Loans

Around 15,000 savers with the UK arm of stricken Cypriot bank Laiki will have their deposits protected under British rules and will escape the Cyprus banking levy, it was announced today.

Payday lender MCO has been stripped of its credit licence after allowing over 7,000 people to become unwitting victims of fraud before chasing them for repayment.

£439 million was paid out to victims of payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling in January, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has revealed.

A leading MP has urged the regulator to investigate whether Bank of Ireland is guilty of mis-selling after it announced plans to hike 13,500 customers' base rate tracker mortgages, even though the base rate hasn't moved for four years.

Payday lenders have been ordered to play fair or risk being banned from the sector after a study found "explosive" evidence of irresponsible lending.

Consumer campaigners want a clampdown to clean up the "irresponsible" credit industry after finding nearly a quarter of people who take out expensive payday loans are using them to plug other debts.

The number of calls from people with payday loan problems to the National Debtline charity increased by 94% last year, new figures show.

Unscrupulous credit firms can now have their licences taken away immediately under new powers given to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Barclays has set aside a further £600 million for refunding customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI).

Households in England and Wales can get energy efficiency work done without having to pay the full cost upfront from today.