Spanish financial reform making 'major progress'

Wednesday, 01 April 2020 00:31

Spain looks like it is finally getting back on the right track, with a team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pronouncing that the country's financial reform has made "major progress". In a statement prior to the release of an official report, it was deemed that the "clean-up of undercapitalised banks has reached an...

Credit scores: Stat oil

Wednesday, 01 April 2020 00:31

VISITING the homes of poor Africans who want to borrow money helps Finca International, an American microfinance firm, weed out likely deadbeats. If an applicant has an indoor toilet, or household gifts from a relative working abroad, that is a good sign. Interviewing neighbours also helps, says Mike Gama-Lobo, who looks after Finca’s operations i

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A 1930s-style building boom could bring back growth

Wednesday, 01 April 2020 00:31

House building after the great depression revived the economy, tackled overcrowding and kept property prices stable for years

Eighty years ago, when Franklin D Roosevelt was waiting to move into the White House and the New Deal was still in the future, Britain was already recovering from the Great Depression. As the first country to come off the...

Turkish property continues fast ascent

Wednesday, 01 April 2020 00:31

The Turkish property market is continuing to grow at breakneck speed, with rising house prices and rents pleasing investors. Suleyman Akbay, managing director of Oceanwide Properties, explained: "In some regions, such as Fethiye for example, we are seeing a three bedroom apartment bought off-plan and completed five years ago now fetching 30...

South Africa’s currency: VIX inhaler no more

Wednesday, 01 April 2020 00:31

IT USED to be simple. When the world economy was in trouble, speculators sold the rand; when things looked brighter, they bought it. A unique blend of factors made South Africa’s currency a good gauge of how investors feel. Its GDP per person (at purchasing-power parity) is between China’s and Brazil’s, at around $11,000 a year. That puts it squar

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Off-set mortgages – an alternative to savings?

Wednesday, 01 April 2020 00:31

With savings interest rates pitiful, some homeowners are turning to off-set mortgages – which cut the cost of borrowing while keeping a nest egg

Pitiful interest rates on savings accounts are encouraging homebuyers to take out offset mortgages that allow those with sizeable pots of cash to cut the cost of their borrowing while keeping a nest egg...

Ratings agencies: Victim support

Wednesday, 01 April 2020 00:31
I forget. Is this guy with Moody’s or S&P?

NO ONE suggests that the big three credit-rating agencies, Standard & Poor’s (S&P), Moody’s and Fitch, did a good job evaluating mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis. Whether their shortcomings were also criminal is set to become clearer after this week’s decision by the Depar

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Bad bank releases distressed property

Wednesday, 01 April 2020 00:31

Spain's bad bank is releasing its first batch of distressed property. Also known as Sareb, the bank is now marketing real estate seized from troubled lenders in an attempt to cleanse their books of toxic assets, the Financial Times reported. Some 13,000 properties once owned by Bankia are to be put up for sale, which is hoped to make a dent in the...

Nemo found us a home loan, but its valuation was way out

Wednesday, 01 April 2020 00:31

They priced it at what we paid in 2007 despite £50,000-worth of improvements

We applied for a secured home improvements loan, which was accepted in principle by Nemo Loans. However, its surveyor then valued our home at £270,000, which means we get a worse interest rate. We paid £275,000 for the house in 2007 and have since spent £50,000 on im...

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