Friday 30 November 2007





An online calculator that computes consumers’ insolvency rating and projects debt solutions in seconds has been launched.


The tool, developed by the comparison site IVA.com, has been designed to give the consumer a clear idea of what to expect if they decide to go down the Debt Management Plan (DMP), IVA or Bankruptcy (BR) route as a way out of the red.
The debt breakdown is divided by debt type and is presented as a pie chart that clearly states in percentages the different debt types of the individual.

The debt solution projector shows how long it would take the borrower to become debt free for each possible debt solution of an IVA, DMP,or BR is shown by.

Terry Balfour, director of IVA.com, said: “For instance, if someone has a total debt of £16,000 with a disposable income of £200 a month, the report shows that it would take them six years to pay off the debt if they apply for a DMP with interest with their creditors. If no action is taken then the debt extrapolator chart projects how the debt would grow or reduce should the borrower keep repaying what they owe”.


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Thursday 29 November 2007





The Northern Rock bank has said it favours an offer from the Virgin consortium as the preferred way out of its deep financial problems.


But if that and any other offers were to fail, then declaring the bank insolvent and bringing in administrators would be a strong alternative solution.

Somewhat like the Railtrack and Metronet insolvencies, putting a bank into administration creates some unusual and distinctly challenging problems.

A threat to people's hard earned savings is far more serious than just making it hard for them to get into work in the morning.

Bank failures are mercifully rare and the tendency is for the financial community to gather round and organize a rescue, so formal insolvency is even more unusual.

The last major case was BCCI back in 1992, where a sprawling international patchwork of banking operations went into liquidation.

It remains there even now, reflecting how long it can take to unravel a complex banking problem, especially if fraud is involved.

Security and trustworthiness

The task with a bank insolvency is deceptively simple at first

Assets must first be protected, then their value needs to be maximised.

Liabilities need to be identified and then minimised.

At the same time, staff issues need to be dealt with and the expectations of both depositors and borrowers must be managed.

The reality of course is very different.

Security issues are paramount, especially in these days of such acute sensitivity to the protection of the confidential data held by such institutions.


The greatest Day 1 priority is to secure all data and all vulnerable assets.

There are three enemies for the administrator in this area: outside hackers and thieves; systemic incompetence in a suddenly chaotic situation; and, most dangerous, disaffected insiders.

IT security experts need to be brought in at the very start to address these threats.

Hard and apparently disruptive to normality as it might be, a suitably revised version of the BCCI approach may be necessary.

Then it was thought safest to assess staff individually for their trustworthiness and commitment to helping the liquidators.

In these modern days, and if fraud is not a key issue, this can be modified.

But it would be essential to deny staff remote access to computer systems and databases until they were accepted back into the fold.


Dark corners

The administrators would need to hire in banking expertise to assist them and to oversee, from an independent standpoint, the activities of the bank's retained staff.

The first vital area for these outside experts would be to carry out a thorough review of the bank's loan book and other financial exposures.

In the case of a former building society, for example, this might seem relatively straight forward.

But with the modern fashion for complex financial engineering through swaps, credit default instruments, futures and options, who knows what they might find lurking in the dark corners of any bank's Treasury function.

Once the loan book and other risks have been assessed, action must be taken to protect their value.

There will be flaws in security documentation to be rectified where possible.

Human nature dictates suggests that borrowers or counterparties will try to take advantage of the situation to negotiate down their liabilities or refuse to pay anything at all.

A firm approach will be necessary.


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Wednesday 28 November 2007





The Scottish Government's insolvency service is expected to unveil a radical restructuring of the government's approach to handing out insolvency work later this week. Larger accountancy firms with good geographic coverage are expected to be the main beneficiaries, while smaller firms and sole practitioners are expected to lose out.

Scotland's insolvency practitioners will gather at Gleneagles Hotel this Thursday for the annual Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland insolvency conference. The keynote speech is to be delivered by Gillian Thompson, head of the government's Accountant in Bankruptcy agency, which recently relocated from Edinburgh to Kilwinning.

Under pressure from European procurement rules and from a Scottish Government which is under financial pressure following the recent financial settlement from Westminster, Thompson is widely expected to unveil a cost-cutting procurement exercise. CAs who have traditionally handled sequestration work under contract from the agency will have to become used to a totally different approach to securing work from the agency, with the contract system that has been in place since 1993 being phased out.

Thompson will tell the accountants that the government now expects the profession to operate within a system based on three-year contracts and crucially with a much-reduced number of agents (insolvency practitioners). The total number could be slashed from the current informal group of approximately 100 to fewer than 10.

In the last year for which figures are available (2005/06), there were 4730 sequestrations for which the Accountant in Bankruptcy was appointed interim trustee. Of these the agency went on to administer 1392 internally while 3338 were dealt with by external suppliers including CAs. And sequestrations continue to rise sharply on the back of massive consumer debt.

The reforms mean that CA firms of all sizes will now need to await an invitation to tender if they want to receive any work from Thompson's agency.

Ian Mitchell, a partner in the Dundee office of Henderson Loggie, said: "Things are certainly going to be very different, although because of our wide experience of professional advice to the public sector we should have no difficulties in completing a tender document for a government agency such as the Accountant in Bankruptcy." Henderson Loggie currently has three agents recognised by the AiB. The current system is based on personal appointments by AiB of an agent to work in his or her own sheriffdom. In Henderson Loggie's case this means Lothian and Borders, Tayside, Central and Fife and Grampian, Highland and Islands.

The firm's Insolvency department spends 25% of its time on AiB work which translates to some 150 cases a year.

"We would certainly view the proposed tender as a business development opportunity for us," said Mitchell. "The signals are that a place in the winners' ring following the tendering process would lead to a greater critical mass of work, although with narrower margins."

The new procurement process is expected to represent worse news for sole practitioners who do agency work for the AiB.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "As agents, insolvency practitioners are aware that, as an executive agency of the Scottish Government, Accountant in Bankruptcy is required to comply with European procurement rules and have been engaged for some time now in dialogue on reforms to the current arrangements.

"As a public body, AiB also has a duty to ensure the most efficient and best use of public funds; particularly in view of the current financial settlement."


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Tuesday 27 November 2007





Families are stretched to the limit of their borrowing capacity, with personal debt having almost doubled since the turn of the century, an independent report warns today.

The average adult now owes £33,000 through mortgages, credit cards and personal loans compared with £17,000 in 2000, the international accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers claims.


Many households are likely to have to use their credit cards to meet rising mortages


As borrowers default on their debts in growing numbers and banks and building societies try to recoup their losses, annual fees on credit cards will become standard, the report says. These would equate to up to £30 a year.

Despite the prospect of annual charges and higher interest rates on monthly bills, many people are likely to have to use their credit cards more often to meet the rising cost of mortgage repayments.

The report comes as families prepare for Christmas, when the average adult takes on more debt than at any other time of the year.

Further pressure will be applied next year when more than a million people see their discounted fixed-rate mortgage deals end, the report predicts. They face an average rise of £140 on their monthly repayments.

The report delivers a bleak warning about the level of consumer borrowing in Britain, which now stands at more than £1.3 trillion.

It says many households have already stretched their borrowing capacity, and predicts a sharp rise in the number of people being declared insolvent.

This will put even more pressure on credit card providers who are facing "lost profits" of around £4 billion from people defaulting on their loans.

The warning comes at a time of concern over the state of the British economy following the Northern Rock crisis, the global credit crunch and signs of a slowdown in the housing market.

A partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Richard Thompson, said: "There are tough times ahead for consumers and credit card companies. Banks are continuing to take action in response to the rise in consumer debt by tightening their credit acceptance policies.

"Many consumers will find it increasingly difficult to obtain credit in the run-up to Christmas.

"After many years of rapid growth the consumer credit market has well and truly stalled. We believe that consumer credit borrowing levels have reached a natural ceiling."

The report calculates the overall £33,000 debt figure by adding up the debt of every person - including their outstanding mortgage loans - and averaging it out across the entire adult population.

Separate reports today predict that rising living costs will further squeeze families.

Home owners have already been hit by five interest rates increases since August last year, while food prices are rising at the highest rate for more than a decade.

A report from the Confederation of British Industry warns today that every household will have to pay at least £100 a year more for energy within the next two decades to tackle climate change.

Meanwhile, there are warnings that each British household could face paying £250 a year more in tax because of over borrowing by the Treasury, according to calculations by the accountancy firm Grant Thornton.

Roger Bootle, the managing director of Capital Economics and economic adviser to Deloitte, said: "The part of the economy on which so much else will turn is consumer spending. So far it has held up remarkably well but the omens are not encouraging. The pressure of debt on disposable incomes is intense and the savings ratio is very low. At the moment, real incomes are still rising and the labour market is strong but the position is precarious.

"Without the large increase in borrowing of the last few years by both the public and private sectors the economy would have already slid towards recession.

"As the credit supply now tightens, will it prove that this borrowing splurge merely postponed the evil day? The answer will turn, I believe, on the related issues of what happens to the housing market and what happens to unemployment."

Figures released earlier this month showed the number of people filing for bankruptcy rose by two per cent in the past three months to more than 15,000 as the global credit crunch started to hit.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders also warned recently that the number of homes repossessed during 2008 looked likely to reach levels last seen during the 1990s house price crash.

In an interview recorded during his visit to Uganda for the Commonwealth summit the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said he blamed the current mood of economic uncertainty at the door of events in the United States sub-prime market.

He said: "I think everybody knows that what has happened in America. It is already having an effect on the housing market and the question is what will be the effect on the rest of the world."

• House prices have fallen for the second month in a row as higher interest rates and the fall-out from the US credit crunch take their toll on the property market.

The average home in England and Wales is now worth £175,000 and property values have dropped by 0.2 per cent, according to Hometrack, the housing information group.

The group is the third firm to record monthly house price falls after Rightmove, the property website, said the average cost of a home fell by 0.7 per cent in the four weeks to Nov 10 and Halifax said it dropped by 0.5 per cent in October. This month's fall means the annual rate of house price growth is at it lowest since July last year - at 3.6 per cent, down from 4.4 per cent the previous month.

Hometrack said prices fell across a fifth of postcodes, with half of these falls in southern England, where demand has slowed most.

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Monday 26 November 2007




Kerry Katona and her husband Mark Croft are facing a cash crisis, according to a report in the News of the World today.

Although the former pop star has earned £1.5 million in the past year from book and magazine deals, Iceland TV ads and promotional appearances, she is believed to have spent at least that amount.

Katona has learned that she must pay a £200,000 tax bill, as well as debts to other creditors. She has now brought in professional insolvency advisers to help her to dodge bankruptcy.

A source told the newspaper: "Yes, Kerry does okay but she's not bringing in footballer wages and now the debts are becoming unmanageable. It's got to the stage where she dreads the postman coming with another bill.

"She had to get these insolvency experts in because she simply can't keep up with her payments."

The report claims that OK! magazine recently cut the payment for Katona's column from £3,000 a week to £2,000. Following a series of revelations about her private life, bosses are said to have instructed Kerry to quickly change her image if she wanted to keep her job.

Supermarket chain Iceland also gave Kerry a scare by cutting her appearances in their ads and using her as a voice over, however she is now back on screen in the latest commercials.

An insider added: "Kerry was frantic with worry that she was being dumped by Iceland. It would cost her thousands. So she was hugely relieved when she was asked back."


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Sunday 25 November 2007




Debt advisers accuse bank of being too quick to repossessPhillip Inman The Guardian Monday November 19 2007
Debt campaigners challenged Northern Rock yesterday to soften its line with mortgage customers who fall into arrears after they claimed the bank was one of the most aggressive on the high street for repossessing borrowers' homes.

The stricken bank refuses to negotiate with borrowers who are unable to make monthly repayments and moves quickly to gain control of their properties rather than allow arrears to build up.

The Consumer Credit Counselling Service, which handles thousands of debt enquiries a week, said feedback from debt counsellors showed the bank was one of the most aggressive lenders dealing with customers unable to pay their bills.

Northern Rock has often stressed the strength of its loan book and its low arrears figures. It has maintained its figures for arrears of more than three months at about 0.4% of its customers, compared with an industry average of 0.8%.

The CCCS said Northern Rock refused to accept debt-management plans and routinely rejected individual voluntary arrangements, a five year repayment scheme. It is understood that the bank often offers customers further loans to repay debts over a longer period, though the bank denied this was a policy.

Malcolm Hurlston, CCCS chairman, said: "Northern Rock is one of the least charitable on the high street. It says borrowers are treated fairly, but that simply doesn't fit with our experience."

He said the bank's Together product, which combines a mortgage with a personal loan of up to 125% of the property value, was at the root of many repossessions. "The ramifications of the Together loan are felt by many customers," he said. "It blurs the line between secured and unsecured lending to the detriment of the borrower."

In many cases the customers will attempt to protect their mortgage and stay solvent by cutting back on personal loan repayments. Defaults on unsecured personal loans cannot trigger repossession orders but must be pursued through the courts.

However, the bank can apply a charge on a home to the value of the personal loan, in effect securing the entire loan against the customer's property.

Northern Rock denied that it dealt harshly with borrowers in arrears. A spokesman said the bank was well known for allowing miners to keep their homes during the miners' strike of the early 1980s and that policy persisted today


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Saturday 24 November 2007




The collapse of the Farepak Christmas savings club last year has driven many of its low-income victims into a cycle of debt, a union-sponsored report says.

Over 122,000 people have lodged claims totalling 38 million pounds with Farepak's liquidators since it failed in October 2006.

Many of those affected were low-paid women saving small sums for Christmas who went into debt to buy the gifts they had been expecting to purchase with their Farepak savings, the report from public sector union Unison said.

The study, jointly sponsored by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CJSS), interviewed Farepak savers and examined the impact on their lives.


It found that for some the money they had given to Farepak was the only money they had saved for Christmas.

"I didn't have any other savings ... I was basically counting on that for Christmas," one victim told the study.

"I think it is annoying that they just treat ordinary working class people like that when they are supposed to work with you," said another.

The report called for all savers to be fully compensated -- they have been told to expect just 5p in the pound for their claims, and that there will be no payout this year.


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Friday 23 November 2007




Irresponsible lenders are pushing people into debt, but regulators are "asleep on the job", a charity warns.
Citizens Advice says its staff dealt with a record 1.7 million debt problems during the last 12 months, an increase of 20% on the previous year.

The charity says it is working hard to help more people deal with their financial problems.

But it wants the financial services industry to do more to tackle irresponsible lending.

The director of public policy at Citizens Advice, Teresa Perchard, said: "Time and time again, we come across people in desperate straits who need not be there if the firm who lent them money had acted responsibly on day one.

"And while some regulators have taken action on scandals like the mis-selling of payment protection insurance, others seem to be asleep on the job," she added.

Falling consumer confidence

The call for action comes as the charity holds a conference on helping people to make the most of their money.

Citizens Advice is developing more new services to help prevent debt, such as providing financial planning advice, and improving people's skills and confidence.

But it says regulators and businesses must play their part to address one of the biggest issues facing the UK economy.

Teresa Perchard also warns that the collapse of Farepak and the problems at Northern Rock have pushed consumer confidence in the financial services market to an "all-time low".

Her comments come as new figures show Britons spent a record £511bn on credit, debit, charge and store cards in 2006.

Plastic spending has soared by 47% since 2002, according to market analyst Datamonitor.

The group estimates the amount spent on cards will reach £652bn by 2011.

But despite the increasing reliance on plastic, figures from the Bank of England show that the amount of money outstanding on credit cards has been falling steadily since the beginning of 2006.



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Wednesday 21 November 2007



Luton Town appoints football insolvency expert Brendan Guilfoyle as joint administrator

Administrators have been appointed at troubled football club Luton Town.

It has been a bad week for the club, entering into insolvency proceedings just days after the club's former directors were charged by the FA relating to rule-breaking deals over player contracts.

Experienced football insolvency expert Brendan Guilfoyle, of the P&A Partnership, was one of three administrators appointed to the club.

The appointments were made after the club's finance director said the club could not continue due to its decreasing income and escalating liabilities.

Guilfoyle will lead the search for buyers for the club.

'The survival of this historic club will depend on finding a purchaser. We will do everything we can to find such a buyer,' said Guilfoyle.

The administration is not affected by the charges standing against the club and its former directors, he added.

But the club has been deducted ten points under League One rules, which currently puts it into the relegation zone.

Guilfoyle worked alongside Ernst & Young's Garry Wilson (now of Endless) at Leeds United, rescuing the club from its first insolvency, which culminated in the club paying off its creditors back in 2005.

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Tuesday 20 November 2007




Divorcee battles for home after husband’s bankruptcy

A woman awarded the proceeds of her matrimonial home in a divorce settlement had half taken away when her husband went bankrupt, the Court of Appeal was told today.

Wendy Haines, 43, is now battling with bankruptcy trustees in a case which has “far reaching implications” for orders made in the divorce courts, the court was told.

Ms Haines was awarded the detached five-bedroom farmhouse near Stourport-on-Severn in Worcestershire by a judge. Shortly afterwards her husband declared himself bankrupt.

His bankruptcy trustees are now claiming half the money from the sale of the house, the proceeds of which have been frozen, to help pay creditors.

A district judge awarded the jointly-owned property to Mrs Haines but the trustees contested the order.

The decision was upheld by a court in Birmingham in December last year, but Mr Haines’ trustees successfully appealed the decision at the High Court, which ordered Ms Haines to surrender half of the proceeds from the property.

Mr Kanghure told the court today: “The decision of the learned judge has far-reaching implications for the treatment of matrimonial orders made by consent or following contested hearings.”

He said that up to five years after a divorce settlement, should a husband be declared bankrupt, the wife will have no defence to an application by the husband’s trustees to set aside the order made by a matrimonial court


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Monday 19 November 2007





The size of the debt collection industry has tripled in four years as thousands more people struggle to repay credit cards and loans. Each household now owes an average of £1,000.

When people are unable to repay what they have borrowed, banks sell on people's debt to professional debt collecting companies.

According to figures released yesterday by the Credit Services Association (CSA), which represents 95 per cent of the industry, the size of the debts these companies handle has almost tripled from £8.6 billion in 2003 to £22.7 billion.

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The problem is likely to increase as people are caught by the credit crunch.

Najib Nathoo, the president of the CSA, said: "Underlying debt has gone through the roof and lenders increasingly want to move any bad debt off their books."

Experts warn that the leap in debt-collection figures is likely to lead to an increase in personal insolvencies and bankruptcies.

Meantime, the number of people taking out a mortgage last month fell to its lowest level for at least five years, further fuelling fears of a housing market slowdown.

Just over 80,000 people took out a loan to buy a property in September — the fewest number to do so in a September since monthly records began in 2002, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

The trade body said £12·7 billion was loaned for house purchases in September, well down on August’s £16·2 billion.

The slowdown comes as the full effect of five interest rate rises over the past year starts to hit the housing market, with the cost of a home loan shooting up and the credit crunch making it tougher to fund a purchase.

During the month, the average mortgage rate increased to 6·02 per cent from 5·91 per cent in August.

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Friday 16 November 2007




Thousands of companies both large and small have problems with debt. We at Debtsgone specialise in helping those companies. Our duty of care is to our client, not the creditors, which enables us to find the best solution for you.

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Thursday 15 November 2007




HSBC writes off $38m a day in US loans and says it could get worsePatrick Hosking, Banking and Finance Editor
HSBC is writing off loans to struggling Americans at the rate of $38 million (£18.5 million) a day, it revealed yesterday, shareholders were told that the pace of souring loans could worsen if house prices in the United States fall further.

Defaults and late payments on US sub-prime mortgages and credit cards increased in the third quarter, leading the world’s second-biggest bank to take a provision of $3.4 billion against American consumer debt.

It wrote down $925 million from unsuccessful trading in credit securities and on leveraged buyout loans that it has extended but been unable to syndicate because of the credit crunch.

Knight Vinke, the rebel shareholder leading a campaign for boardroom and strategy reforms at HSBC, seized on the losses as evidence that the bank was too large and complex to be controlled properly.

HSBC expected to write down an extra $1bn Credit storm batters leading banks
However, traders marked HSBC shares 3 per cent higher to 866p as the bank said that it was trading strongly in most other areas of the business and that its third-quarter profits would be ahead of a year ago.

The bank said that revenues were growing faster than in the first half and costs were rising more slowly. It also said that it had virtually no exposure to collateralised debt obligations backed by sub-prime debt – the toxic securities that have affected many banks this autumn.

The latest provision brings to $12.4 billion HSBC’s total write-offs in US consumer lending in the past 15 months. Although HSBC prices in a relatively high level of defaults by sub-prime borrowers, the failure rate is roughly twice the level it would like.

HSBC pushed aggressively into sub-prime lending in the United States when it bought Household International, the leading player now renamed HSBC Finance, for $15 billion in 2003.

Eric Knight, founder of Knight Vinke, said of the Household deal: “I wonder whether it is something they are now deeply regretting. The magnitude of this is something HSBC doesn’t want to acknowledge.”

Douglas Flint, HSBC finance director and chairman of HSBC Finance, defended the acquisition: “To be in a credit distribution business in the world’s biggest credit market is not a bad place to be.”

The bank is closing another 260 HSBC Finance branches on top of 100 already shuttered, for a one-off charge of $55 million, leaving it with a network of about 1,000 branches. It also told shareholders that a change in the way in which it structures fees on credit cards in the US meant that income next year would fall by $225 million to $250 million.

Standard & Poor’s shaved HSBC’s outlook rating from “positive” to “stable” because of the problems in America.

HSBC has lent $178 billion to American consumers, of which $70 billion is unsecured. Of the unsecured portion, $45 billion was lent to sub-prime customers – people with impaired or nonexistent credit records. In the wholesale division, write-offs were split $760 million for credit trading losses and $175 million for write-offs on warehoused buyout debt. HSBC said that it had $3 billion to $5 billion of buyout debt on its books and was committed to lending another $4.25 billion.

Stuart Gulliver, head of the wholesale bank, said that the financial crisis was the worst since the Latin America defaults crisis of the 1980s and that he found the robustness of the equity market “really quite puzzling”. After stripping out bank shares, Wall Street was at an all-time high, he said. “Does that make sense? I don’t think so.”



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Wednesday 14 November 2007




The additional provisions will be made alongside a group trading update in an attempt to demonstrate that overall profitability remains strong.

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Unlike the investment banks that have written off almost $50bn in sub-prime loans, HSBC's exposure is directly through the mortgages held on its books. Its investment banking exposure is believed to be minimal.

Analysts expect bad debt provisions for the three months to September to rise 83pc to $2.52bn.

Credit Suisse estimates that the US division will report a quarterly loss of $492m.

HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan pledged in February to resolve the sub-prime problem within three years and declared: "The buck stops with me."

However, he is not likely to come under pressure from shareholders. One said: "He's not under pressure to walk because of this. It will just be a qualification of the sums involved as conditions have deteriorated since February."

Some analysts fear the problems will have spread from mortgages to unsecured lending as falling US house prices infect consumers' creditworthiness.

Antony Broadbent, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein, said: "Our fear is that there will be a big move in the unsecured book."

The shares fell 6½ to 842½p.


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Tuesday 13 November 2007




Shares in E*Trade Financial Corp sank 59 percent to a five-year low on Monday after an analyst said mounting credit losses may prompt customers to yank deposits and could put the online brokerage at risk of bankruptcy.
The company told customers it could absorb a $1 billion write-down and remain well-capitalized. Investors were unconvinced, pushing E*Trade shares down $5.04 to $3.55 on the Nasdaq, their lowest level since August 2002.
The slide came after E*Trade late Friday withdrew its 2007 earnings forecast, projected further write-downs on a $3 billion asset-backed securities portfolio, and said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had begun an informal inquiry into its loan and securities portfolios.
It also said Dennis Webb, who led its capital markets unit, had left the company.
Citigroup analyst Prashant Bhatia downgraded E*Trade to "sell" from "hold," a forecast that incorporated a 15 percent chance of bankruptcy.
"The continued negative news flow about charges resulting from its mortgage and CDO (collateralized debt obligation) exposure, an SEC inquiry, and continued deterioration in its financial condition, all increase the likelihood of significant client attrition," Bhatia wrote.
Other analysts did not raise the specter of bankruptcy but also downgraded their ratings or reduced their price targets.
Jarrett Lilien, E*Trade's chief operating officer, in a message on the company's Web site said: "We could absorb an immediate write-down in excess of $1 billion and still remain well capitalized."
Lilien also said that because "news in the market" will get worse before it gets better, E*Trade is taking "prudent measures" to manage its balance sheet.
Much of E*Trade's recent revenue growth has come from its mortgage-backed assets, but the slowing housing market has reduced demand for a variety of mortgage securities.
Bhatia said E*Trade has altered its earnings forecasts five times in eight months, "reflecting poor risk management."
RIVALS MAY GAIN
E*Trade's problems appeared to have sent investors to rivals such as Charles Schwab Corp and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. Their shares rose a respective 2.6 percent and 5.4 percent on Monday.
"Ameritrade, which has no exposure to the subprime difficulties, stands to gain," said Chris Manns, an analyst at optionmonster.com.
Bhatia said about $15 billion of deposits, representing one-half of E*Trade's deposit base and one-fourth of its funding base, lack federal deposit insurance and thus have a "higher risk" of leaving. He said this could result in forced selling of assets supported by these deposits.
"Customers may withdraw assets first, and ask questions later," he wrote. He said E*Trade could suffer more than $5 billion of losses if it liquidated its loan and asset-backed securities portfolio because it lost its funding sources.
Bhatia cut his price target to $7.50 from $13, and Banc of America analyst Michael Hecht reduced his target by $1.50 to $10.50, while keeping a "neutral" rating on the stock.
Sandler O'Neill analyst Rich Repetto downgraded E*Trade shares to "hold," saying he expects E*Trade to "aggressively" pursue strategic alternatives such as a deal or a sale of some assets.
Earlier, Fox-Pitt, Kelton analyst David Trone said a sale was not "a luxury, but a necessity" for E*Trade.
But Deutsche Bank analysts Matthew Fischer and Mike Mayo said the brokerage's retail business remains strong.
E*Trade said on Monday its total retail client assets rose 4 percent from September to $226.7 billion in October.
E*Trade said last week the SEC was investigating whether its capital markets division executed orders ahead of customer orders during the period 1999 to 2005. (Additional reporting by Joseph A. Giannone, Jonathan Stempel and Dan Wilchins in New York; Doris Frankel in Chicago; and Tenzin Pema in Bangalore; Editing by Gary Hill)


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Monday 12 November 2007




The number of people declaring themselves bankrupt in Brighton and Hove is rocketing - bucking the national trend.

The city was today said to be in the grip of a "credit crunch", with self-declared bankruptcies up 15 per cent over just three months.

Latest Government figures reveal 470 people went into voluntary bankruptcy in the third quarter of the year, up from 401 in the previous quarter.


The worrying rise goes against the national trend which saw a fall of five per cent over the same period.

According to analysis from auditors KPMG, the average Sussex debtor proposing an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) - a formal payback agreement between debtors and their creditors - now owes a total of £48,666, while the average bankrupt has debts totalling £50,828.

Mark Sands, director of restructuring for KPMG, today warned the problem will only get worse.

He said: "With average debt levels as high as this, interest rate rises and other strains on the family budget, many individuals are likely to see their finances severely affected.

"The impact of the credit crunch has made it more difficult to refinance existing debt so the previous release valve is no longer available. As a result the pressure on the over-indebted continues to grow.

"It is unsurprising that we are continuing to see such high levels of people choosing personal insolvency as the solution to their problems.

"Despite the national fall in personal insolvencies, anyone taking comfort in this slight drop is in for a rude awakening. Almost every indicator suggests this trend as being only a temporary respite from long term increases to record levels."

Elsewhere in Sussex bankruptcies were up an average of six per cent.

The figures show Sussex is a spendaholic county, with the level of bankruptcy and those taking out an IVA constantly on the increase. There are now more than 7,000 bankrupts and 2,200 IVAs in Sussex.

The two exceptions were Eastbourne, which saw a massive 53 per cent reduction in the number of bankruptcy cases in the last quarter, and Hastings which saw a 30 per cent drop.

Joan Kendall was forced to declare herself bankrupt after her charity calendar, featuring semi-naked spinners and weavers, left her with massive debts. Ms Kendall, 53, of Barcombe, near Lewes, wanted to follow in the footsteps of the Rylstone Womenís Institute Calendar Girls, who were first to raise funds for charity by posing in the nude.

But with stiff opposition from scores of similar offerings and a problem with some visible nipples, Ms Kendall found herself unable to sell 9,000 of the 10,000 calendars she had ordered.

Facing a £15,000 mountain of debt, she declared herself bankrupt at Brighton County Court in October.

She said: "Bankruptcy was quite a blow but it hasnít ruined my life. For a while I didnít want to go down that route but in the end I decided I had to.

"I have got over it, although I understand that for some people it would be the end of the world.

"But I am quite resilient. If you havenít got anything to lose then you canít lose it - and I had nothing to lose."


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Sunday 11 November 2007




A new credit rating system which could help prevent many people falling into debt has been unveiled.
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh said their method took account of general economic conditions and not just a person's credit history.

They believe taking account of interest rates, consumer confidence and earnings will allow lenders to assess risk more accurately.

The scientists hope banks and building societies will now test the system.

Most banks and credit card providers draw on information such as an individual's debt payment history, occupation and how many times they have moved home.

Professor Jonathan Crook, of Edinburgh University's Credit Research Centre, said his tests using the extra criteria were more accurate in predicting debt defaults.

'Higher risk'

He said: "Increases in earnings and the FTSE index - which are indicators of a improving economy - all provide conditions for reduced risk of default.

"On the other hand, higher interest rates, greater unemployment and rising house prices - which have a direct impact on people's pockets - all result in a higher risk.

"So, too, does greater consumer confidence because people spend and borrow more.

"We have found that this does allow better predictions that some people will default."

The number of people being turned down for credit cards has soared recently, with companies also increasing the fees and rates they charge as a result of the global credit crunch.

Financial website MoneyExpert.com said an estimated 3.27 million people had credit card applications rejected in the six months to the end of September, 17% more than during the previous six months.


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Saturday 10 November 2007




It is too early to tell what the impact of the global credit crunch will be on the number of people seeking IVAs or declaring themselves insolvent, an industry expert has said.

James Ketchell, spokesperson for the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), said that it took some time for consumer debt levels to build up to such a point that an IVA or insolvency became necessary.

As a result, he explained that it could take years for the full impact of the recent global financial turmoil to display itself.

He added: "There is a risk that people on cheap fixed-rate mortgages will in the future be forced onto more expensive products, so they will have to address their spending as a consequence of that.

"In general it is hard to tell how the credit crunch is going to affect people in this way but it is going to be more difficult for people in the future."

Recent figures from the Insolvency Service indicated that 10,239 people opted for an IVA in the third quarter of 2007, down 4.3 per cent on the previous three month period.

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Friday 9 November 2007




IT businesses protected by 'paperless offices'
IT businesses are less at risk of disaster due to the emergence of the paperless office, according to industry experts.

The Association of Business Recovery Professionals, R3, which is the leading professional association for insolvency, business recovery and turnaround specialists in the UK, has said that IT firms have a better knowledge of back-up procedures making their businesses more secure.

It also added that where there is a greater physical flow of paper it is more difficult to remain safe.

Nick O'Reilly, vice president of R3, said: "IT and software consultancy based businesses tend to be better than manufacturing businesses because, by their very nature, they tend to have much more knowledge of security back-up procedures, etc, and they can operate from home or from any other setting. They don't have as many physical files or physical papers."

He continued: "The trouble with a lot of firms, including lawyers and accountancy firms, is that although they all aspire to be electronic, there is still a lot of paper flow in most offices."

According to Disaster Recovery Solutions, 90 per cent of businesses that lose data are forced to close within two years and around 80 per cent of firms without a tested recovery plan are forced to close within 12 months of a fire or flood.


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Thursday 8 November 2007




SHOPKEEPERS have been angered by news that work on a housing development above their businesses has stopped as the contractor has gone into liquidation.

Adams House, on East Gate opposite the bus station, is in the process of being expanded from two to four storeys, including 34 new flats.

However, work ceased last week after the main contractor, Ingram Design and Build went into liquidation.

A spokesman for Rom Capital, the owners and developers of Adams House said: "The main contractor Ingram Design and Build is insolvent and is in the process of going into liquidation. We as developers have therefore issued a notice terminating their employment.

"Rom Capital Ltd is in the process of re-tendering the build contract and expects to have a new contractor in place by the end of this month.

"In the meantime some works are ongoing so that no real time delay is caused by these unfortunate events, with a view to completing the project on schedule in December 2008."

One of the shopkeepers, who did not wish to be named, explained to the Herald that they cannot access the back entrance to their shops and many of the units are having problems with their roofs and ceilings since work started.

"The work has been nothing but an inconvenience for the shop owners and because of all the scaffolding people think we're shut.

"Since they've been up there my roof has been leaking every time it rained which caused the ceiling to fall through.

"We can't use the car park at the back because it's blocked with building materials and scaffolding."

He added that deliveries have to come through the front door which is an added inconvenience to customers.

"I want to serve the customer, but I have to ask them to move to one side while the delivery is brought to the back of the shop.

"The back of the units looks like a building site."

He said that some of the builders came into the shop and told him what had happened to the company and that there were a lot of rumours going around between the tenants.

"I've heard through rumours that last Tuesday at 2pm the company went bankrupt," he said. "Some of the workers came in here and said that the company declared bankruptcy.

"No-one knows why. All the tenants think maybe they couldn't afford to do the job."

Another shopkeeper said they were still waiting to hear officially from their landlord about what was going on.

Harlow Council's Planning Committee approved the development of Adam's House last January. One of the shops, plot five, will be closed down to make way for an access point for the flats.

It will be one of a number of developments planned for the town centre where no car parking will be provided in a bid to encourage use of public transport and reduce the number of cars in the town.


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Wednesday 7 November 2007




The number of people becoming insolvent in the UK is on the decrease, although some commentators believe this could merely be the calm before the storm.

The number of UK personal insolvencies dropped by 3% between July and September on the previous three months, with 26,072 individuals entering into bankruptcy or an Individual Voluntary Arrangement. The figures are also down on the same period last year, according to a report by the Government's Insolvency Service.
However this could just be a momentary reprieve before the effects of the summer's credit crunch begin to move beyond the corporate world to impact on consumer confidence, according to business adviser Grant Thornton.

It believes this, in conjunction with the possibility of future interest rate rises, could have a marked impact on the number of personal insolvencies nationwide.

Its head of personal insolvency Mike Gerrard said: 'In spite of relatively benign economic conditions over the past decade, personal insolvencies have gone through the roof and this recent drop is simply the calm before the storm as the credit crunch begins to bite beyond financial markets.'

The slowdown in the amount of people seeking IVAs may be due to changes within the debt management industry and not necessarily due to changes in people's spending habits, Grant Thornton added.

More IVA providers are using informal debt arrangements for their clients and others are cutting back on the IVAs they offer due to tighter credit restrictions and higher marketing costs.

New figures from the Ministry of Justice released today show that the level of house repossessions are stable. Other statistics from debt consultancy Thomas Charles show that one in four Britons will cut back on their credit card spending this Christmas.

However the total amount of UK personal debt exceeded UK GDP for the first time ever in September, Grant Thornton discovered recently, and this is not helped by the growing number of people using their credit cards to make mortgage repayments.

Gerrard added: 'We are seeing an increasing number of individuals turning to their credit cards to make mortgage payments. Using credit to pay off credit is a precarious balancing act performed on the thinnest of wires, and it only takes some missed payments and a switch from a fixed to variable mortgage interest rate to send these individuals into a downward spiral.'


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Tuesday 6 November 2007




INTEREST rate rises, growing consumer debt and tightening lending practices will cause a major escalation in personal insolvency next year, the Cardiff office of PKF warns.

Last week the number of people declared insolvent fell by 5% in the three months to the end of September – the first year-on-year drop in five years.

However, PKF partner Keith Morgan believes that in 2008 insolvency numbers are likely to rise again.

He said, “We have been helping an increasing number of people who have been using their credit cards to pay their mortgages, which is a mark of extreme desperation given the speed with which the level of debt mounts up.

“It’s an unsustainable practice and a sign that many are standing on the precipice and only relatively small additional costs will push them over the edge.

“Personal insolvencies in England and Wales peaked at just under 30,000 in the last quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2007, but the likelihood is that the ceiling will be breached in the first quarter of next year.

“I anticipate the numbers will continue to rise steadily throughout the year.

“It will not be much of a comfort to those facing this position, but a hard dose of reality in the personal credit market is long overdue.

“It’s deplorable that it’s taken a meltdown in the US sub-prime mortgage market for lenders to review their loans and credit policies but it is essential that it happens. It’s going to mean short-term pain but unrealistic lending practices had to stop at some point; hopefully this is it.”

The partner with the accountancy and business advisory firm said that the tightening of lending criteria would cause the insolvency figures to rise significantly as those in the worst financial positions weren’t be able to carry on.

He added, “It’s a very hard lesson for the UK to learn but it’s essential that it is taken on board. Everyone has to understand that there is a cost for credit.

“We have to help the thousands of people in debt and part of that is removing the stigma of bankruptcy for the current generation. There is life after bankruptcy and people have to view it as the start of rebuilding their lives.

“That’s a very difficult message to take on board for someone who might have lost their home but it’s the reality created by over a decade of spending on credit.”

Rob Lewis, partner in the business Recovery Services practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said, “The recent rise in credit card debt suggests that further increases could be round the corner.

“Rises in credit card debt and repossessions are both worrying signs that consumers are feeling the pinch and turning to unsecured borrowing as a means to make ends meet.

“With the problems in the sub-prime market, consumers may find it harder to borrow their way out of trouble leading to another wave of insolvencies over the coming months.”

He added, “Credit has been readily available to corporates until this summer and the downward trend in corporate insolvencies reflects this.

“However, while companies have so far avoided formal insolvency, less credit-worthy corporates are finding that it is increasingly difficult to borrow at affordable rates in the current climate.

“There is still uncertainty as to how many businesses will fail as a result of the more restrictive credit environment.”


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Monday 5 November 2007




Uncertainty lingers over how many businesses could fold in the current restrictive credit climate, PwC says

PwC has warned that a gulf is forming between corporates despite evidence of a reduction in insolvencies.

Mike Jervis, partner in the Business Recovery Services practice at PwC, said: 'While companies have so far avoided formal insolvency, less credit-worthy corporates are finding it increasingly difficult to borrow at affordable rates in the current climate. There is still uncertainty as to how many businesses will fail as a result of the more restrictive credit environment.'

Jervis said that credit had been readily available to corporates until this summer and the downward trend in corporate insolvencies was a reflection of this.

PwC also commented on the drop in personal insolvencies, warning that there could be more to come.



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Sunday 4 November 2007




THE number of people declared insolvent fell by 5% in the three months to the end of September – the first year-on-year drop in five years, figures showed yesterday.

But the Insolvency Service statistics also reveal that within the figure the number of bankruptcies rose 2.2% on the same period last year, to 15,833.

The rise in bankruptcies follows a dispute between banks and Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) providers, which has seen the number of IVAs in the quarter fall by 14.3% on the same period last year.

IVAs are arrangements that can prevent people going into bankruptcy, but they have come under mounting criticism over their suitability for some consumers and their arrangement fees.

Yesterday’s figures showed there were 26,072 personal insolvencies – people who were either declared bankrupt or took out an IVA – in England in Wales, which is down 3% on the previous quarter.

The drop is the third quarterly fall in a row and the annual decrease, the first since 2002, was greater than expected.

But insolvency expert Pay Boyden of PricewaterhouseCoopers Business Recovery Services said recent credit card debt figures could signal further insolvency misery to come.

He said, “It is worrying that credit card debt rose in September for the first time in two years, so this may be an indication that we are heading for another wave of insolvency rises next year.”

Meanwhile, data from the Ministry of Justice shows that the number of orders for home repossessions in England and Wales fell by 1% in the third quarter year on year, to 23,806.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders predicted only days ago that the number of repossessions could jump by 50% next year as borrowers feel the pinch from five interest rate rises since last August and a tightening in lending criteria amid the credit crunch.

In August, CML figures revealing the actual number of home repossessions across the UK showed that repossessions in the first half rose by nearly a third to 14,000. It predicts that will rise to 30,000 by year end, up 32% on 2006.

While the numbers are still far behind the 75,000 annual repossessions recorded at the height of the housing crash in the early 1990s, it is a cause for concern, according to Mr Boyden.

He said, “Rises in credit card debt and repossessions are worrying signs that consumers are turning to unsecured borrowing as a means to make ends meet.”


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Saturday 3 November 2007





AN application to Manchester Crown Court by a consortium of businessman to save Northwich Victoria from liquidation by purchasing the club and paying off most of its estimated £500,00 debts has been adjourned following a legal intervention by the Football Conference Board.

If the Conference officials’ questions can be satisfactorily answered, the winding-up petition against the club will not go ahead at a reconvened Crown Court assembly on Friday. In which case, liquidation plans brought by HM Customs and Excise will be dropped and Northwich Victoria 2004 Ltd, currently owned by chairman Mike Connett, will go into administration on that day.

This will result in the deduction of 10 points from their Blue Square premiership record leaving the team – with only three draws to show from 17 games – with a tally of minus seven points and little realistic chance of avoiding relegation next April.

Representing the consortium, businessman Jim Rushe, who is chairman of Cheshire League club Woodley Sports, says he hopes on Friday he will be given the go ahead to negotiate the purchase of the Football Club from Connett, who has agreed to rent the Victoria Stadium, which remains in his ownership, free of charge for the remainder of the season.

The longest-standing supporters’ organisation, the Northwich Victoria Trust, has been in close touch with the consortium and have agreed to help in any practical way.


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Friday 2 November 2007




TA Kirkpatrick, the family-owned Dumfriesshire steel business, has collapsed into liquidation after a number of customers withheld payment amounting to "several hundred thousand pounds", according to accounting firm Campbell Dallas.

The company, which was based at Kirkpatrick-Fleming, on the banks of the River Kirtle near Lockerbie, was founded by Thomas A Kirkpatrick in 1971, and specialised in the construction of steel-framed buildings for agriculture, industry and commerce, as well cladding to architects and consultant engineers. The company became incorporated in 1991.

Derek Forsyth, who was appointed provi- sional liquidator, said there was no prospect of the company trading after the liquidation, and all 30 of its employees have already been made redundant.

advertisement"It's a real hit, especially at this time of year and in an area like this where the possibility of these people becoming re-employed quickly is fairly slim," said Forsyth, a partner with Campbell Dallas.

The company is understood to have become embroiled in a number of disputes with customers, one of them involving contract worth more than £100,000, and several others worth less.

"It was all too much for them and it ended up impacting on the com-pany's cash-flow position,"

Forsyth added.

"We are now in the process of trying to sell the property. It's quite sad really."

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Thursday 1 November 2007




Levels of corporate insolvency have remained relatively steady for the last few years, but that is about to change, according to insolvency trade body R3 – The Association of Business Recovery Professionals.

Government statistics, released on Friday, may show a rise in the number of company administrations and liquidations, with certain industries suffering the most as the result of turbulent conditions in the UK. Travel, tourism and agriculture could be the worst hit. The figure looks certain to rise in quarters one and two of 2008.

R3 Council member Peter Sargent from Yorkshire says, “I have heard on the grape vine that things are starting to change in the leisure and tourism industry. A good example of this is a wine stockist who says that, although the quantity of wine bought by restaurants has not changed, the quality has, so his customers seem to be going for the cheaper options.”

It is likely that smaller businesses will be the first to suffer, as in many cases the owners or backers have loans backed by personal guarantee. If either the individual or company find themselves in financial difficulty, one will have a knock on effect on the other. On top of this credit is becoming harder to obtain with smaller companies particularly vulnerable.

Peter added, “As soon as a business starts to have financial difficulties they should seek expert advice. Problems can be overcome if recognised and tackled early, but often people wait until it is too late, and the business has to be sold or liquidated."

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