"Thank you for reminding me about Christie's," one of the world's richest monarchs, the Emir of Qatar, said casually on the eve of his state visit to Britain, which began yesterday with a spectacular horse-drawn carriage procession to Windsor Castle.
It is easy to forget about something as trivial as buying one of the world's top auction houses when you have an investment portfolio as big as that of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. The Qatari monarch, who owns one third of the world's natural gas reserves, is five times richer than the Queen. In recent times he has been using considerable quantities of that wealth to buy up trophy assets in London. Christie's – if he does decide to buy it – will be added to Harrods, the US embassy building in Grosvenor Square and the capital's most expensive property development, One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge. The Emir acquired the Chelsea Barracks site for a record-breaking price and also owns considerable chunks of Barclays, Sainsburys and Canary Wharf.
But if Sheikh Hamad is the most aggressive and adventurous buyer of British property, he is far from alone. Arabs, primarily from the Gulf states, have tripled their share of investment in UK commercial property in the past five years. Last year they spent £1.48 bn – representing 16 per cent of all foreign investment in the sector.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Event to strengthen ties between lebanon and UK banking communities
In recent years, Lebanon has enjoyed positive transformation in its banking industry, coming through the recession relatively unscathed and now focused on reclaiming its position as the key Middle Eastern banking hub. A tighter regulatory regime together with a growing number of banks has led to the Lebanese banking industry leading the fast growth Lebanese economy. With 66 independent banks and a population of just over 4 million people, the Banking sector in Lebanon currently employs 20,000 individuals in 780 branches and manages the equivalent of $90bn in assets nationwide1.
To mark this fast growth transformation, the Arab Bankers Association is hosting an event in on November 10th to showcase the Lebanese banking community and its strategic expansion into Europe, MENA and beyond. Eminent speakers from both Lebanon and the UK will discuss how Lebanon's financial strength and future expansion goals highlight the investment potential available in Lebanon's national banking industry, and present an opportunity to UK banks for reciprocal investment and strengthened ties.
Speakers include:
· Riad Salame, Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon
· Dr. Joseph Torbey, chairman of the Association of Banks in Lebanon
· Ussama Mikdashi, President of the Lebanons Banking Control Commission
· Angela Knight CBE, Chief Executive, British Bankers' Association
· The Rt. Hon. Lord David Howell of Guildford, Minister of State (Foreign & Commonwealth Office)
· Lady Olga Maitland, CEO, Money Transfer International
George Kanaan, CEO of the Arab Bankers Association, commented:
"The Lebanese banking sector has created a blueprint showing how sound regulation, strong leadership and structure can withstand global financial instability. In our position, as a mouth piece for Middle East banking sector, we are eager to highlight this and offer the Lebanese banking sector an opportunity to engage with London, the financial centre of the world. With so many high profile and influential speakers, the day promises to be of great interest and an ideal platform for the UK and Lebanese banking sectors to create closer ties. We are extremely excited about the event and firmly believe it is a strong platform for the Lebanese Banking sector to showcase its financial strength and future expansion goals, whilst highlighting the investment potential available in Lebanon's national banking industry."
To mark this fast growth transformation, the Arab Bankers Association is hosting an event in on November 10th to showcase the Lebanese banking community and its strategic expansion into Europe, MENA and beyond. Eminent speakers from both Lebanon and the UK will discuss how Lebanon's financial strength and future expansion goals highlight the investment potential available in Lebanon's national banking industry, and present an opportunity to UK banks for reciprocal investment and strengthened ties.
Speakers include:
· Riad Salame, Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon
· Dr. Joseph Torbey, chairman of the Association of Banks in Lebanon
· Ussama Mikdashi, President of the Lebanons Banking Control Commission
· Angela Knight CBE, Chief Executive, British Bankers' Association
· The Rt. Hon. Lord David Howell of Guildford, Minister of State (Foreign & Commonwealth Office)
· Lady Olga Maitland, CEO, Money Transfer International
George Kanaan, CEO of the Arab Bankers Association, commented:
"The Lebanese banking sector has created a blueprint showing how sound regulation, strong leadership and structure can withstand global financial instability. In our position, as a mouth piece for Middle East banking sector, we are eager to highlight this and offer the Lebanese banking sector an opportunity to engage with London, the financial centre of the world. With so many high profile and influential speakers, the day promises to be of great interest and an ideal platform for the UK and Lebanese banking sectors to create closer ties. We are extremely excited about the event and firmly believe it is a strong platform for the Lebanese Banking sector to showcase its financial strength and future expansion goals, whilst highlighting the investment potential available in Lebanon's national banking industry."
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Penalty for graduates who pay off student loans early
Graduates who wish to avoid being burdened with decades of debt could be hit with mortgage-style redemption penalties if they pay off their student loan early.
The fees, likely to run to thousands of pounds, would also be levied on parents who opted to pay upfront for the cost of putting their child through university to save them from being saddled with long-term debt.
In last week's spending review, George Osborne, the Chancellor, confirmed that university fees would rise from their current rate of £3,290 from start of the 2012 academic year. Any new upper limit has yet to be set, but Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, confirmed the Government would reject the recommendation of the recent review of university financing that the cap on university fees be lifted altogether.
Ministers are understood to be looking at a new cap of about £7,000-a-year. This would be funded by loans with tiered rates of interest depending on how much the graduate earns in future.
A redemption penalty would stop the better-off avoiding higher interest rates by paying off a loan early – and would be seen as a sop to Liberal Democrats who have been criticised over the tuition fees rise after signing a pre-election pledge to scrap them altogether.
Lord Browne, the former head of BP who led the review, had suggested that no redemption penalty be imposed.
But Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, confirmed that ministers were examining ways to make the new system more "progressive".
He said: "High-earning graduates will be paying more later in their life, but in a progressive way relating to their ability to pay.
"There is an issue about people who go on to very high-earning jobs and who therefore pay off relatively quickly and we do have to think about how to find a way by which they make some sort of contribution towards low-earning graduates.
"It's a tricky technical problem but we're working on it.
Mr Cable confirmed that ministers had already decided not to proceed with Lord Browne's suggestion that universities be permitted to charge unlimited amounts, with a levy on any fee above £6,000 to be paid to the Government to spend on bursaries and grants.
"I don't think there's any prospect of having unlimited fees – that simply isn't going to arise," he told Sky News.
"We're looking at this very carefully, what Browne had to say – but I think that particular approach was one we're not going to pursue."
His words echoed those of fellow Liberal Democrat Mr Clegg, who told The Andrew Marr Show: "I am uneasy about the idea that you, in theory, have unlimited fees. So we are looking at something which would be more restrained."
The Lib Dem leadership is braced for a sizeable rebellion by the party's backbenchers when the plans come before Parliament.
Simon Hughes, the deputy Lib Dem leader, suggested that he would be prepared to back a rebellion if the Government applied the penalty to less wealthy students.
He told Channel 4 News: "The internal debate in the party has not finished and the debate within Government has not finished
Payday loans bad credit is provided at competitive rates
The salaried class of the UK people can make use of payday loans bad credit when they need urgent money. The loan arranger site Payday Loans Bad Credit UK can search for you the cash at affordable rate and such a loan will save you many pounds on interest payments.
As far as your past mistakes of late payments etc are concerned, do not worry as the loan providers do not make any credit checks on the applicants. You can borrow an amount without worrying over your past faults of late payments, payment defaults and CCJs. Thus, these are ideal loans for the purpose of borrowing of the cash without credit checks and for any emergency purposes.
Payday loans bad credit can fetch you cash ranging from £100 to £1500 for two weeks. Your next payday is fixed as the date of repayment of the borrowed cash. You are not asked to pledge anything for collateral as these are unsecured loans for the employed people.
However, you should be aware of high APR on payday loans. While your bad credit history is never a concern, high interest payments should be worrying you. But the online loan arranger site can help you in finding out competitive offers so that you can save good amount of interest on payday. You should search the loan market extensively in order to find out suitable offers of payday loans bad credit so that you are at ease in repaying the loan.
To get more information on payday loans bad credit, you can visit www.paydayloansbadcredit.co.uk
As far as your past mistakes of late payments etc are concerned, do not worry as the loan providers do not make any credit checks on the applicants. You can borrow an amount without worrying over your past faults of late payments, payment defaults and CCJs. Thus, these are ideal loans for the purpose of borrowing of the cash without credit checks and for any emergency purposes.
Payday loans bad credit can fetch you cash ranging from £100 to £1500 for two weeks. Your next payday is fixed as the date of repayment of the borrowed cash. You are not asked to pledge anything for collateral as these are unsecured loans for the employed people.
However, you should be aware of high APR on payday loans. While your bad credit history is never a concern, high interest payments should be worrying you. But the online loan arranger site can help you in finding out competitive offers so that you can save good amount of interest on payday. You should search the loan market extensively in order to find out suitable offers of payday loans bad credit so that you are at ease in repaying the loan.
To get more information on payday loans bad credit, you can visit www.paydayloansbadcredit.co.uk
Monday, October 25, 2010
Families need savings to ease pain of spending cuts
As the Chancellor swings his axe, households must assess their spending to cope with the squeeze on their finances, writes Jeremy Gates
IT’S TIME to start saving again. That was the message this week when the Chancellor ushered in a “sober decade” ahead with £81bn of spending cuts outlined in his Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).
Millions of households face a steep drop in income – and savings painstakingly collected by older people are already being rescued.
While the bank of mum and dad gives sons and daughters a deposit for their first home, the Financial Times says some grandparents are offering to pay the child benefit which better-off families will lose from 2013 – worth £88 per month for the first child, and £57 for each subsequent child.
As the FT explains: “Up to £3,000 per year can be passed on to grandchildren without becoming liable to inheritance tax, although larger regular payments are permitted if they are made from income.”
With vouchers for Child Trust Funds set to end in January, older people are also investing in monthly investment plans, savings accounts and pension schemes for grandchildren.
By so doing, they may cut the potential inheritance tax payable on their estates when they die.
But how will the great majority of households, who can’t rely on money handed down the generations, cope with the squeeze?
Households on £50,000 a year could lose about £10,000 in the next four years.
Kevin Mountford, head of banking at finance website moneysupermarket.com, says: “The CSR will have a huge impact on consumers’ finances; purse strings across the country will inevitably have to be tightened.
“The threat of unemployment will weigh heavily on the minds of many families, working in both public and private sectors.
“While it might be too late to take out specific insurance to cover unemployment, consumers can plan to reduce the impact of a sudden loss of earnings. If you have any debts, look at ways you can pay them off or at least reduce your outgoings by consolidating existing debts.
“Consumers should also build a rainy day fund – ideally three months’ worth of earnings, but anyone worried about job security should consider increasing this amount to six months to tide them over.”
However, with the Bank base rate probably stuck at 0.5% for months to come, too much money is left in low-paying accounts.
Always check the return your money earns and know when bonus interest on new accounts is taken off.
Next, look closely at mortgages, a major outlay for most families.
As lenders chase new borrowers in a shrinking market, fixed rate and tracker mortgages are getting cheaper and fixing for five years could head off rate rises which must come eventually.
Chelsea BS has cut its three-year fix to just 3.49% and applicants with a 25% deposit get free valuation, with assisted legal fees for remortgagers. The product fee is only £495.
Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at broker John Charcol, says: “If you hold at least 25% of the equity in a home, and you are paying more than 3% on your existing mortgage, consider remortgaging.
“With many lenders willing to pay valuation and legal costs, the only stumbling block in switching is the arrangement fee, ranging from nothing to nearly £2,000.
“If you have 40% equity in your home, a tracker costs 1.99% (for two years) at NatWest and 2.19% (for life) at HSBC. With 30% equity, Woolwich’s lifetime tracker costs 2.58%.
“If you are remortgaging, and might at some stage need to move for a new job, avoid a mortgage which imposes a heavy early repayment charge.”
“Some lenders allow these mortgages to be portable, subject to meeting the lender’s criteria which might be more onerous than when you first took the mortgage out. It is generally better not to have this penalty lurking over your head.”
Next, pensions: Mr Osborne’s confirmation of the rise in the state retirement age for men and women to 66 by 2020 makes it more important than ever to build a private pension, not least to cover that gap for many workers between retirement and when their state pension kicks in.
Tom McPhail, head of pension research at financial advisor Hargreaves Lansdown, says: “We knew retirement ages needed to rise, but this still won’t be a popular move. To retire earlier, you’ll need to boost private savings.”
McPhail reckons a 55-year-old worker needs to save another £40 to £45 per month for 10 years to have an extra £6,600 at age 65.
Younger workers, in their mid-forties, might need to save an extra £20 to £30 per month in their pension pot to make up the loss.
Private pension savings, however, are fairly inflexible, because they can only be accessed at age 55. People unlucky enough to lose their jobs might want to get their money earlier than that.
Catherine Penney, vice president at Barclays Stockbrokers, says: “The rise in retirement age reinforces the need for each of us to make provisions for retirement.
“By making regular contributions to personal pensions, including self-invested ones, and ISAs which offer a tax-free wrapper and are usually easily accessible, confident investors can build up savings to supplement their core pensions and provide them with increased flexibility to move to part-time working in the run-up to retirement or possibly to stop work altogether before they reach 66.”
Andy Gadd, head of research at Lighthouse Group, a national network of financial advisors, says: “In simple terms this means individuals in their late 50s have only eight or 10 years to prepare for a delay in receiving their state pension.
“Meanwhile, younger individuals should prepare for the likelihood of getting a state pension even later than 66 in future government proposals.”
In the next few weeks, of course, consumers ought to carry out their own household CSR with websites available to keep prices of standard products as low as possible.
Areas of obvious potential saving, says moneysupermarket.com, include: credit cards (saving £258); car insurance (£237); home insurance (£127); energy bills (£300-plus); and personal loans (possibly £600 if all loans are rolled into one with Nationwide BS at 7.6% APR).
INFORMATION: Chelsea BS (0800 341 341 and www.thechelsea.co.uk/mortgages); Hargreaves Lansdown (0117 980 9926 and www.h-l.co.uk); John Charcol (0845 034 2100
IT’S TIME to start saving again. That was the message this week when the Chancellor ushered in a “sober decade” ahead with £81bn of spending cuts outlined in his Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).
Millions of households face a steep drop in income – and savings painstakingly collected by older people are already being rescued.
While the bank of mum and dad gives sons and daughters a deposit for their first home, the Financial Times says some grandparents are offering to pay the child benefit which better-off families will lose from 2013 – worth £88 per month for the first child, and £57 for each subsequent child.
As the FT explains: “Up to £3,000 per year can be passed on to grandchildren without becoming liable to inheritance tax, although larger regular payments are permitted if they are made from income.”
With vouchers for Child Trust Funds set to end in January, older people are also investing in monthly investment plans, savings accounts and pension schemes for grandchildren.
By so doing, they may cut the potential inheritance tax payable on their estates when they die.
But how will the great majority of households, who can’t rely on money handed down the generations, cope with the squeeze?
Households on £50,000 a year could lose about £10,000 in the next four years.
Kevin Mountford, head of banking at finance website moneysupermarket.com, says: “The CSR will have a huge impact on consumers’ finances; purse strings across the country will inevitably have to be tightened.
“The threat of unemployment will weigh heavily on the minds of many families, working in both public and private sectors.
“While it might be too late to take out specific insurance to cover unemployment, consumers can plan to reduce the impact of a sudden loss of earnings. If you have any debts, look at ways you can pay them off or at least reduce your outgoings by consolidating existing debts.
“Consumers should also build a rainy day fund – ideally three months’ worth of earnings, but anyone worried about job security should consider increasing this amount to six months to tide them over.”
However, with the Bank base rate probably stuck at 0.5% for months to come, too much money is left in low-paying accounts.
Always check the return your money earns and know when bonus interest on new accounts is taken off.
Next, look closely at mortgages, a major outlay for most families.
As lenders chase new borrowers in a shrinking market, fixed rate and tracker mortgages are getting cheaper and fixing for five years could head off rate rises which must come eventually.
Chelsea BS has cut its three-year fix to just 3.49% and applicants with a 25% deposit get free valuation, with assisted legal fees for remortgagers. The product fee is only £495.
Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at broker John Charcol, says: “If you hold at least 25% of the equity in a home, and you are paying more than 3% on your existing mortgage, consider remortgaging.
“With many lenders willing to pay valuation and legal costs, the only stumbling block in switching is the arrangement fee, ranging from nothing to nearly £2,000.
“If you have 40% equity in your home, a tracker costs 1.99% (for two years) at NatWest and 2.19% (for life) at HSBC. With 30% equity, Woolwich’s lifetime tracker costs 2.58%.
“If you are remortgaging, and might at some stage need to move for a new job, avoid a mortgage which imposes a heavy early repayment charge.”
“Some lenders allow these mortgages to be portable, subject to meeting the lender’s criteria which might be more onerous than when you first took the mortgage out. It is generally better not to have this penalty lurking over your head.”
Next, pensions: Mr Osborne’s confirmation of the rise in the state retirement age for men and women to 66 by 2020 makes it more important than ever to build a private pension, not least to cover that gap for many workers between retirement and when their state pension kicks in.
Tom McPhail, head of pension research at financial advisor Hargreaves Lansdown, says: “We knew retirement ages needed to rise, but this still won’t be a popular move. To retire earlier, you’ll need to boost private savings.”
McPhail reckons a 55-year-old worker needs to save another £40 to £45 per month for 10 years to have an extra £6,600 at age 65.
Younger workers, in their mid-forties, might need to save an extra £20 to £30 per month in their pension pot to make up the loss.
Private pension savings, however, are fairly inflexible, because they can only be accessed at age 55. People unlucky enough to lose their jobs might want to get their money earlier than that.
Catherine Penney, vice president at Barclays Stockbrokers, says: “The rise in retirement age reinforces the need for each of us to make provisions for retirement.
“By making regular contributions to personal pensions, including self-invested ones, and ISAs which offer a tax-free wrapper and are usually easily accessible, confident investors can build up savings to supplement their core pensions and provide them with increased flexibility to move to part-time working in the run-up to retirement or possibly to stop work altogether before they reach 66.”
Andy Gadd, head of research at Lighthouse Group, a national network of financial advisors, says: “In simple terms this means individuals in their late 50s have only eight or 10 years to prepare for a delay in receiving their state pension.
“Meanwhile, younger individuals should prepare for the likelihood of getting a state pension even later than 66 in future government proposals.”
In the next few weeks, of course, consumers ought to carry out their own household CSR with websites available to keep prices of standard products as low as possible.
Areas of obvious potential saving, says moneysupermarket.com, include: credit cards (saving £258); car insurance (£237); home insurance (£127); energy bills (£300-plus); and personal loans (possibly £600 if all loans are rolled into one with Nationwide BS at 7.6% APR).
INFORMATION: Chelsea BS (0800 341 341 and www.thechelsea.co.uk/mortgages); Hargreaves Lansdown (0117 980 9926 and www.h-l.co.uk); John Charcol (0845 034 2100
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