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☆ UK lender Nationwide reports record first-half member benefits
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Lawrence White | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Signage is seen outside of a Nationwide Building Society in London, Britain, May 22, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Nationwide Building Society (NBS.L) reported record benefits for its customers in the first half of its financial year, including a 344 million pound ($425.94 million) payout and 885 million pounds of incentives on products below market rates. The country's largest building society made 100 pound transfers into the current accounts of 3.4 million members in May, paying longstanding customers some of its profits from rising interest rates. The member-owned lender, which competes with Britain's big banks but does not have to prioritise shareholder returns, on Friday said profit for the six months to Sept. 30 rose to 989 million pounds from 969 million pounds a year earlier. ($1 = 0.8076 pounds)Reporting by Lawrence White Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Hannah McKay, Lawrence White, David Goodman Organizations: Building Society, REUTERS, Nationwide, Thomson Locations: London, Britain

☆ NatWest appoints former Nationwide CFO to its UK bank board
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A man walks past ATM machines at branch of the NatWest bank in Manchester, Britain September 21, 2017. Picture taken September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - NatWest (NWG.L) has appointed Mark Rennison, a former Nationwide Building Society Chief Financial Officer, to the board of its ring-fenced retail bank, the British lender said on Friday. Rennison will serve as a non-executive independent director on the board of NatWest Holdings Limited (NWH), which contains the lender's retail, commercial and wealth banking businesses. Rennison's appointment follows Graham Beale stepping down from the NWH board on Aug. 31, as NatWest announced in April.

Persons: Phil Noble, Mark Rennison, Rennison, Graham Beale, Lawrence White, David Evans Organizations: NatWest, REUTERS, Nationwide Building Society, NatWest Holdings Limited, Thomson Locations: Manchester, Britain

☆ Stingy UK bank saving rates may become a non-issue
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Aug 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Banks are keeping the fruits of higher interest rates for themselves. Between January 2022 and May 2023, the Bank of England hiked rates by 4.25 percentage points. The nine largest UK banks boosted the interest on easy-access savings accounts by 1.18 percentage points, the FCA found. The upshot is that they’ll have to bid more aggressively for funding in the future, for example by raising interest rates on savings accounts. Second-quarter results suggest it too is paying more for funding: interest expense almost doubled between the second half of 2022 and the first half of 2023.

Persons: juicier, BoE, George Hay, Streisand Neto Organizations: Reuters, Authority, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Bank of, FCA, Monday, Reuters Graphics Reuters, NatWest, Barclays ’, Lloyds, Banco Santander, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, European Central Bank, Bank of England, ECB, Spanish, Financial, HSBC, Santander UK, Nationwide Building Society, TSB Bank, Virgin Money, Bank, Thomson Locations: Britain, Spain, Bank of England, Italy, Hungary

☆ An outdoor balcony in London is on the market for $63,700, but the listing agent says it doesn't come with an apartment
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Mikhaila Friel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A lone balcony in South Kensington, London, is on the market for $63,700. The listing agent told Insider that the property is a reflection of London's housing market. But an apartment isn't included in that price, the property's listing agent told Insider. Jacobs told Insider that the agency has received around 220 inquiries about the balcony since it was put on the market three weeks ago. Meanwhile, the average London property increased by 0.8% from £521,561, or around $664,990, in May 2022 to £525,629, or around $670,176, in May 2023, the report added.

Persons: Glenn Jacobs, Jacobs, It's, Prince William, Kate Middleton's, Peter Dazeley, Robert Gardner Organizations: Service, Next, Evening, Google, Nationwide Building Society, Government Locations: South Kensington, London, Wall, Silicon, Stanhope, Next Lome, Harrods, Kensington

☆ Britain's banks told to justify low savings rates by end of August
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File PhotoLONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - Britain's banks and building societies have until the end of August to justify to regulators why some of their savings rates are low or face sanctions, the markets watchdog said on Monday, as Bank of England rates look set to rise to their highest since 2008. Smaller lenders offer higher savings rates than their bigger rivals, the FCA added. "Firms offering the lowest savings rates will be required to justify by the end of August how those rates offer fair value, according to the consumer duty that enters into force today," the FCA said in a statement. Banks and building societies offering the lowest rates have to complete a "fair value" assessment for the regulator by the end of August. The FCA will also review the timing of changes to savings rates each time BoE rates move, publish an analysis every six months of easy-access rates, analyse how savings products contribute to profitability and, by the end of March 2024, review how firms engage with customers.

Persons: Henry Nicholls, Banks, BoE, Huw Jones, Kevin Liffey Organizations: REUTERS, Bank of, Financial Conduct Authority, Lloyds, HSBC, NatWest, Santander UK, Barclays, Nationwide Building Society, TSB Bank, Virgin Money, Bank, FCA, Thomson Locations: London, Britain

☆ Stress test shows top 8 UK banks have enough capital, says Bank of England
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] A worker cleans a Barclays logo outside a bank branch in the financial district of London, Britain July 8, 2019. The test also measured how well the lenders would cope with a global rise in interest rates. "Major UK banks’ capital and liquidity positions remain robust and profitability has increased, which enables them both to improve their capital positions and to support their customers." The Bank said it had decided to maintain its counter-cyclical capital buffer (CCyB) for banks unchanged. Given its successful completion of the stress test, Virgin Money said it anticipated resuming its share buyback programme during this year, sending its shares 3% higher in early trading.

Persons: Simon Dawson, BoE, Virgin Money, Huw Jones, Sinead Cruise, Mark Potter Organizations: Barclays, REUTERS, Bank of England, Lloyds, HSBC, NatWest, Santander UK, Standard Chartered, Nationwide Building Society, Virgin Money, The Bank, Bank, Virgin, Britain's, Nationwide, Standard, Silicon Valley Bank, Thomson Locations: London, Britain, United States, Silicon Valley, U.S

☆ UK mortgage rates rise again, turning screw on homeowners and buyers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Andy Bruce | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - Major British lenders on Thursday announced another increase in mortgage rates offered via brokers, pushing many products above the 6% mark in painful news for many homeowners and potential buyers. Barclays (BARC.L), NatWest (NWG.L) and Virgin Money (VMUK.L) informed brokers that rates on many mortgage offerings will rise again on Friday, according to emails seen by Reuters. "As mortgage rates continue to rise, the property market is being pushed further towards a cliff edge and there's no real help in sight," mortgage broker Lewis Shaw of Shaw Financial Services said. Two-year swap rates - a key determinant of mortgage borrowing costs - have soared by 0.83 percentage points over the course of June. Mortgage rates of 6% represent the same financial burden from repayments as they did in the late 1980s, even though mortgage rates were around 13% then, according to housing market analyst Neal Hudson, founder of consultancy BuiltPlace.

Persons: Lewis Shaw, Andrew Goodwin, Liz Truss, Neal Hudson, Andy Bruce, William Schomberg, Sachin Ravikumar Organizations: Bank of England, Barclays, NatWest, Virgin, Reuters, Nationwide Building Society, Shaw Financial Services, Oxford, Oxford Economics, Thomson

LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) - The pound was set for its biggest weekly rise in six months on Friday after days of economic data and central bank rate decisions, and ahead of the Bank of England's monetary policy meeting next week. It was up 1.72% since Monday, the biggest weekly increase since early December. "Tuesday's labour market data led Bank rate expectations to spend much of that evening flirting with a terminal (peak) rate closer to 6%," said Nicholas Rees, FX market analyst at Monex Europe. Reuters GraphicsHe said U.S. economic data released on Thursday, which showed weekly jobless claims were higher than expected last week, also helped boost sterling by weighing on the dollar. Sterling rose to its highest level against the yen in eight years following the BoJ's announcement, at 180.83 yen to the pound.

Persons: Nicholas Rees, Rees, Sterling, BoE, they're, Ben Laidler, Farouq Suleiman, Harry Robertson, Angus MacSwan Organizations: Bank, Analysts, Bank of England, FX, Monex, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, ECB, U.S . Federal, Nationwide Building Society, Thomson Locations: Monex Europe, lockstep, Britain

☆ UK's Nationwide readies another increase in fixed mortgage rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) - Nationwide Building Society (NBS.L), one of Britain's largest mortgage lenders, will raise fixed rates on mortgages offered via brokers by up to 0.7 percentage points on Friday, it said in an email to intermediaries. "This includes rates across our New Business, Switcher, Additional Borrowing and Existing Customer Moving Home ranges," the email said. The quoted rate offered by Nationwide on a 2-year fix for new borrowers, available for a 999-pound ($1,267) fee, will rise on Friday to 5.69% across most loan-to-value ratios, from 5.24% currently. Earlier this week, HSBC (HSBA.L) also announced a shake-up in its mortgage line, with higher rates taking hold on Thursday. ($1 = 0.7885 pounds)Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar and Kylie MacLellanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Andy Bruce, Sachin Ravikumar, Kylie MacLellan Organizations: Building Society, New, Nationwide, Bank of England, HSBC, Thomson

☆ UK housing market strains grow as mortgage rates creep higher
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Andy Bruce | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File PhotoLONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - Mortgage rates in Britain rose again on Friday as economists warned that rising borrowing costs would put the housing market under renewed strain. Late on Thursday, HSBC temporarily withdrew mortgage products for customers applying via brokers. HSBC said its mortgage products and interest rates remained available for existing customers. Rival lender Nationwide Building Society also raised its mortgage rates on Friday, having already revised them up twice since last month's Bank of England interest rate hike. On Friday, consultancy Oxford Economics predicted a 10% peak-to-trough drop in house prices, based on the BoE raising interest rates to 5%.

Persons: Luke MacGregor, Moneyfacts, BoE, Andrew Goodwin, we're, David Milliken, Frances Kerry, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Bank of England, HSBC, Society, Bank of, Oxford Economics, Thomson Locations: London, Britain, Bank of England, British

☆ UK housing market improves but slowdown seen as rates rise-RICS
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Suban Abdulla | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

RICS' house price balance, which measures the difference between the percentage of surveyors seeing rises and falls in house prices, increased to -30 last month from -39 in April. However, analysts are forecasting another slowdown for the housing market with markets largely expecting the BoE's Bank Rate to peak at 5.5% later this year, up from 4.5% now. Britain's housing market staged a recovery earlier this year after former prime minister Liz Truss's "mini-budget" caused turmoil in financial markets in September and sent the cost of fixed mortgage rates sharply higher to above 6%. Britain's biggest mortgage lender, Halifax, on Wednesday said house prices dropped by 1.0% year-on-year in May, the first annual decline since 2012. Some mortgage lenders, including Halifax and Nationwide Building Society have ramped up their fixed mortgage rates in response to the rise in borrowing costs in financial markets.

Persons: RICS, Tarrant Parsons, Liz Truss's, BoE, Suban Abdulla, William Schomberg Organizations: Bank of England, Royal Institution, Chartered Surveyors, Nationwide, Nationwide Building Society, Thomson Locations: April's, Halifax

☆ Major UK lender Halifax pushes up mortgage rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Andy Bruce | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, June 6 (Reuters) - Britain's largest mortgage provider Halifax will ramp up interest rates for new home loans on Wednesday, according to pricing provided to brokers, the latest major lender to do so in response to soaring funding costs. The decision by Halifax, part of Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L), comes after rivals like Nationwide Building Society announced hefty increases to mortgage rates. Two-year deals rather than five-year deals are currently popular among borrowers who hope that rates will fall again soon. "This latest increase by the biggest mortgage lender in the UK will spook buyers and sellers alike not to mention those due to re-mortgage in the next few months," Lewis Shaw from broker Shaw Financial Services said. Property website Rightmove said on Tuesday this was the first week since January that rates have averaged 5% or more across all LTV brackets.

Persons: Liz Truss, Lewis Shaw, Rightmove, Andy Bruce, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: Bank of England, Halifax, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, Shaw Financial Services, Thomson Locations: Halifax

☆ Romance Scams Are Booming — Especially on Facebook and Instagram
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Eve Upton-Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Americans lost $1.3 billion to romance scams last year — an 164% increase from 2019 — and $3.3 billion in total since the start of the pandemic. According to the FTC report, the most popular way scammers reached out to their victims last year was through Instagram (29%) and Facebook (28%). And as these schemes get more widespread and more complex, the number of people falling for romance scams keeps growing. Confluence of crypto and romanceIf loneliness was the reason "why" for the soaring number of romance scams, then crypto is the "how." 1 payment method for romance scams last year was cryptocurrency.

LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - Britain's Nationwide Building Society has restricted customers' ability to buy cryptocurrencies, the lender said in an email to its members on Thursday. Nationwide said it will not allow payments to crypto exchanges using credit cards and will limit adult current accounts to 5,000 pounds ($5,995) of purchases per day. The building society said the move was in response to regulatory concern over the risks of buying digital currencies. Cryptocurrency prices surged in 2020 and 2021 before sharp declines last year as rising interest rates prompted investors to ditch riskier assets. In November, as part of measures to protect customers from scams, Santander (SAN.MC) introduced limits on the amount customers could transfer to cryptocurrency exchanges and said it would soon block UK customers from sending any real-time payments to cryptocurrency exchanges.

☆ UK property asking prices show weakest February gain on record: Rightmove
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Suban Abdulla | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Average asking prices for British residential property rose by just 14 pounds ($17) in February from January, the smallest rise on record for a month which normally sees a big seasonal increase, data from property website Rightmove showed on Monday. Tim Bannister, Rightmove's director of property science, said asking prices usually rose at this time of the year, which marks the start of the spring selling season. Compared with a year earlier, asking prices were still 3.9% higher. Asking prices remaining flat on the month, rather than falling, could be a positive sign for the housing market, suggesting a softer landing than many analysts have forecast, Rightmove said. Since December 2021, British interest rates have risen steeply.

☆ UK house prices fall in January for fourth month in a row - Nationwide
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( David Milliken | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

January's decline in house prices was the fourth drop in a row and twice the size expected in a Reuters poll of economists, adding to signs that the market is slowing rapidly. Interest rates have risen sharply since December 2021 and there was major disruption to the mortgage market in late September and October following former prime minister Liz Truss's "mini budget", which set market interest rates soaring. Nationwide forecast in December that house prices would fall 5% in 2023. House prices in January were 1.1% higher than a year earlier, Nationwide said, the smallest year-on-year increase since June 2020 and down from a 2.8% increase in December. British house prices soared by more than a quarter during the COVID-19 pandemic, boosted by ultra-low interest rates, tax incentives and broader demand for more living space during lockdown, which was seen in other Western countries too.

☆ UK first-time home-buyers' mortgage costs highest since 2008: Nationwide
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Mortgage costs for first-time home-buyers in Britain have risen to their highest since 2008, reflecting a surge in interest rates over the past year, Nationwide Building Society said on Friday. The Bank of England started to raise interest rates in December 2021 - when they were just 0.1% - and they reached 3.5% last month, the fastest tightening in decades. Financial market turmoil caused by Liz Truss's September mini-budget had exacerbated the rise in mortgage rates, Nationwide said. "While wider financial market conditions had stabilised by the end of 2022, with market interest rates falling back towards the levels prevailing before the mini-budget, mortgage rates are taking longer to normalise," Nationwide economist Andrew Harvey said. House price to earnings ratios are down slightly from a year ago, reflecting falling house prices and faster wage growth.

☆ UK's Nationwide forecasts 5% house price fall for 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( David Milliken | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

British house prices rose by more than a quarter in the two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as people sought more space to live and took advantage of low borrowing costs and tax incentives. However, prices have now started to fall, with Nationwide reporting three consecutive monthly drops in average house prices for the first time since 2008. Financial market turmoil in late September and early October added to the slowdown, as many lenders temporarily withdrew mortgage offers until market interest rates stabilised. "Financial market conditions have now settled with long-term interest rates returning to the levels prevailing before the mini-Budget. However, mortgage rates are taking longer to normalise and activity levels in the housing market have shown few signs of recovery," Nationwide's Gardner said.

☆ Britain's Nationwide warns of rising bad loans as outlook sours
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Nationwide Building Society said bad loans are likely to rise as pressure on household finances squeezes its customers, even as it reported profits ticking up from rising interest rates. Nationwide's results come a day after Britain's budget forecasting office warned the country faces a record hit to living standards this year, as surging inflation erodes income. Britain's second biggest provider of home loans said profit for the six months rose 13% to 969 million pounds from the same period a year ago, but said bad loans had risen and would continue to do so. Nationwide said credit impairment charges rose to 108 million pounds from a net release of 34 million pounds set aside for potential loan losses in the first half of last year. ($1 = 0.8401 pounds)Reporting by Lawrence White; Editing by Mark Potter and Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Europe's banks face 'direct hit' to profits from house price slide
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Europe's banks risk a significant hit to their profits if house prices across the region begin to slide, regulators and ratings agencies have warned. While banks' robust balance sheets mean declining house prices are unlikely to pose a systemic risk, the scale of lenders' exposure to the property sector means they could face a hit to earnings, S&P Global Ratings said on Tuesday. "Rising credit risk in mortgage portfolios will lead to a commensurate rise in bank provisioning [for defaults], and a direct hit to their earnings prospects," the agency said. Banks have "substantially" increased their exposure to mortgages in recent years, and are seeing some early signs of asset quality deterioration, the EBA said. A senior executive at Britain's Nationwide Building Society earlier this month told lawmakers the mortgage lender's worst-case scenario was for house prices to fall by 30% next year, though its central forecast was for an 8% drop.

Charles Roe, director of mortgages for banking industry group UK Finance, told lawmakers that lenders were reintroducing mortgage products at lower prices. However, Ray Boulger, senior mortgage technical manager at broker John Charcol, said he was disappointed at the slow progress lenders were making. PRICE FALLS FORECASTAverage two-year and five-year fixed mortgage rates have fallen around 0.2 percentage points from their recent peak, but still remain above 6%, Moneyfacts data shows. "It was 2008 the last time mortgage rates were at 6%, there's a whole cadre of people who have never experienced this...and are very worried," said Joanna Elson, Chief Executive, The Money Advice Trust. The lender has started to reduce fixed mortgage rates for existing customers, while rates for new customers were under review, he added.

☆ UK house prices fall after 'mini-budget' turmoil - Nationwide
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( David Milliken | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] An estate agent's board is displayed outside a house on a terraced street in Blackburn, Britain, January 17, 2022. REUTERS/Phil NobleLONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - British house prices recorded their first monthly fall since July 2021 last month, mortgage lender Nationwide said on Tuesday, after the market was hit by turmoil during Prime Minister Liz Truss's short-lived premiership. Nationwide Building Society said house prices dropped 0.9% in October after being unchanged in September, while they are 7.2% higher than a year earlier, slowing from September's annual increase of 9.5%. "The market has undoubtedly been impacted by the turmoil following the mini-Budget, which led to a sharp rise in market interest rates," Nationwide chief economist Robert Gardner said. The monthly fall in house prices was the largest since June 2020, when the market was crimped by initial COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, while the annual rise was the weakest since April 2021.

☆ Global rates, retail banking included in Bank of England stress test
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A general view of the Bank of England (BoE) building, the BoE confirmed to raise interest rates to 1.75%, in London, Britain, August 4, 2022. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska/File PhotoLONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Banks' ability to cope with rising global interest rates and the resilience of their retail divisions to market shocks will be under scrutiny in this year's "stress test", the Bank of England said on Monday. It will test "ring-fenced" retail arms of banks on a standalone basis for the first time, the BoE said. There will be a separate stress test of misconduct costs. The test has no pass or fail mark but a bespoke "hurdle" for each bank.

☆ Bank of Ireland returns to full private ownership
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A man passes a logo for the Bank of Ireland as he leaves the bank in Dublin May 28, 2007. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor (IRELAND)DUBLIN, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Bank of Ireland (BIRG.I) became the first Irish lender to return to full private ownership since the aftermath of the 2008-09 global financial crisis after the government said on Friday that it had sold the last of its shares. Bank of Ireland, the country's largest bank by assets, was the only lender to avoid majority state ownership and the only one on which the government has made a profit on its investment so far. It earned approximately 841 million euros since it began the gradual sale of the state's residual 13.9% shareholding in Bank of Ireland in August 2021. "The gradual disposal of the state's investment in Bank of Ireland into a rising market has been successful in delivering on this objective for our citizens."

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