http://www.yourbankingguide.co.uk/news Just another WordPress weblog Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:27:56 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The country was taken by surprise today by the decision of the Bank of England to make a dramatic cut in interest rates. The base rate was slashed by 1.5 percentage points to 3%. This is the largest single cut it has made since it was made independent from the Treasury ... http://www.yourbankingguide.co.uk/news/general/bank-of-england-springs-major-surprise/ Internet savings bank ING Direct have announced they are to take over operation of up to £3bn of UK savings accounts, with the acquisition of two Icelandic operations. Round 22,000 Heritable Bank accounts will be taken over, worth £580m, after the bank's parent company Landsbanki was placed into administration and accounts ... http://www.yourbankingguide.co.uk/news/bank-mergers-and-sales/ing-direct-to-take-over-heritable-kaupthing-edge-deposits/ Chancellor Alistair Darling has said that no UK customer of internet savings bank Icesave will lose out as a result of parent company's going into receivership. Although Icesave's depositors should be covered up to EU20,000 under the Icelandic government's compensation scheme, the cupboard is apparently bare and it was confirmed last ... http://www.yourbankingguide.co.uk/news/bank-failures/new-guarantee-for-icesave-uk-savers/ UK customers of online bank Icesave may have to claim compensation to recover their savings after parent bank Landsbanki was taken over by the Iceland government and placed into receivership. The bank is likely to be declared insolvent, and the board have already been dismissed. Icesave has suspended withdrawals and deposits, ... http://www.yourbankingguide.co.uk/news/bank-failures/icesave-insolvent/ With all the talk about protecting your savings under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, much has been made of not sharing your savings between accounts operating under the same licence. Unfortunately, details of which banks share a single authorisation haven't been readily available. We've now compiled this information into a ... http://www.yourbankingguide.co.uk/news/savings/bank-licences-list/ HBOS has confirmed that talks about a merger with / buyout by Lloyds TSB are at an advanced stage. The deal will create a huge £30bn player in the banking industry, and despite some concerns being raised about the competition aspects of creating such a giant, the government have said ... http://www.yourbankingguide.co.uk/news/bank-mergers-and-sales/lloyds-hbos-talks-confirmed/ Britain's 7th largest bank, Alliance & Leicester, is to be bought by Spanish bank Banco Santander, it has been announced. This is likely to mean an A&L merger with Abbey, which Santander bought in 2004. A&L has been subject to persistent rumours about it's exposure to bad debt in the current ... http://www.yourbankingguide.co.uk/news/general/alliance-and-leicester-to-be-sold/ Research has shown that, despite recent reductions in the Bank of England interest rate, banks are increasing the rates customers pay on overdrafts. Moneyfacts also reports that banks and building societies are cutting credit interest by more than the base rate cuts. They go on to claim that since the 0.25% base ... http://www.yourbankingguide.co.uk/news/general/overdraft-rates-increasing/ The Royal Bank of Scotland has written letters to thousands of small businesses informing them that their previously free bank accounts will now be charged at a flat rate of £10 a month. The bank, which is seeking £12bn in funds via a share issue, denies that the move is in ... http://www.yourbankingguide.co.uk/news/business-banking/rbs-small-business-charges/ Icelandic bank Icesave has launched a new fixed rate savings account paying what is surely a market-leading 7.01% on deposits. Although described as a savings account, it's really more of a bond, as a single deposit is made to open the account and this then can't be added to or withdrawn ... http://www.yourbankingguide.co.uk/news/savings/icesave-launches-7-per-cent-bond/