Although the credit crunch has impacted on the performance of financial organisations across the country Lloyds TSB feel they are still on course to achieve their objectives for the year.
The well known high street operator Lloyds TSB saw their results down by almost GBP390 million because of the credit crunch but still saw a Q1 pre-tax profit that was up by over 10 percent. This is a great achievement for the organisation though some observers will wonder how much customers are paying over the odds to help them achieve such results.
A representative from Lloyds TSBexplained that they operated in a prudent fashion and so were not over exposed in the American sub prime mortgage collapse like many others.
The recent decision by the Bank of England to keep the base rate at 5 percent was as per expectations according to the Abbey National.
A spokesman from the Abbey National explained that the need to manage an economy that is slowing down meant it was highly unlikely to see the interest rate increased, since that would slow it further. The rise in inflation, up to 3 percent in April also meant that a rate reduction was not going to happen since that would further fuel the inflation rate.
Looking forwards the Abbey National feel there may be a cut in the interest rate later in the year, though it needs the inflation rate to be kept under control for that to happen.
The Halifax has reported that the amount of pocket money given to children has fallen compared with last year. In 2007 the weekly amount was just over GBP8, though this has fallen to a little over GBP6 this year.
Parents will no doubt be feeling the pinch said a Halifax spokesperson, though in their defence they do still buy items such as mobile phones and ipods for their children. The best place for children to be is London, where the average pocket money is GBP8.47, followed by Scotland where they receive GBP8.20.
The lowest paying parents are found in the East Midlands, where GBP4.46 is the norm, closely followed by the south west of England where children receive an average of GBP4.58 according to the Halifax figures.
