Finance Matters

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A shake-up of the retirement system will see the default retirement age scrapped in the UK from October 2011.
Under new Government proposals to be unveiled later today, employers will no longer have the legal right to terminate the employment of a 65-year-old.
Charities such as Age UK and activists have welcomed the new proposals as [...]

Metro Bank, which aims to make banking a “fun retail experience” opens in Holborn, central London today.
The bank is Britain’s first new high street lender for more than a century and it has pledged to return to “core banking values”.
The bank said it will employ more cashiers than the existing “big four” banks, while keeping [...]

UK house prices fell back in July, for the first time since February, as buyer demand remained weak.
According to Nationwide, the average value of a home declined by 0.5%, to £169,347, taking the annual rate of inflation down to 6.6%, compared with 8.7% in June.
The lender notes that the sizeable drop is due in part [...]

European equities markets were mostly lower Wednesday, led by declines in London as corporate quarterly results were disappointing and after the US Commerce Department said that durable goods orders fell 1 percent in June against an expected rise of 1 percent.
The FTSE 100 and the FTSE 250 each dropped 0.86 percent, to 5,319.68 and 10,019.7 [...]

Speaking in front of the House of Commons’ Treasury select committee, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has reiterated that interest rates will stay at the historic low of 0.5% for some time to come.
Mr King said: “It’s right to keep our foot firmly on the monetary accelerator”, adding he is more [...]