To stay on top of your finances, you must know about the market trends. Our weekly news digest will help you stay updated with the latest trends and developments of the financial services industry of the UK. ⭐News Snippets ⭐Latest Insights
Financial Worries Hit Five-year High According to IHS Markit
In September, concerns related to personal finances in British households grew to their highest level in nearly 6 years. According to the IHS Markit Household Finance Index in September – it plunged to 43.1 from 43.6 in August. Data suggests that it is because consumers are displaying reluctance to make big purchases and higher concerns about their job security. The survey also showed that consumer sentiment hit a four-month low. The strong performance of the UK labour market may not be helpful in chasing away the negative financial outlook. It may lead to weaker consumption trends when the economy of the nation is dependent on resilience.
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Number of Remortgage Loans Peaked to Their Highest Level Since 2017
In almost 2 years – in the month of August the homeowners snapped the highest number of remortgage loans. According to data revealed by the UK Finance, 31,627 remortgage loans were given out for the highest monthly total since November 2017. The total number of mortgages that were approved to home buyers dropped to 42,576 – which is a three-month low. Credit card borrowing grew by 3.3% and borrowing through personal loans also grew by 4.5% in August. House prices in the United Kingdom are not expected to grow due to Brexit related concerns. EY ITEM Club’s chief economic advisor Howard Archer said that the number of mortgage approvals in August was above the range of 38,000-40,000.
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Financial Conduct Authority Tells Firms to Think while Applying New Rules
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expects the financial services firms to think for themselves when implementing new accountability rules for employees rather than adopting the “tick box” mentality. The new rules are intended to ensure that the employees are fit and proper and it will apply to thousands of financial services employees from December. The Senior Manager Certification Regime (SMCR) is applied to banks and insurers and will be rolled out to the rest of the financial sector to improve the behaviour by making top management of these firms directly accountable for their actions. This will also help the regulators to punish the people who did the mistake whenever things go wrong.
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Credit Card Lending Growth Weakest Since 2015
In August, borrowings made by Britons using their credit cards was at the slowest annual rate in more than 4 years. Figures revealed from the UK Finance shows that consumer demand may decline. Credit card lending by major banks in the United Kingdom decelerated to an annual growth rate of 3.3% in August, which was 3.8% in the month of July. It is the slowest growth rate since February 2015. Also, the total number of mortgages approved that includes the refinancing of existing home loans and other lendings, which are secured on property, grew to 83,332 – highest since December 2016. Net mortgage lending jumped to its highest since March 2016 – to £3.646 billion from £2.666 billion.
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Bank Transfer Scams is on the Rise in the UK
According to the official UK data, the amount of money stolen by criminals through bank transfer scams has ascended to 40% in a year and is running at more than £1m a day. As per UK Finance, £616 million was stolen during the first 6 months of 2019 by scammers from UK bank customers. Out of that amount, £207.5 million was lost to scams in which people were deceived into authorising a payment to an account that was controlled by a fraudster. Such scams are also termed as Authorised Push Payment (APP) and consists of cases where criminals hack into email accounts of individuals or companies to trick them to send large sums of money to their accounts.
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