The Nationwide Building Society Nationwide have recently announced that they are to substantially increase the discount on offer for first-time home buyers that participate in the company’s mortgage reservation scheme with the offer applying to three-, four-, and five-year fixed-rate mortgages in the meantime. In addition, the Nationwide are offering a complementary combined reservation and legal fee option to borrowers who are planning to move home. These offers, as well as similar, have been designed to reduce the initial lay outs involved in acquiring a property. A spokesman for the Nationwide is the world’s largest building society and one of the largest mortgage lenders in the UK predicted that with these measures they have removed some of the barriers that may have prevented people from buying a property.

In a bid to satisfy European authorities, the Royal Bank of Scotland may have no option but to either close down or farm out 312 of its branches operating s in England and Wales under the RBS banner and serving more than one million small businesses. The EU competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes appears to be forcing the RBS ’hand as they EU looks for substantial disposals to compensate for billions of pounds of taxpayer support as well as to finance the bank’s involvement in the UK Treasury’s toxic asset insurance scheme. The bank’s proposals to the EU, which are not liable to involve the company’s NatWest branch network in England and Wales, are thought to be in a well advanced state of negotiation.

The Icelandic government have announced that they have reached a fresh agreement with the UK government over the reimbursing the 400,000 savers who lost money when Icesave owner Landsbanki collapsed, leaving debts of around £3 billion. The original ruling was rejected by the UK and Netherlands governments, meaning a new bill will go before Iceland’s parliament for final agreement some time today.

A number of UK based manufacturers are combining efforts to promote the ‘Buy British’ angle in their marketing campaigns. among them are amusement ride manufacturer Amusement Technical, who, among others, want to take full advantage of the low exchange rate between sterling and the Euro to increase their export activities. A spokesman for the company explained that the low value of Sterling created a considerable opportunity for UK manufacturers competing for business in the Eurozone. The obvious downturn is that products and raw materials imported from the same region will be considerably more expensive.

The pound continued to rise in a volatile week’s trading, climbing 0.4% against the euro and 0.2% versus the dollar.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6303
• Pound/Euro 1.10989
• Pound/Japanese Yen 148.2221
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6658

The FTSE 100 fell 32.71 points on 5190.24 on Friday’s trading. The FTSE 250 dropped also shed some of its gains before the weekend, down 58.97 points to close on 9,426.20.

Bank of America have reported net losses of £612 million ($1billion) for the three months from July to September, a figure much worse than analysts predicted. The figure compares with a net profit of $3.2 billion in the second quarter of 2009 and $1.2 billion for the same period of last year. Bank of America is the fourth major US bank to report their third quarter results which are the least impressive so far.

The Dow Jones index took a tumble on Friday’s trading, falling below the 10,000 points mark, achieved during the week’s trading. The index fell 67.03 points to 9995.91 while the Nasdaq Composite index dropped 16.49 points to 2,156.8

financial

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Tags: Amusement Technical, Bank, Bank of America, Banking, British Economy, British Pound, Credit Crunch, Currency, Dow Jones, Economics, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, Global Credit Crisis, Icelandic government, Icesave, Landsbanki, Money, Money Markets, Mortgage, mortgage seekers, NASDAQ, Nationwide, Nationwide Building Society, NatWest, Netherlands government, RBS, Recession, Royal Bank of Scotland, Savings, UK Banks, UK government, UK Recession

The news released on Friday that the U.K. economy had contracted less than was previously estimated in the second quarter raised a few eyebrows. Recoveries in the manufacturing, auto services industries as well as increased and government spending helped mitigate the biggest slump in business investment for close to a quarter of a century.

In truth, the Gross domestic product still fell, but by less than 0.7 percent, which was 0.1 percent less than estimated, according to a review issued by the Office for National Statistics. The review also stated that the economy had shrunk by 5.5 percent for the twelve month period, the highest since records began in 1955.

It was also revealed on Friday that UK business investment has fallen by more than ten percent in the second quarter of 2009, and by 18 percent annually, which again is the largest fall in its category since 1966. Both of these less than inspiring sets of statistics are playing a major part in forcing the pound down to its lowest level for the last two months.

The Icelandic parliament has voted in favour of compensating the governments of the UK and the Netherlands more than £3 billion for those who lost money in the Icelandic online bank Icesave

The so-called Icesave bill will reimburse funds paid by the governments to compensate the 400,000 savers who lost their savings when its owner Landsbanki collapsed last year.

The bill has not met with a lot of enthusiasm by the Icelandic people, who fear that their government’s unprecedented attack of conscience might bankrupt their nation.

The deal, agreed way back in June, t was only passed after an amendment was agreed that set various limits to the payments.

Rises in mining and financial stocks helped push the FTSE 100 to its second successive monthly gain. Among the day’s most prominent risers was Lloyds Banking Group up 6.3 per cent to 111 pence. The continuing possibility that the bank will increase its share capital, by reducing its exposure to the government’s Asset Protection Scheme has pushed shares in the bank up by close to 10 percent this week.

Shares in InterContinental Hotels rose 0.5 per cent to 764 pence, driven by reports that an Emirates investment group was interested in its small portfolio of luxury hotels.

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Tags: Asset Protection Scheme, Banking, British Economy, Credit Crunch, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, Global Credit Crisis, Icesave, Investment, Landsbanki, Lloyds Banking Group, Money Management, Money Markets, Office for National Statistics, Recession, Stock Markets, UK Banks, UK business, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession