to a situation that increasingly adds weight to the theory that the UK’s property rental sector is heading towards a similar model of the mainland European countries of increasingly longer tenancy agreements.

According to one of the UKs largest letting agencies, during the last year and a half, a fairly dramatic increase in demand for rented accommodation has been observed, with potential tenants being especially interested in properties with long term tenure periods.

Reasons given for this new phenomena in property rental appears to be largely causes by increasing difficulties of young families to raise the new and higher deposit levels required to be granted a mortgage, while around a third confessed that they were unsure that the conditions were ripe to put their toe in the still turbulent waters of the UK property market. With almost 40 percent of potential first-time home buyers opting to remain tenants in the meantime, because of the current tough mortgage-lending criteria and 14% of those questioned said they preferred life as a tenant to that of a homeowner.

Home ownership in the UK has fallen by three percent since 2003 with the trend likely to continue. Several of the UK’s leading property management companies now believe that the UK Government now needs to ensure that renting a home offers the stability levels that are currently only afforded to home owners.

British Airways, once again under strike threat have dug in by saying that more than one thousand of the staff have volunteered to work as cabin crew if indeed the threatened strike goes ahead.

As a further back up, BA announced that they also intended to hire no less than 23 fully crewed planes from a leading European owned charter company. The company’s role will be to help run flights from Heathrow Airport should the strike threats eventually materialise.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) recently announced that new car sales in the UK increased by 26.4% in February compared with the same month in 2009, with the main push in demand coming because of the Government’s scrappage scheme.

Launched in May of last year in an effort to boost the ailing car industry, the £400 million initiative, which allowed owners of cars at least 10 years old would be offered a £2,000 discount off the price of a new vehicle, with half of the grant being provided by the UK Government and the other £1,000 coming from the lucky carmaker. Figures from the SMMT show that almost 20 percent of new car sales in February came a result of the scheme, which is due to be wound up by the end of March.

On the stock market, Barclays Plc’s Asian partner, the China Development Bank announced that they will be reviewing their “ties” with the bank, U.K.’s second-biggest. The announcement caused shares in Barclays to rise one percent, to 333.1 pence.

The U.K.’s third-largest supermarket owner J Sainsbury Plc has announced plans to expand their activities into non-food products. They will be marketing electronics, entertainment and sports equipment among others through their Web site. Despite the excitement, Sainsbury shares 0.2 percent, to close on 335.4 pence.

Michael Page International Plc, the U.K.’s second- largest recruitment company announced a drop in full-year pretax profit of no less than 85 percent to £21.1 million pounds. Despite the reversal, their shares climbed 6 1.7 percent, to close on 395 pence.

The benchmark FTSE 100 Index fell 0.1 percent, to close on Thursday at 5,527.16.

On Wall Street, for the Dow Jones Industrial Average the only way was up, this time rising 47.38 points to close on 10,444.14. The NASDAQ Composite also held its own, rising 11 points to close on 2,292.31.

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Tags: Bank of England, Barclays, BOE, British airways, Dow Jones, Financial Service Institute, FTSE, general election, Heathrow Airport, Interest Rates, Lord Turner, Mervyn King, Michael Page International Plc, NASDAQ, quantitative easing, Sainsbury, SMMT, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, UK government, Wall Street

That would make for very good news if only the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) hadn’t succeeded in making a loss of £24.3 billion shortfall in 2008. For 2009 RBS has announced losses for 2009 of just £3.6 billion after losing their struggle to recover billions of pounds of bad loans. Considering that city analysts had expected losses of around five billion, this is not a bad result for the bank whose Chief executive Stephen Hester said had "exceeded all the principal milestones" set for the first year of their turnaround plan.

Hester went on to add that t the group’s core business saw profits rise from £4.4 billion in 2008 to £8.3 billion last year, while bad debt increased to £13.9 billion from £7.7 billion in 2008. On an optimistic note, RBS announced positive signs of a peaking in the number of "toxic loans" being held by the bank, with the fourth quarter looking better for corporate clients.

Hester also revealed that in discussions with the Government about altering its lending commitments to "reflect the economic circumstances" over the next year, that they were very open to increasing its lending levels to

customers. However, strained economic environment still remained a factor that had caused many of the bank’s customers to reduce their borrowings.

As part of its bailout terms, the firm agreed to make an extra £25 billion available to customers in loans with £9 billion being allocated for mortgages and the remaining £16 billion for business lending.

Mr Hester summed up by saying that 2009 was "a year of substantial progress" for the bank.

On the controversial subject of bonuses, Hester requested that RBS should not be singled out and that the financial community as well as the UK public should recognise that that important staff would leave if pay was not competitive. Alistair Darling obviously agrees, because he has cleared the payment of £1.32 billion in bonuses to staff at the bank.

The announcement came just a few days after Stephen Hester opted not to take his £1.6 million bonus, with the CEO apparently still waiting to see if any of his colleagues at the bank will follow suit.

Also subject to change will be Northern Rock’s 100% savings deposit guarantee that is now to be lifted on the 24th May.

From that date, the UK government has decided that their deposits guarantee will no longer apply. The day has obviously been timed to specifically allow, savers exactly 12 weeks to decide what to do about any money that they have on deposit with the north east based building society, As was the case before the Rock began to crumble, savers who still have deposits worth up to £50,000 will be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. However those holding larger amounts will no longer enjoy the government’s protection. .

The decision may have come as result of complaints by other banks and building societies that the 100% guarantee has given an unfair advantage to the bank, with an increasing large number of deposit holders happy to deposit large amounts there, despite lower interest rates due to the 100% protection.

Leaders of the leading British unions have described a “still fragile” the labour market , despite the fact that recently released figures showed that unemployment surprisingly fell by 7,000 in the quarter to November 2009 to just below 2.5 million. Correspondingly e the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance was also around 15,000 lower in December at 1.6 million. However, the union leaders claim, thousands of job losses have only been announced in recent weeks, raising fears that unemployment will start to climb in the flat period that typically occurs in the run-up to a general election.

The TUC said it will be looking for a number of key signs in today’s figures, including a fall of more than 30,000 in unemployment and a reduction in the number of “involuntary” temporary workers. According to the TUC, the number of people taking temporary or part-time jobs because they can’t find permanent work has risen considerably. .

Operating profits at British Gas soared by 58% last year to £595 million, compared with £379 million in 2008. Its parent company Centrica said the figures beat the previous high of £573 million in 2007.

British Gas announced earlier this month it was reducing its gas prices by seven percent.

The U.K.’s second- largest department-store retailer Debenhams Plc, who recently acquired the Denmark based Magasin du Nord retail chain, are considering acquiring similar companies in the future. A spokesman for Debenhams stated that the company would like to become less reliant on the difficult home market. According to the British Retail Consortium Retail sales in the UK rose at the slowest pace in 15 years last month with London-based Debenhams, who operate 142 stores in the UK, obviously feeling the pinch. Until January’s acquisition of the six-store chain for £12.3 million pounds Debenhams’s overseas presence had been restricted to 11 stores in neighboring Ireland and about 50 franchised outlets.

On the foreign exchanges, the pound continued to fall, reaching $1.5266, whilst reaching .1245 against the Euro.

U.K. stocks dropped after a report showed confidence among U.S. consumers fell in February to the lowest level since April 2009. In London, the FTSE 100 dropped 64.69 points to close on 5278.83.

Overall, the FTSE 100 has gained around five percent since early February. as U.K. companies continue to confound the experts and expectations grow that the strengthening global economic recovery will signal further economic growth.

Confidence among U.S. consumers fell more than anticipated in February to the lowest level since April 2009 as the outlook for jobs diminished, a report showed today.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said there was a "nascent economic recovery" in a testimony before Congress.

US stocks jumped more than 1%, led by banks, as some had feared that the cost of borrowing would start rising soon.

Although the US economy is growing, some worries remain about its strength because unemployment remains high, meaning that the "Fed "has begun to gradually undo some of the emergency measures that they had implemented during the financial crisis.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 47 points to close on 10,321.03 while the NASDAQ Composite also recovered by 25 points to close on 2,234.22

Ben Bernanke is taking a very close look at the role of Wall Street firms in helping Greece to cover up the extent of their financial troubles, with Goldman Sachs apparently under closer scrutiny than most.

Bernanke hinted that both the Fed and the US financial watchdog were "looking into a number of questions" related to banks’ arrangements with Greece, whilst stopping short on the question of whether an official inquiry was under way

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Tags: Alistair Darling, Bank, Banking, Ben Bernanke, British Economy, British Gas, British Pound, Centrica, Currency, Debenhams Plc, Dow Jones, Economics, Economy, Employment, Financial News, Financial Services Compensation Scheme, FTSE, Goldman Sachs, jobseeker’s allowance, Magasin du Nord, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Northern Rock, RBS, Recession, Retail, Stephen Hester, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, TUC, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, US economy

Millions of members of the UK community of retirees are looking at the dim prospect of receiving a pension hike of less than ten pounds a month when the new rates kick-in in April 2010 The reason for the minimal increase is that UK inflation on which pension rises are calculated. Is considerably less than the minimum of 2.5%. government pledge to annually increase the state pension.

Instead, recently released figures from the Office for National Statistics show that UK retail prices index registered actually recorded a fall of 1.4% for the year ending September 2008. This means that both state and public sector pensions, both of which are calculated according to September inflation, will reach only the minimum figure of 2.5%.

A spokesman for the charity, Age Concern rushed to state that at £97.65 a week the basic state pension was seriously inadequate to guarantee the UK elderly a reasonable standard of living. Thy went on to insist that the current pension system is in need of urgent reform that will ensure older people can live off their pensions without having to apply for benefit top ups.

A monthly study has shown that living costs for pensioners are rising at a rate much higher than those for younger people, with the elderly spend a disproportionate amount on energy bills and food.

This daunting piece of news for UK retirees is only the latest in a line of unexpected pitfalls they will have to bear. Recent studies have shown that not only are many Britons are dramatically reshaping their retirement plans to match a new reality. A reality that depicts those who were due to retire in the near future, are putting off their retirement for as long as possible as the reality hits home that those who are retiring today will need to live off less than what represents half of the UK national average wage.

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Tags: Age Concern, British Economy, British Pound, Credit Crunch, Debt, Economy, Financial News, Government, Inflation, Interest Rates, Money, Money Management, Office for National Statistics, pensioners, Recession, Retail, retirees, Savings, state pensions, UK Economy, UK elderly, UK government, UK inflation

It seems such a short time ago that people who invested all of their money in the stock market were regarded as being "risqué," and those who kept their money in the bank in short and long term deposit accounts were described as being "sensible". Well that role has certainly been reversed over the last crazy year or so, when the financial world turned upside down for so many.

Nowadays people who still have money on deposit at the bank are regarded as being some form of masochists, and no less than the banks themselves. With interest rates seemingly stuck forever on 0.5%, money left in a bank account is not only gathering dust, it is also paying for the privilege. On the other hand, the FTSE can almost do no wrong. And it has been that way for more than half a year, when the first indications that the global economic downturn might not last forever began to look evident. Sufficient to say that, the FTSE 100 rose by 21% in the third quarter of 2009, and 45% since March the highest percentage rises since the exchange was created in 1983. At current interest levels, investors would have to leave their money in the bank for around 7 years to earn that kind of return on their investment.

Leading economists argue that by trying to jump start the economy, the UK government has damaged national growth for the foreseeable future, with the only way that the situation can be reversed is to put an end to the stimulus passage and increase interest rates. They go on to suggest that as soon as the government does increase interest rates, only then will the stock market boom begin to fizzle out. That will be the time for the smart investor to release their equity exposure and return most if not all their capital to their bank account and earn some reasonable interest. Like the good old days.

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Tags: Bank Account, Banking, British Economy, British Pound, Credit Crunch, Currency, Economic Downturn, Economics, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, Global Credit Crisis, Interest Rates, Investment, Money, Money Management, Recession, Savings, stimulus passage, stock market, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, UK Banks, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession

The Financial Services Authority (FSI) recently announced that they will be taking a much closer look in the future at firms who provide financial services firms, In particular, they will be reviewing the methods used by these companies to market their payment protection insurance policies, (PPI) The FSI initiative is designed to curb continuing hard-sell tactics and miss-selling of the product.

PPI is designed to cover repayments on products bought on long term credit products, in the event that if the borrower is unable to do as a result of reduced earnings caused by accident, redundancy, sickness or to project the family in the event that the debtor passes away. Setting a precedent was the record £7 million pound imposed in October 2008 by the FSA on the Alliance & Leicester building society, for reported serious failings in procedures during recorded telephone conversations discussing PPI to prospective clients. .

The FSA are about to issue a series guidelines,- due to take effect by the end of the year that are designed to ensure that PPI sales will be handled properly and complaints will be at a minimum.

In addition, the FSA are liable to request that certain companies reassess 185,000 previously rejected customer complaints. The reason given is that the FSA complain that there are an excessively high number of complaints of rejected complaints by firms offering PPI. The average percentage level of rejected claims is around 60% with certain companies showing a reject rate of almost 100%.

Most PPI service providers, among them Lloyds Banking Group, the country’s biggest provider of PPI accounting for 40 percent of PPI contracts sold directly to borrowers have agreed to screen all such sales since July 2007.

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Tags: Bank, Banking, British Economy, Economy, Financial News, Financial Services Authority, FSI, Lloyds Banking Group, Money, Money Management, Mortgage, payment protection insurance policies, PPI, Recession, UK Economy, UK Recession

A new deadly computer virus is doing the rounds and this one, which goes by the name of Clampi, is proving to be a headache for literally thousands of on-line banking customers.

The Clampi virus is spreading quickly throughout both the UK and US, and has a particularly invidious way of effecting people’s computers.

The virus, what’s known in the jargon as a Trojan, has been created by hackers intent on stealing people’s personal banking details. It effects people’s computers after they visit certain websites and then sits quietly waiting its chance. Then, once the computer users accesses their personal banking website, it activates, and captures such vital information as login and password details.

Once harnessed, these details are then sent back to the waiting hackers, who using them to commit on-line fraud scams.

The Clampi virus courts some 5,000 financial websites; ones which include British and American banks, but also mortgage lenders, on-line shopping sites, casinos and email service providers.

And although the Clampi virus has been around since 2005, only now is it really beginning to make its presence felt. In the US for example, thousands of dollars of fraudulent transactions are already being blamed on the Trojan.

Computer security experts are warning that the Clampi virus represents a complex threat and one which people should take very seriously indeed. They warn that it is just beginning to seriously target UK banks and there is potential for wave after wave of attacks. But only now are the experts fully aware of its devastating potential.

With the US under attack from the Clampi virus, it is believed that over 1,000 computers in the UK have been penetrated. And those computers running Microsoft Windows based operating systems are especially vulnerable to the Clampi virus.

Computer security experts are urging everyone to be particularly careful of falling victim to the virus. They advise all computer users to be on their guard against links embedded within emails from people not known to them, or likewise unfamiliar emails with attachments; but, also be cautious of social networking sites, instant messages, blogs, or websites that they come across during a surf. Innocent appearing websites are one of the most popular ways that such Trojans are distributed around computer networks. The general rule is, say the boffins, never download anything from any site unless you can completely vouch for its credentials.

What’s more, the experts are warning everyone to not only run a good anti-virus software programme, but also keep it up to date.

For more information on this and other computer viruses, help protecting your computer and staying safe on the web visit http://www.computer-protection.co.uk/

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Tags: anti-virus software, Bank, Banking, Clampi, Clampi Virus, Computer Virus, Current Account, hackers, Microsoft Windows, Money, Money Management, on-line banking, on-line fraud, personal details, Trojan, UK Banks, UK Credit Cards

In times gone by, the self righteous members of the community were often heard to say "neither a lender nor a borrower be." Not a bad piece of advice it would transpire and one that should have been heeded more carefully a few years ago. However it must have been hard to take when handed out by your maiden Aunt who refused to lend you sixpence for your bus fare, which you had mistakenly spent on liquorice allsorts.

The last year has seen an all time low for both savers as well as those whose life style forces them to borrow just to survive. For savers it has been especially tough. According to statistics gathered by the Bank of England’s the average interest rate for savers has plunged from 4.49% to 0.41% in the last twelve months, as the BOE has cut interest rates to the bone to prop up the banks.

Interest rates for the average instant access account has plunged from 1.85% before tax (2.31% after tax) to 0.14% (0.17%), while the average price of fixed rate bonds has fallen from 4.53% (5.66%) to 2.42% (3.03%).

However the true picture for many savers is a lot less colourful than that, as these rates are only on offer frosh fresh deposits, while much of the money held in UK banks are on older long terms plans, where interest rates have plunged as low as 0.08% (0.1 %) interest, returning just 80 pence interest a year for every £1,000 saved.

For borrowers the picture is just as gloomy. Overdrafts are being cut and default interest rates being applied with a heavy hand. Those whose debt package is linked to their credit card have fared no better. Reports of rates hiking reduced borrowing limits or even having their credit cut off completely abound. And balance transfer deals and reward schemes are rapidly becoming part of banking history.

It may be a bitter pill for many to swallow, but Auntie might have been right!

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Tags: Bank of England, Banking, BOE, British Economy, British Pound, Credit, Credit Crunch, Current Account, Debt, Economy, Financial News, Interest Rates, Money, Money Management, Overdraft, Recession, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK Recession

With the news that the UK Co-operative society is looking to increase exposure for their bank division, Coop banks are liable to become an increasingly common site on the UK high street within the coming years. Stage one to test the extent of in-house banking with coop stores, will be the opening of two pilot schemes situated in strategic points in the UK. As well as opening in-house outlets in a similar marketing mould as Tesco. Banking analysts see the Coops move into high street bank on a national scale as a logical extension of their acquisition of Britannia building society in early 2009. A move which increased their asset base considerably, while diluting their management costs. .

There have been Cooperative banks on UK high streets for almost forty years, although their numbers have always been limited. In the wake of the recent economic downturn, and with hopes of a return to economic normality around the corner, the stage is set for the appearance of new and clean faces in the high street. The Cooperative Bank many not be new face but it is certainly shiningly clean

UK politicians have made it no secret that they are keen to see medium sized players make greater inroads into retail banking to improve consumer choice with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) reportedly swamped with applications for banking licences

The Co-op Banking group is bound to be among the front runners, with a track record that shows prudent lending policies, and boasting an average equity to property value of close to 50 percent.

The stage is set for some interesting times in high street banking in the UK high street, with some surprising new faces entering the banking world. The Coop has been around for a long time, yet there new banking policy looks like cleaning up the high street.

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Tags: Bank, Banking, Britannia building society, British Economy, Coop Bank, Cooperative, Current Account, Economy, Employment, Financial News, Financial Services Authority, Money, Money Management, Savings, Tesco, UK Co-operative, UK Credit Cards, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession

After the traumas it has gone through over the last year or so, it appears that the Lloyds Banking Group Plc, still the U.K.’s biggest mortgage lender is making strides to relive itself of some of the stigmas attached to it as the UK banking industry almost imploded in autumn of last year. The bank has reached an agreement with the U.K. government to guarantee half the risk on a portfolio of its existing short-term loans to companies, The billion pound deal will be dependent on Lloyds agreeing to increase their business lending.

As far as the high street us concerned, Lloyd’s Halifax building society unit is currently review the licensing agreements they currently hold, entailing running some 300 outlets situated in real-estate agents, lawyers and financial consultants. They have already implemented a decision to shut down 26 of the situated in independent banks. Lloyds are also reported to be interested in selling off their branches of Lloyds, TSB and the Cheltenham & Gloucester Plc in Scotland. Lloyds Banking Group is considering more job losses as the bank plans to close more than 300 “agency” counters run by its Halifax subsidiary in the offices of estate agents, solicitors or financial advisers.

The 43% state controlled banking giant has already paid off 7,500 people in 2009 so far. On the up side, Lloyds recently announced it was reviewing its decision to close down its 160 Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) branches,

Less than cheery forecasts from insolvency specialists are beginning to emerge that a second wave of corporate restructurings are due to break this month as bankers and investment houses begin to face problematic customers. .

September has always been regarded as the second important crunch date in the year for companies and lenders, as companies involved in retailing and distribution draw heavily on working capital to stock up in anticipation of what might not be the greatest of Christmas seasons.

On a difficult day for the FTSE, Lloyds bank’ stock rose 6.3 percent, to 111.34 pence on news of their reorganisation plans.

Shares in the U.K.’s largest self- storage operator Safestore Holdings Plc also rose by 8.3 percent, to 131 pence, in anticipation of improved third-quarter earnings.

RSA Insurance fell 4.8 per cent to 124 pence following reports that the company was considering a £1 billion rights issue to reduce their debt burden

The FTSE 100 closed at a low, having been under pressure all day after market strategists recommended clients to cut their allocation of UK equities.

The FTSE returned from it August Bank holiday break to find itself not in the best of shape. The FTSE 100 dropped to 89.20 points close on 4819.70 while the FTSE 250 fared even worse, dropping 2.24 % or 197.83 points to close on 8,619.68

Sterling also continued to struggle against the major currencies

• Pound/US dollar 1.6126
• Pound/Euro 1.1349
• Pound/Japanese Yen 149.5807
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7207

It would appear that scrapping incentives has not had too much of an effect with new cars sales generally on the increase around the world in August according to some preliminary data. Car sales in Japan rose for the first time in more than a year, while several auto manufacturing groups in Asia and Europe reported higher sales volumes than for the comparable month last year.

On Wall Street, markets continue to struggle due to continued uncertainty in the Chinese economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted by 185.68 points to close on 9310.6 while the NASDAQ Composite index dropped below the 2,000 mark yet again, down 40.17 points to close on 1968.89.

For the first time since February 2008, US manufacturing output grew according to the Institute of Supply Management’s purchasing managers. Their index rose to 52.9 points last month, up from 48.9 in July.

Any number above 50 indicates an expansion in manufacturing output, making for another significant sign of recovery in the US economy.

In a long anticipated move, the internet phone company Skype has been sold off by online auction site owners in a transaction worth about £1.2 billion

Skype will now be owned by a group of private investors, including Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and private equity firms, in partnership with EBay who will retain a 35% stake in the firm, which it has been trying to sell for some time. The deal values Skype at $2.75bn. EBay bought Skype for $2.6bn in 2005.

Unemployment levels Euro 16 countries was reported to have hit a 10-year high in July, as despite declarations to the opposite, the impact of the recession continues to be felt.

The number of unemployed across the eurozone region in July was reported to have reached more than 15.1 million, making for a seasonally-adjusted rate of 9.5%. The unemployment figures were the worst in terms of monthly percentage since May 1999 and compares unfavourably with the numbers of unemployed with all the 27 member states of the European Union which was a total of 21.8 million, or 9%.

Crude oil prices have fallen this week as news out of China continued to raise doubts about its petroleum demand, with prices falling below the $70 a barrel mark again.

Economic concerns have hit China where the benchmark Shanghai Composite index fell 6.7 per cent in its worst one-day decline since June 2008, halting the ongoing increase in crude oil prices, which have risen steadily in 2009, after falling as low as $33 a barrel.

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Tags: Banking, British Economy, British Pound, C&G, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Currency, Current Account, Dow Jones, Ebay, Economy, Employment, Financial News, FTSE, Halifax building society, Lloyds, Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Marc Andreessen, Money Management, Mortgage, NASDAQ, Netscape, Recession, Retail, RSA, Safestore Holdings, Skype, U.K. government, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK Recession, Unemployment, US economy, Wall Street

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) get their way , in the very near future company directors who turn a blind eye to price fixing at their companies are liable to be banned for up to 15 years. According to a statement published by the OFT, Britain’s antitrust regulator are preparing considerably tougher penalties not only for directors who were directly involved in price fixing but also those who were guilty by default. The current rules ban only directors who themselves breach competition law through offences such as price-fixing.

In common with other U.K. regulatory bodies the OFT, intend to raise the penalties for those individuals who are found guilty of price fixing, including jail sentences. To show that these are not empty threats, the OFT has recently charged four former and current executives of British Airways Plc with fixing the price of fuel surcharges on transatlantic flights with one of their competitors. If found guilty, the four could go to prison for as long as five years.

Anyone saying that the UK economy is dying obviously hasn’t been talking to their funeral undertakers recently. As is often the case, the funeral industry is experiencing record upturn in trade that has been going on for the last year at least. Not that more people are dying, just that many are concerned that when the time comes when they will be called to leave this Earth, their loved ones wall be unable to meet the bill. For this reason, more and more UK subjects are joining a plan organized by Britain’s largest provider of funeral plans to pay for their funeral in advance through easy payments.

The company, Co-operative Funeral care, who operate 1,100 funeral homes across the O.K., announced this week that they experienced a 28% increase in the number of funeral plan sales during the last six months alone.

A spokesman for Co-operative Funeral care pointed out that subscribing to a funeral plan represented a sound investment for people as they are guaranteed against future increases in costs.

Funeral plans, however do not cover all the costs with the "future clients" having to pay for their burial plot.

Northern Rock, the UK building society come bank, who recently reported first-half losses of £725 million, has announced that they will be deferring payments on some of its subordinated debt to help conserve capital. The UK bank, largely public owned, where permissible. Granite, the bank’s securitisation vehicle, will be unaffected.

Thomas Cook, the UK travel group announced that a large part of insolvent German retailer, Arcandor’s 53 per cent stake in the company could be sold to institutional investors as early as next month as their creditor banks attempt to reduce their loan burden.

Arcandor’s banks, led by Royal Bank of Scotland, Commerzbank and Bayern LB were reported to be still in the market for find a strategic buyer for the company so that they could sell off their combined 44 per cent stake. –.

Demands for rented accommodation will grow to eventually reach than a third of UK households within a decade, doubling the number since 2005.

With public sector construction spending expected to weaken over the next 18 months, consumers who are unable or unwilling to purchase their own property will create a strong demand for rented homes. These predictions come from Gravis Snook, chief executive of Rok, the construction and maintenance group. "He continued "The model where the individual borrows large sums to buy a house that they never quite pay off is somewhat suspect."

The group had been in talks with a number of social housing groups regarding the establishment of joint ventures with institutional investors to profit from this demand.

The FTSE 100 was in consolidation mode yesterday rising just 3.89 points to close on 4689.67. The FTSE 250 also recovered slightly, rising 15.77 points to close on 8,370.25

The pound improved against the dollar, whilst taking a tumble against the rest of the major currencies.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6509
• Pound/Euro 1.1624
• Pound/Japanese Yen 155.3987
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7614

Research in Motion (RIM) designers and producers of the BlackBerry smartphone have won the coveted honor as the company to watch, by the highly ranked Fortune Magazine.

RIM, based in Canada were ranked first in a list of the fastest growing firms around the world, due to their tremendous success with the BlackBerry Curve in the US, where they hold a 74 per cent share of the business smartphone market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to recover from its collapse earlier in the week, rising a further 61.22 points to close on 9279.16. The NASDAQ also showed improvement up 13.32 points to close on 1969.24

Another interesting phenomenon was unveiled this week mirroring the unhealthy condition of the World’s leading economies. It has been reported that as the US economy has contracted and employment opportunities have considerably contracted, the number of Mexicans crossing into the US by legal and illegal means appears to have fallen considerably. Statistics show that the number of people legally entering the US from Mexico, mostly looking for work, has fallen by nearly 40 per cent since 2006 to an annual average of about 350,000. Even more compelling news is that according to official statistics, the number of people apprehended trying to enter the US illegally fell to 724,000 in 2008, the lowest since 1973.

While the Department of Homeland Security claim that the decline is related to tougher border protection efforts, however many claim that the slump in US economy is the real reason.

Oil prices dipped ahead of the latest US inventories data while base metals retreated after a sharp fall in the Chinese stock market

Demand for gold sank in the second quarter after jewellery consumption dropped by more than a fifth and investment interest slowed as the threat of meltdown in the global financial system receded

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Tags: Arcandor, Banking, BlackBerry, British airways, British Economy, British Pound, Co-operative, Co-operative Funeral care, Credit Crunch, Currency, Department of Homeland Security, Dow Jones, Economics, Financial News, FTSE, Gold, Gravis Snook, Money, NASDAQ, Northern Rock, Office of Fair Trading, OFT, price fixing, prison, Recession, Research in Motion, RIM, Royal Bank of Scotland, smartphone, Stock Markets, Thomas Cook, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK Recession, US economy