In an attempt to eliminate the risk of people getting into increased levels of debt over the Christmas period, Dundee City Council have blocked access to pay-day loan websites. The authorities IT department has been instructed to disable access to such websites on council computers.
A new scheme known as Funding for Lending, which is set to encourage banks to lend more to small businesses and individuals, is being launched today, with the hope that it will help turn around the recession. The scheme will see the Bank of England make more money available to financial institutions at below market rates, which they can in turn pass on to consumers. All progress of the money that is lent will then be monitored by the Bank, in order to ensure the effectiveness of the scheme.
Dominique Strauss-Khan, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) MD, has appealed to European leaders for a more encompassing and comprehensive solution to the European debt crisis. He has labelled previous attempts as bitty and not fit for purpose.
The FT has stated that whilst Mr Strauss-Khan is not concerned about the Euro he is concerned about calming concerns from investors and reinforcing finances.
As we mentioned earlier this week, the UK government is looking at ways of capping UK interest rates in relation to credit cards and loan companies. This is as a consequence of the ever-growing number of people falling into financial difficulties and unable to cover their interest rate charges let alone repay their capital. This has left literally millions of people in the UK dependent upon a small number of lenders, unable to refinance their loans due to their reduced credit rating and perceived financial risk.
The UK government, via the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, will undergo a major review of consumer credit facilities in the UK over the next few months. There is concern that many consumers in the UK have been locked into credit card and other credit arrangements due to the amount of capital debt they have built up and the relatively high interest rates charged by credit providers. So what is the UK government looking to do?
It is been revealed that Royal Bank of Scotland has this week sold on a £220 million loan book as the company continues to reduce assets held on its balance sheet. The company has confirmed on numerous occasions that around £258 billion of assets will eventually be released from the company's control and the ongoing sale of various loan books is part of this strategy.
The revelation that six major banks in the UK are coming together to create a £1.5 billion fund to assist the short to medium term funding issues of small operations in the UK has been welcomed across the board. However, there is speculation that the UK government is under pressure to become actively involved in the bailout funding although taxpayers will question why they should be stumping up significant finance to fund small business operations.
A consortium of six major British banks has today confirmed plans for a £1.5 billion business growth fund which will be targeted at small businesses. Companies with turnover between £10 million and £100 million have been neglected over the last few months with regards to cash flow and funding issues. As a consequence Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Standard Chartered are now placing pressure upon the government to become involved in the scheme.
Earlier today we covered a breaking story regarding the UK banking community and rumours that major banks in the UK are in talks about putting together a new business initiative which would assist cash flow for small to medium-size businesses in the UK. Initially it seemed as though the banking community was coming together for the good of the UK business arena but now it seems as though the banks will use this particular initiative as a means of extracting more funding from the government and UK taxpayers.
It is believed that the major banks in the UK are currently in talks about setting up a fund for UK small businesses to provide cash flow in the short to medium term. While details of the ongoing developments are fairly thin on the ground at the moment it is believed that each bank would contribute tens of millions of pounds to a centrally administered fund which would then effectively invest in a host of businesses in the UK.
