Archive for June, 2009

Derry society survives storm: Belfast Telegraph

 
While several building societies have been hit by crisis, the City of Derry Building Society insists it is safe and “comfortably in excess of the statutory minimum” of capital reserves. The society is not merely the smallest in Northern Ireland, it is the second smallest in the whole of the UK.
 
In recent weeks, six building [...]

Money Talks: Time to buy holiday insurance: Belfast Telegraph

 
Get insured
 
It is summer holiday time – which means it is also time to make sure you have your travel insurance sorted.
 
What a bore, you might think. But let’s consider some things that could go wrong.
 
Your child eats a chicken burger at dinner. The food has not been properly cooked. During the night they vomit [...]

Questions of Cash: Tiscali’s crossed lines: The Independent

 
Q. Two years ago, I bought a flat for my son. We wanted to use Tiscali as an internet provider, but could only do this if we had a BT line installed. BT installed the line and sent me the bills. Then, in March, BT wrote to me regretting that I was leaving them. My [...]

Pensions lose £14bn: Local Government Chronicle

Local government pension funds have lost in excess of £14bn — up to 30% of their value — as a result of the global financial crisis, an exclusive analysis conducted by LGC reveals.
Responses to freedom of information (FoI) requests submitted by The Independent — and made available to LGC — also show that local government [...]

NI health finances under pressure: Public Finance

 
Health bodies in Northern Ireland face spending pressures that risk pushing them into deficit, warns the Northern Ireland Comptroller and Auditor General, John Dowdall, in his annual report on the health and social care sector for last year.
 
Dowdall also warns that an over £1bn major capital redevelopment programme is “a significant test” for management. He [...]

Derry mortgage firm ‘for sale’: Belfast Telegraph

 
Speculation is growing about the future of one of Londonderry’s largest employers. Homeloan Management Ltd - HML - employs 444 staff in the city, administering mortgages on behalf of banks and building societies. The company specialises in administering loans in the troubled sub-prime mortgage sector.
 
HML is owned by the Skipton Building Society, which was recently [...]

Money Talks: Keep your cash safe: Belfast Telegraph

It was unthinkable that a bank could go broke - once.  The queues outside Northern Rock branches put a stop to those assumptions.
 
Since then the UK Government has rescued the Royal Bank of Scotland – including Ulster Bank – the Lloyds Group - including Halifax and Bank of Scotland - and Bradford & Bingley, as [...]

Dairy disaster: Co-operative News

It is usually the weakest businesses that fail in a recession. The downturn leaves them no more slack to muddle through.
And the unpleasant reality is that there are quite a few co-operative and other mutual businesses now feeling the pinch. If we are objective, we should not be surprised. Many of these are traditional businesses [...]

Questions of Cash: Read the small print!: The Independent

 
Q. My sister-in-law hired two cars through an internet car rental broker to travel from Turin airport to a chalet we stayed in over Christmas in France, prepaid by debit card. On the window of the car hire booth, a hand-written note advised that additives should be added to diesel fuel to prevent it from [...]

Disruption threatened to Derry council services: Belfast Telegraph

Derry City Council services have been threatened with industrial action by workers angry at restructuring proposals.  The council is to seek voluntary redundancies.
 
A confidential report presented to the council this week – written by the council’s chief executive and town clerk, Valerie Watts, and obtained by the Belfast Telegraph - details a radical shake-up of [...]