One fifth of Britons have not set foot inside their bank for at least two years, research suggests.

The OFT found that almost half of customers regularly go online to do their banking while only one in six people routinely visit their banks. One fifth of Britons have not set foot inside their bank for at least two years, research suggests.

Almost half (49%) of those surveyed by discount website MyVoucherCodes believe that bank branches will have vanished from the high street in 10 years’ time as internet banking continues to gain popularity.

Of the 19% consumers who had not visited their bank for two or more years, most said they had no need to do so, while a fifth said they had sent someone to their branch on their behalf.
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The UK economy needs major rebalancing to shift its focus away from London, according to deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.

In a speech in London’s ‘Square Mile’ financial district later, Mr Clegg will say there should be a restoration of spending powers to authorities in big cities across the country.

Without it, Britain will lose out on £41bn a year, he is set to claim.

“There can – and must – be more than one jewel in our crown.”

Mr Clegg will go on: “When you look at the UK’s economy, never forget that its highly-centralised design is as much the result of political choices as anything else. Continue reading →

Crown agency has long withheld, but which is to be released by government this week, shows that corporations such as TimberWest Forest Co., Encana Corp., and International Forest Products Ltd., have been selling carbon credits to the Pacific Carbon Trust for prices ranging from $9 to $19 a ton.

Environment First nations aim to capitalize on carbon in Great Bear Rainforest

Q&A How the Great Bear project is a leader in carbon offsets

B.C. to raise carbon tax, price of gasoline July 1
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Santander is reported to a target of U.K. regulators investigating bad investment advice to customers. Britain’s leading retail banks are still failing a quarter of their customers when advising them on investment products, financial regulators said Wednesday.

Despite years of investigations, billions of pounds in compensation for past scandals and repeat apologies from senior executives, the industry is still providing unsuitable advice or failing to make adequate background checks on customers in 26% of cases.

The Financial Services Authority has begun a formal investigation into one bank. It declined to comment on the identity of the bank but several media reports named Santander UK, part of Spain’s biggest banking company, as the target. Continue reading →

UK banks led European shares higher on Tuesday after Britain’s third biggest lender, Barclays , unveiled swingeing cost cuts and a strategic overhaul that fuelled expectations its peers would follow suit.

Shares in Barclays rose 8.6 percent to a two year-high as the bank’s new management said it would cut jobs and prune its investment bank to save 1.7 billion pounds ($2.66 billion) in annual costs.

Trading volume on the shares was more than three times its 90-day average, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Fellow domestic UK banks Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group gained 4.1 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively, on speculation they may follow in Barclays’ footsteps.
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HSBC and Aviva-backed research aims to highlight investments whose value is likely to decline in a low-carbon future

One of Syncrude Canada Ltd’s tailing ponds at a tar sands development in Alberta, Canada.

One of the UK’s leading universities will on Monday launch a new research programme aiming to help investors identify assets that could be left “stranded” by climate change, declining resources and the emergence of new green technologies. Continue reading →

The UK’s biggest pension-fund investors have called for company executives paid in shares to be obliged to hold onto them for at least 10 years; the most eye-catching of a new set of principles on boardroom pay published this morning.

The initiative, which has been put together by the National Association of Pension Funds, investor coalition Hermes Eos, and the pension funds for BT, the railways industry and universities, is aimed at encouraging company management to take a more long-term view.

Jennifer Walmsley, head of UK engagement at Hermes Eos, said: “I think the thing that distinguishes this set of principles is that they have come out of extensive discussions with company chairmen, with the people who chair remuneration committees, with executives themselves. It’s the first time pension funds and companies have come together on this.” Continue reading →

The UK could have around 1.6 million hydrogen-powered vehicles on the roads by 2030, according to a joint government and industry study.

The UKH2Mobility project has this week predicted that an established market for fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) could support annual sales of around 300,000 and reduce UK annual total vehicle CO2 emissions by three million tonnes in 20 years’ time.

Moreover, replacing diesel vehicles with FCEVs could also deliver between £100m and £200m worth of air quality benefits a year by the middle of the century. Continue reading →

EUR/USD

The EUR/USD currency pair is forming the first descending impulse, which may turn into a correction towards the level of 1.3330. I think today the price may consolidate between the levels of 1.3670 – 1.3610, then leave this consolidation channel downwards and continue the correction.

GBP/USD

The GBP/USD currency pair continues moving downwards. I think today the price may grow up a little bit to reach the level of 1.5865 and then move downwards to break the target at 1.5670. Later, in my opinion, the pair may return to the level of 1.5865. Continue reading →

While it has recently come to light that the flat-rate state pension reforms will force millions of workers to pay more in the form of National Insurance contributions, Prime Minister David Cameron came out to defend the plans as ‘fair’.

The new state pension system will replace the old one known for its complexity and various different levels, as well as a system of means-testing for the top-ups for the poorest pensioners. The new plan will give most people a state pension worth around £144 in todays money when they retire, without them having to opt into any secondary state pension or similar. Continue reading →