Experian records 18% rise in pre-tax profits

Global information services group Experian has posted a pre-tax profit of $318 million (£216m) for the first half of the year; up from $270 million (£183m) for the same period in 2007. First half revenues totalled $2.02 billion; up 13% compared to last year with revenues from UK and Ireland increasing 4% to $475 million (£322m).

Chairman John Peace said: “Experian performed well in the first half, delivering good revenue, profit and cash performances, even though market conditions were exceptionally challenging.”

Experian is expecting similar growth in the third quarter whilst stating it’s full year objective remains: “to broadly maintain margins and to grow profits, while continuing to position the business for long term success”.

Experian is the parent company of Credit Expert, which offers 30 days free access to your online credit report.

HSBC fails to pass rate cut on to customers

Despite the Bank of England cutting 1.5% off the base rate two weeks ago, HSBC has finally announced today that its standard variable rate (SVP) will be cut by just 0.81% bringing it down from 6.25% to 5.44%. First Direct, which is owned by HSBC, will also cut their SVP 0.81% bringing it from 6.5% down to 4.69%.

HSBC is the ONLY major bank not to pass on the full rate cut to their customers.

Andrew Montlake of Cobalt Capital said: “It is disappointing that HSBC has only decided to pass on just over half of the latest base rate cut, and taken an age to come to this decision as well. HSBC has some attractive deals at the moment, but this half-hearted move suggests that it is unlikely they will pass on future cuts.”

Shortly after the Bank of England announced its decision to cut the rate of borrowing, Halifax, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland confirmed they would pass the full cut on to their customers. All three are part of the Government’s £37 billion bail-out of the banking system.

UK Mortgage approvals fall by a whopping 64%

Approvals for house purchases in the UK are 64% lower than a year ago.

The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) have reported that major banks in the UK approved 21,086 mortgages, down from 58,564 in August last year.

Also, approvals for remortgaging a property were down 28% at 47,765.

Experts advise that falling house prices, stricter lending criteria and the uncertainty on stamp duty are the main reasons for the huge drop.

The BBA’s members account for roughly two thirds of the UK mortgage lending.

Is it safe to leave your savings in the bank?

With the biggest financial crisis in decades do we need to worry about our savings?

We are seeing financial institutions and companies collapsing nearly every day. One of the biggest investment banks Lehman Brothers collapsed last week, Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America, AIG has been given a $20bn loan to keep it solvent, and in the UK HBOS has been bought by Lloyds-TSB.

Alliance & Leicester is being taken over by Santander and the Cheshire and Derbyshire building societies are being taken over by Nationwide due to financial difficulties.

All this and the credit crunch are causing investors and savers to panic and to worry about how safe their money actually is.

If you have your cash in a UK bank or building society then the first £35,000 is protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). However, this is not as straight forward as it appears. Some banks have more than one “brand” and use the same banking authority. For example The Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest are both part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Birmingham Midshires comes under Bank of Scotland.

Post Office accounts are covered by this compensation system as accounts are run by Bank of Ireland and ING accounts are also covered.

The FSCS is largely untested as to date no UK bank has collapsed so it is not known how long it would take to make payments if it needed too.

If you have savings of more than £35,000 and want to keep it in a bank account, it would be wise to look to spreading your money through various banks ensuring you are aware of who is related to who.

1.2% rise in UK retail sales

The ONS (Office for National Statistics) have revealed High street sales rose by 1.2% in August which is 3.3% higher than a year ago. Analysts had predicted a 0.5% drop after several gloomy surveys.

Clothing and footwear sales led the increase followed by back to school shopping – this is despite reports that consumers would be cutting back because of the current economic gloom and doom.

Consumers are cutting back on food spending which fell slightly by 0.2%.

While the latest monthly figures are positive, sales in the three months up to August fell by 0.8% compared to the previous three months which is the largest dip since November 1990.

Analysts are saying that following the latest bad news from the banking and finance industry it is very likely that retail sales will drop over the next few months. Consumer confidence is running low due to rising inflation, loss of confidence in the banks and rising unemployment.

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