Watchdog the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has ordered mortgage lenders that charge high exit fees to cut them, with borrowers who were stung for charges after switching loans in line for possible compensation.
Refunds of up to £200 could be ordered for millions of mortgage customers who have paid £295 for ‘admin charges’ that are actually […]

Around 800 people are about to be laid off from CD and DVD retailer Music Zone as administrators Deloitte have failed to find a buyer willing to make a UK investment into the stricken chain.  
Music Zone - founded from a Manchester market stall in 1984 by Russ Grainger - had been struggling for some time against stiff competition from the […]

The Government is to step up its campaign against the loan sharks who blight many of the UK’s poorer communities by granting extra funding to teams that specialise in taking on the criminals.
Far from being areas of saving and investment, many deprived neighbourhoods are effectively denied legitimate access to credit and resort to Mafia-style outfits […]

Flat profits have been reported at Premiership leaders Manchester United, as the cost of exiting the Champions League early cost the club revenue and made a dent in the Glazer family’s UK investment.
Operating profit for the year to 30th June 2006 was £49.7m, compared to £46.1m in the previous accounting period, which did only cover 11 […]

People who lost their pensions after their employers went bust have received pension advice from the European Court of Justice to the effect that their call for compensation may soon be heeded.
The European Court of Justice said that under the European Union Insolvency Directive the UK’s Government pension protection system is “inadequate”.
Although the ruling did not […]

The traditional North-South divide in the housing market - Britons’ most popular saving and investment - has widened again after three years during which it started to close up.
Halifax, the country’s biggest mortgage lender, said that the gap had now become wider than it was 10 years ago, with the average property price in the South 1.59 times […]

Members of work pension schemes have been warned about the dangers of accepting inducements to transfer out of their pension plans.
The Pensions Regulator is sending out the pension advice that it is worried about staff being offered inducements to move from a final salary scheme to a money purchase one. Employees who accept the offer […]

The Government has rejected a proposal from Royal Mail management that 20% of its shares in the company be distributed to employees as part of its UK investment in the operation.
Allan Leighton, chairman of Royal Mail, tried for several months to persuade the Government to accept the scheme - worth about £5,000 to each worker - but […]