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

The strike by workers at Royal Mail Group Plc highlights the need for an alternative U.K. postal carrier, said the chief of TNT NV’s British unit, which is planning to roll out a competing service.

The chief executive of Royal Mail, Adam Crozier has expressed hope that further crippling postal strikes will be avoided through dialogue. Crozier , in a recent interview remained optimistic, forecasting that "common sense" would prevail when leaders of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) sit down to resume talks with Royal Mail management at a meeting sponsored by the TUC. Around 120,000 workers are set to stage a fresh round of strikes from Thursday of this week. The long-running dispute focuses around jobs, pay and modernization, which according to Crozier, has sparked of opposition by some postal workers, most of whom are based in London. A spokesman for the CWU accepted that modernization and improved efficiency would lead to job losses.

Meanwhile Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT Post was less than supportive of Crozier’s efforts to buy some time by stating that “What this strike does tell us is that our customers need choice which TNT will be able to provide in the future.”

Since the UK partially opened the postal business to competition in 2003, Royal Mail has consistently lost market share to TNT as well as the Business Post Group Plc. TNT, Europe’s second- biggest parcel company handles U.K. corporate mail and currently testing a door-to-door delivery service in Liverpool

Before TNT or Business Post can expand their services to homes and businesses, U.K. regulators must lift a ban on full competition with Royal Mail and offer tax equality. Currently, Royal Mail doesn’t charge value-added tax, while its competitors are obliged to.

The postal workers strikes have led to 30 million letters being delayed, equivalent to around 40% of an average daily postbag.

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Tags: Adam Crozier, British Economy, Business Post Group Plc, Communication Workers Union, CWU, Economy, Employment, Financial News, Nick Wells, postal workers strike, Recession, Royal Mail, Royal Mail Group Plc, TNT Post, TUC, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession

For the first time in many a long while, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been drawn to admit that he would have no option but to make some public spending cuts, and that they would be both considerable and imminent.

Brown, addressing a meeting of trade unionists announced that the government would have no option but to “cut costs, cut inefficiencies, cut unnecessary programmes and cut lower priority budgets”. He went on to admit that a new pay austerity for the UK was on its way, hinting strongly that “realistic” public sector pay settlements were a must.

The Prime Minister’s comments were made at a meeting to the Trade Unions Council (TUC) held in Liverpool were obviously designed to pre-empt the forthcoming pre-Budget report due to be released in the autumn. The report will set out Labour’s plans for priority public spending and any cuts. Full details of departmental spending from 2011 are not expected to be included.

The suggestion that there me be public spending cuts is certainly radical, as Brown has steadfastly refused to admit the need for cuts in any form till now,

Not slow to take political advantage of Brown’s apparent turnaround was shadow chancellor George Osborne, who described the PM’s statement a “complete capitulation”.

The prime minister claimed the recession had thrown up some fairly major challenges and on each occasion the government had made the right choice: whether propping up the banks or cutting taxes to boost the economy.

Chancellor Alasdair Darling is expected to use the pre-Budget report to try to identify net cuts to accelerate the government’s plan to halve the deficit to 5.5 per cent by 2014. Never slow to criticise, Bank of England governor Mervyn King, says that the deficit cuts will be too timid.

Summing up his speech in Liverpool, Brown admitted that Britain was only just on the road to recovery – and conditions were “fragile”. He defended his governments over the last year by stating that they had rescued the banking system, saved up to half a million jobs and taken specific actions to help not business and home owners.

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Tags: Bank, Banking, British Economy, British Pound, Budget, Credit Crunch, Economics, Economy, Financial News, George Osborne, Gordon Brown, Money, pre-Budget report, Prime Minister, Recession, spending cuts, Tax, Trade Unions Council, TUC, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession

Recent research has shown that the UK’s unemployed and unemployable still appear to focus both geographically and socially on the country’s most deprived areas. Fears in government circles are that this trend is likely continue into a viscous circle, seriously threatening to undermine the government’s recent drive against poverty.

Data gathered since the recession was officially declared at the beginning of the year presents a worrying picture, indicating that the effects of unemployment is focusing on unskilled low-income workers in the Midlands and the north of England.

Any signs of to growth nationally in both manufacturing and services are only being shown in regions and socio-economic sectors of the UK population who fall into neither of these categories, a viscous circle that seems likely o continue for the foreseeable future. When looking at an overall picture, the most deprived areas of the UK continue to show disproportionately higher increases in unemployment, with 580 per cent increases in new claimants than from the same period last year.

Unemployment in the UK, currently sitting at around two and quarter million is forecasted to continue to rise for several months, and may even reach three million by the end of this year

Officials from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) are facing the situation with considerable concern with Brendan Barber, the TUC’s general secretary predicting that even when the economy begins to recover, it would take years before the unskilled or semi-skilled jobless would begin to feel any benefit.

Barber emphasized “Tackling unemployment must remain the government’s number one priority,” “Getting people back into work and into jobs with decent pay will not only benefit the more than two million people currently out of work but also the economy , by generating the spending boost it needs.”

The heaviest concentrations of deprivation tend to be in the north – particularly the north-east – although levels of unemployment in London remains substantial, although a closer look at the statistics show that the highest levels can be found in the traditional poorer districts of the capital Liverpool bears the unwelcome distinction of being the city with the highest average levels of unemployment and poverty.

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Tags: Employment, TUC, UK unemployment figures, Unemployment