Financial news

• UK banks will have to ensure access to cash within three miles, ministers say

  17-08-2023 23:30
  
  Treasury hints at concessions on guarantee but banks will face fines for falling below minimum service levelHigh street banks will have to ensure customers can find access to cash within three miles of their local communities, and those falling below the minimum service level will face a fine, the government has confirmed.After the closure of thousands of local branches in recent years, and the switch to digital payment methods, ministers are looking to banks to help protect vulnerable groups an
  
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• Rise in UK company profits puts Bank’s stance on prices under scrutiny

  17-08-2023 20:33
  
  Figures give fuel to claims that profiteering has played a big part in the UK’s high levels of inflationBritish companies have boosted their profitability, according to the latest official figures, insulating themselves against cost pressures and fuelling claims that profiteering has played a big part in the UK’s inflation story.In a week when Joe Biden said he was only winning the war against inflation in the US because corporate profits were declining, figures released on Thursday
  
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• US graduates: how do you feel about the payment pause on student loans ending soon?

  17-08-2023 17:15
  
  We’d like to hear from US borrowers with outstanding student loans how having to make repayments again this fall will be affecting their livesWith student loan interest and repayments kicking back in on 1 September, we’re keen to hear from US graduates how this will affect them.We’d like to hear from borrowers how the payment pause on federal student loans has affected their finances and lives, and how having to resume repayments will impact their households. Continue reading..
  
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• Profits soar at UK firm set up to help government chase unpaid debts

  17-08-2023 16:10
  
  Success of Integrated Debt Services, a brainchild of Con-Lib coalition, comes amid scrutiny of sectorA company created to help the government chase unpaid fines, loans and council tax saw its profits rocket by 132% last year.Integrated Debt Services (IDS), which trades as Indesser and whose parent company is the credit information firm Equifax, saw its pre-tax profits rise to £18.1m in 2022, sharply up on 2021’s figure of £7.8m. Revenues nearly doubled to £60m. Continue r
  
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• The Tories crow that inflation is falling, but Britain's profiteering crisis is worse than ever | Sharon Graham

  17-08-2023 15:02
  
  Workers’ wages, and what they can afford to buy with them, are being squeezed by corporate wreckers pursuing runaway profits, quite literally at our expenseSharon Graham is the general secretary of UniteTriumphant claims in some quarters that the cost of living crisis is coming to an end as inflation falls to 6.8% are, quite frankly, a load of toffee. Working people have been left scratching their heads as to how this supposed good news for the economy will impact them – there is cer
  
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• Britney Spears' net worth: How much could star lose in divorce

  17-08-2023 14:45 via express.co.uk
  
  Britney Spears has amassed millions during her career, from chart-topping album success to sell-out world tours.
  
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• Pensioner 'in tears' as he faced losing family home to tripled mortgage payments

  17-08-2023 14:12 via express.co.uk
  
  Philip Jenner from Gloucester was left in a state of dread when his mortgage repayments more than tripled from £533 to £1,666 a month.
  
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• Is the era of zero interest rates gone for good?

  17-08-2023 13:30
  
  Cost of borrowing will probably stay elevated for foreseeable future, making it harder for governments to service debtsWhat a difference two years make. In 2021, when interest rates were near zero in the US and the UK and slightly negative in the eurozone and Japan, the consensus was that they would remain low indefinitely. Astonishingly, as recently as January 2022, investors put the probability of rates in the US, eurozone and the UK rising above 4% within five years at only 12%, 4%, and 7%, r
  
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• Mortgage interest rates hell could spell 'gloomy picture' of house market 'stagnation'

  17-08-2023 13:27 via express.co.uk
  
  EXCLUSIVE: Experts fear that huge surges in the price of monthly mortgage payments could hit the housing market at both ends.
  
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• Man who made fortune predicting 2008 world financial crash bets £1.2bn it'll happen again

  17-08-2023 13:19 via express.co.uk
  
  Michael Burry's firm has bought large positions which will reap rewards if the Nasdaq and S&P 500 stock indices go down.
  
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• ‘Absolutely brutal’: Average new mortgage payments set to rise £288 a month

  17-08-2023 11:26 via express.co.uk
  
  People renewing their mortgage over the next 12 months could be £3,456 worse off on average each year.
  
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• Helen Skelton’s honesty about giving up work for her kids was radical | Emma Brockes

  17-08-2023 11:00
  
  In parenting there is little room for ambivalence, making it hard to get to the truth of anyone’s family lifeOn Sunday, the Radio 5 Live presenter Helen Skelton announced she was hosting her last show for the time being, in order to step back from work to spend more time with her children. That phrase, with its ring of politicians getting in front of a scandal, is rarely used publicly with any sincerity and it was arresting to see it in this context. “I’m not all right about it
  
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• Man asks if 1965 Premium Bond would have been better spent in savings account

  17-08-2023 10:50 via express.co.uk
  
  He claimed the Premium Bonds' monetary value would have vastly increased if he had put it in a conventional savings account.
  
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• State pension warning as triple lock could be ditched for ‘less generous’ alternative

  17-08-2023 10:20 via express.co.uk
  
  EXCLUSIVE: Ministers may soon have to revise the triple lock policy as state pension payments become increasingly unaffordable.
  
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• Shawbrook Bank offers market-leading 4.43% interest rate on easy access ISA

  17-08-2023 09:37 via express.co.uk
  
  Savers are being urged to "keep an eye on the ISA market" as interest rates fluctuate, and Shawbrook is currently topping the table.
  
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• Eurostar derailed my efforts to book a bike on to one of its trains

  17-08-2023 08:00
  
  I’ve been trying for four months to book a place on board but it is making it impossiblePre-pandemic, Eurostar used to permit a small number of fully-assembled bikes on board. In January, it finally resumed the service on “selected trains” from London to Brussels. I have been trying, since then, to book bikes for our summer holiday. It’s not possible online, and, when I’ve emailed and called, promised responses never came. There has been a huge increase in bike tour
  
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• State pension set for second inflation-busting rise - unless Rishi Sunak blocks it

  17-08-2023 07:00 via express.co.uk
  
  Life goes in cycles. State pensioners were rightly furious when Rishi Sunak suspended the state pension triple lock last year, just as inflation rocketed. Now they're on course for the second inflation-busting hike in a row. Unless Sunak steps in again.
  
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• Can’t pay and they really do take it away: what happens when the bailiffs come knocking | Aditya Chakrabortty

  17-08-2023 07:00
  
  First, Sharron’s car was impounded. But what followed shows how the poor are punished for their povertyA distress signal came last week in the form of a tweet, terse and plain. “Guys pls help me,” it read and tagged me in, along with a few others. You may know its sender. Over the past year, Sharron Spice has been writing occasionally for the Guardian’s heat or eat diaries, detailing what it’s like to be poor in a rich country, to endure a cost of living crisis not
  
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• UK’s best savings account pays 6.1% - yet this cash Isa may now beat it

  17-08-2023 01:01 via express.co.uk
  
  Today's best buy fixed-rate savings bond from Recognise Bank pays interest of 6.1 percent for two years, beating every cash Isa. Yet for a growing band of savers, cash Isas now offer a higher return. How come?
  
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