The number of people looking for QROPS advice has increased by 40% since the mini budget earlier this week, according to pensions provider, pensionoptions.org.
Between April 6, 2006 and April 5, 2008, more than 7000 pensions with a collective fund value of £0.5 billion were transferred from a UK based pension scheme into a QROPS. This [...]
Why Guarantor Loans
Guarantor loans are increasing in popularity and yet whilst they were a popular feature of the mortgage market (particularly in the 1980’s with rapidly rising house prices) they were almost unknown in the loans industry until about 18 months ago.
One of the reasons for this surge in popularity in [...]
The British Loan Brokers Association (BLBA) has announced the ’soft’ launch of their new trade body for brokers.
BLBA has been set up with the intention of representing brokers interests at a grass roots level and aims to deliver more income opportunities for every member firm. There will be a new chairman every year, voted for [...]
Leonard Battifarano has been apppointed chief exectutive of BrokersLink, one of the largest independent insurance brokers in the world.
News of his appointment was made public at the BrokersLink annual conference in Portugal
Battifarano will be responsible for the international development and management of the network. He joins from Chartis International where he was as [...]
Users of Google Maps in the UK can search for property websites and estate agents directly from the maps link on Google search.
Properties that are available are highlighted by a circle that will link straight to the relevant agents website. This new feature means that potential renters and buyers can see what is available by [...]
Scottish wealth management firm Brooks Macdonald, who recently opened an office in Edinburgh, have made two new appointments.
The firm, which opened its Scottish office in September after recruiting a team from Adam & Company, the private banking division of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has hired Scott Lothian from Adam Investment Management and Richard Allison [...]
Guarantor loans provider anytypeofloan has reported a 40% increase in new enquires since the World Cup began.
Usually, loan enquiries reduce during the period of a major event such as the Olympics or World Cup but the reality this time is somewhat different as enquiries have actually increased for anytypeofloan.co.uk since the start of this major [...]
We have had confirmation that three new secured loan lenders will be launching in July / August this year.
We are not yet able to release details as we are under a press embargo but two of the lender principle’s are familiar names within the industry and the third lender is a relative newcomer although they [...]
Insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor has announced that it is to expand its offshore operations by opening a new office in the Cayman Islands and partnering with an Isle of Man-based consultancy.
The Manchester based firm believe that it will allow them to provide insolvency and forensic accounting services for offshore clients of its [...]
Research by finance provider Syscap suggest the average VAT deferral request agreed by HMRC under the Time to Pay scheme is £18,840 and that in some cases (particularly those above £19k) they are refusing requests for deferrals on larger VAT bills, research suggests. This compares to an average refusal amount of [...]
The deadline for the sale of 318 RBS branches passed on Monday 14th June 2010 with only one bidder remaining; The spanish bank Santander.
RBS are looking to do a deal for between £1.5billion and £2billion with Santander likely to offer £1.7billion to secure the purchase. If the deal does go ahead then it further strengthens [...]
The OFT (The Office of Fair Trading) has ruled that capping payday and doorstep lenders would reduce competition in the market and says that this type of lending worked, “reasonably well”.
The review looked at home credit, pawnbroking, payday loans and the rent-to-buy market.
One of the more recent entrants to the high-cost credit [...]
North Wales based IFA Buckles has purchased Wiltshire based practice, Heather Moor & Edgecomb Ltd in a deal that was financed by the parent company of Buckles, Sanlam UK.
The fee to purchase the company has not been disclosed however both parties are said to be delighted at the deal.
Heather Moor & Edgecomb Ltd was established [...]
The recent announcement by the Bank of England revealed that interest rates will remain at 0.5% for the month of June. Statistics have revealed that, whilst the base rates have remained the same for the 15th straight month, the average APR rates on personal loans have been on the increase.
Research carried out by moneysupermarket.com revealed [...]
The European debt crisis is unveiling similar signs of the subprime mortgage meltdown in the United States on 2007, with pressure and disruption in the financial system becoming more prominent as the problem gets worst by the day, according to a review by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
The BIS review [...]
Coronation Street’s Kevin Webster, AKA actor Michael Le Vell, who owned 25% of Altrincham-based financial claims firm Ratio Money, is owed £736,000 according to a report by administrators Leonard Curtis.
The firm collapsed after its overheads doubled to £1m despite putting in another £250,000 of capital to keep the firm afloat. It made a pre-tax [...]
Brooklands pensions has made public their concerns over ceratin QROPS providers.
QROPS are relatively new and relatively complicated; this has allowed product providers and salesmen to deliberately obscure the true facts or just to give false information because they don’t understand their product.
This article covers the frequently told lies, and uncovers the truth.
New Zealand & 100% [...]
cashpension.net have launched their pension loans service for UK pension holders and expats. apensionloan.com spokesman said: “Our pension loans are quite flexible and allow borrowers to take between 10% and 50% of the value of their pension fund in cash. The beauty about this scheme is that depending on certain restrictions you will not have [...]
Guarantor loans company Any Type of Loan have completed their move to larger premises due to bigger than expected demand for their loan services making their previous office inadequate for their ongoing needs.
Their new offices in Wirral offer free customer parking and training facilities which will be used to increase the skills, knowledge and efficiency [...]
QROPS provider, apensionloan.com have opened a new office in Prague that is dedicated to providing QROPS advice to expats and UK pension holders living abroad. QROPS stands for Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme.
On the 6th of April 2006, HMRC introduced new legislation on transferring frozen pension funds from the UK to overseas QROPS solutions. This change means [...]
Cattles, the beleagured financial services group and owner of Welcome Finance has appointed Paul Felton-Smith as finance director following the resignation of James Drummond Smith.
Felton Smith has worked in the financial services sector for over 25 years and will join Cattles on 7 June, subject to the approval of the Financial Services Authority. His most [...]
Park Group, the Birkenhead based firm founded by Peter Johnson in 1967 has announced a 5% rise in group sales.
Originally started as a hamper company, its main focus is now on corporate vouchers and Christmas savings clubs
One of its big successes is the Love2shop high street gift voucher which is accepted by more than 85 [...]
Well known financial services entrepreneur Paul Naden has temporarily shelved plans to buyout Churchwood Financial, the Stockport based debt management business.
Churchwood is owned by Mike Noblett who owns 70% of the company whilst Naden has 13% which he purchased last year. Naden’s plan was to buyout Noblett’s majority shareholding via a private equity deal, however [...]
Dunfermline Building Society’s head office in Fife is to become the regional administrative centre for Nationwide, its UK based parent company.
Nationwide acquired a majority stake in the Dunfermline following its collapse in March last year and its intentions are to close the head offices of Cheshire and Derbyshire building societies [...]
The Barclays subsidiary lending arm, Woolwich, has teamed up with Bovis, the UK housebuilder to offer 1st time buyers a new mortgage product.
This new product is available up to a loan to value of 90% but only if the buyers are purchasing a new Bovis home. It also comes with 3 years accident, sickness and [...]
Cheshire Building Society has today confirmed that it is to close its Macclesfield headquarters with the los of almost 250 jobs.
The Cheshire is owned by Swindon based Nationwide Building Society and the HQ closure is in addition to five other local branches that Nationwide is due to shut. A spokesman for Nationwide said that the [...]
Financial Services group Bibby has announced a pre-tax profit of £19m and company growth of 24 per cent for 2009.
The company also reported that its client base had increased to 4,738, which is a 16 per cent rise on 2008, while its market share in the UK increased to 8.1 per cent [...]
Keen traveller Rafi Neumann has set up TravelSpec, which he claims is unique as it gives unbiased information on any scheduled flight anywhere in the world.
Users can regsiter for free and can input any destination they want, and if there isn’t a flight matching their requirements then the site will suggest alternative routes to nearby [...]
Consumer finance company Egg has launched a new VISA card as part of its credit card range.
This new product offers new and existing customers a standard annual percentage rate of 17.9 per cent as well as cashback of ten per cent on purchases from over 1,500 associated online retailers. Details of those retailers [...]
Brooks Macdonald, the fee-based adviser and asset management firm has agreed a £4m deal to purchase structured product and property group Braemar.
The 2.25p per share offer, which has been agreed by the Braemar board, is at a 63.6% premium to Braemar’s closing price last night.
Its Securities operation designs, promotes and manages [...]
