Defaqto MyMoney

Savers’ dilemma puts focus on gilts

November 18, 2008 | posted by Pam Atherton in Banking, Savings, UK economy |

The dramatic cut in base rate to 3 per cent may spell good news for homeowners with mortgages, but for savers it could be a disaster.

For every mortgage, there are six to seven savers, and many pensioners and others on fixed incomes are dependent on the interest from their savings to top up their income.

So where can you put your money and get a decent rate of return, if banks and building societies cut savings rates by up to 1.5 per cent?

Some experts are touting gilts as the saviour of savers. Gilts are bonds issued by the Government which pay a fixed rate of interest over a set term and are considered to be safer than corporate bonds which are bonds issued by companies wanting to raise capital.

Because companies can go bust and default on their financial obligations, corporate bonds are considered more risky than gilts which are guaranteed by the Government.

Gilt managers are prediciting a return on 7 to 10 year gilts of around 4-8 per cent over the next two years. Ccompared with likely returns from banks and building societies of 3-4 per cent, gilts looks like a reasonable alternative.

But gilts are not risk free. Although you are guaranteed to get back your original investment back when your gilts mature, prices and yields can vary significantly before the maturity date, depending on what happens to base rate and inflation.

So if you paid £100 today for a 10-year gilt with a 4 per cent yield, its face value could subsequently fall if base rate were to rise in two years’ time.

This would cause investors to flee gilts in seach of higher returns elsewhere, thereby drving down the face value of gilts. If you wanted to sell your gilt at that time, its sale value might be only £90, instead of £100.

Inflation is another enemy of gilts as it erodes the value of fixed incomes. Although inflation now appears to be falling, it could re-emerge in future years, particularly with the increase in Government spending.

But if inflation and base rate fall to around 1 per cent, or even zero, as some commentators are now predicting, gilts could offer double digit returns.

You can buy individual gilts via a stockbroker, or a gilt fund or gilt index tracker via a fund manager. For advice on gilts, contact an independent financial adviser via www.unbiased.co.uk

For more on gilts, visit the Debt Management Office’s website:
http://dmo.gov.uk/index.aspx?page=Gilts/About_Gilts
http://dmo.gov.uk/index.aspx?page=Gilts/Daily_Prices

For the best savings rates visit:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/instant-access-accounts.aspx
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/cash-isas.aspx
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/regular-savings-accounts.aspx
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/term-accounts.aspx
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/notice-savings-accounts.aspx

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How to recession-proof your credit card purchases

November 17, 2008 | posted by Pam Atherton in Credit Cards |

As the UK economy heads into a deep recession, you could unwittingingly find yourself buying goods and services from businesses which collapse before you have received the items you paid for.

There have already been plenty of examples of this so far this year, what with the collapse of tour operator, XL Leisure Group, in mid-September and the near-collapse of furniture chain, MFI.

But if you purchase goods or services costing between £100 and £30,000 using a credit card, you can claim against the credit card issuer for compensation under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, if the supplier of goods or services goes bust.

You only have to pay for part of the purchase on your credit card in order to obtain this protection - you can pay the balance by cash or by cheque.

This means that you could pay for the deposit on a holiday via credit card and the balance by cheque or cash, if you don’t want to run up large credit card bills, and still be protected.

If you know how to manage credit card debt, there’s nothing like a 0 per cent
credit card for purchases or balance transfers. Although these are far harder to obtain nowadays, there are still providers in this market such as Barclaycard, First Direct, Halifax, Marks & Spencer and Unison.

Check out Defaqto’s best buy tables for 0 per cent credit cards for purchases:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/credit-cards/best-buys/0-percent-on-intro-purchases.aspx

For 0 per cent balance transfers;
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/credit-cards/best-buys/0-percent-on-balance-transfers.aspx

Best buy standard credit cards:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/credit-cards/best-buys/standard-credit-cards.aspx

Which card should I choose?
Try out Defaqto’s unique credit card calculator:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/credit-cards.aspx

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Watchdog calls for clampdown on loan insurance

November 14, 2008 | posted by Pam Atherton in Insurance |

The Competition Commission has called for radical changes in the way in which payment protection insurance (PPI) is sold following a 21-month investigation of the £4.4.bn market.

This latest investigation follows an OFT report published earlier this year which said that banks were harming customer interests by subsidising cheap personal loans with expensive PPI policies.

PPI is insurance to pay off loans, credit cards and mortgages if you lose your income because of accident, sickness or unemployment. But PPI is only a temporary insurance and only pays out for 1-2 years and has frequently been mis-sold to individuals who would never be eligible to make a claim.

Some providers have also made customers pay for this insurance as a single premium and charged interest on its throughout the term of the loan.

The Competition Commission is recommending that customers should not be sold PPI at the same time as they take out a loan, credit card or mortgage, but be given 14 days in which to shop around for a better deal.

The vast majority of the 13m PPI policies currently in force in the UK were sold to the customers at the same time as they took out a loan or some other form of credit.

The Competition Commission is also calling on providers to make their advertising clearer and to supply the Financial Services Authority with information for the compilation of comparison tables so that customers can make informed decisions on their choice of provider.

PPI providers have been subjected to a barrage of criticism from watchdogs and consumers groups following a Competition Commission report earlier this year which found they were making ‘excess’ profits of £1.4bn, on sales of £4.4bn.

The Financial Ombudsman Service says PPI is the most complained about product and receives around 100 complaints a day about alleged mis-selling. The FSA recently fined Alliance & Leicester £7m because its staff had pressurised customers into buying PPI policies they did not want.

Defaqto insurance consultant, Brian Brown, said that people should shop around online for standalone PPI policies which can often work out cheaper, especially for personal loan insurance.

Institutions selling PPI independently of personal loans and credit cards are the Post Office and British Insurance.

Read all about PPI
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/insurance/life/income-protection.aspx

For to find a suitable policy for your needs visit:
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/tables/model/model_ppi.jsp?product=ppi&route=fasttrack&trail_position=2

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Credit card companies called to account

November 13, 2008 | posted by Pam Atherton in Banking, Credit Cards, Store Cards |

The Prime Minister has stepped into the row over credit card charges by calling on the industry to adopt a more responsible approach to lending.

Card company chiefs can expect to be hauled into Downing Street to account for their actions as research this week revealed brazen increases in credit and store card charges, despite the near halving of base rate since May.

According to Defaqto research, the average annual percentage rate (APR) for credit cards has risen from 17.2 per cent to 17.6 per cent since May - at a time when base rate has fallen from 5 per cent to 3 per cent.

One of the worst examples is the NatWest credit card which has hiked its APR from 13.9 per cent to 16.9 per cent for purchases.

Card companies have not only been increasing interest rates for purchases, but have been quietly tweaking their terms and conditions, to the detriment of their customers.

For example, some providers have reduced the number of interest-free days before cardholders start incurring interest, while others have increased balance transfer and cash withdrawal charges.

Nearly a third (30 per cent) of the credit card market (44 out of 145 cards) have cut the interest-free period for new customers from 56 to 50 days, at a cost to cardholders of £3m.

91 per cent of balance transfer cards now levy a fee, compared to just 29 per cent in 2005. Balance transfer fees have soared from an average of £11.02 per transfer in 2005, to £52.09 today. An estimated 7.9m balance transfers are carried out each year, costing cardholders £412m.

In 2005, the average APR for cash withdrawals was 21.22 per cent APR, compared to 29.97 per cent today, costing cardholders £161m a year in interest.

The charges levied on store cards are even worse. The average APR on 33 store cards from high street retailers such as Argos, House of Fraser and Marks & Spencer has increased from 24.5 per cent 25.4 per cent between May and November this year.

Defaqto’s banking consultant, David Black, attributed the increases to card companies’ need to recoup losses incurred elsewhere due to fraud, bad debts and restrictions on the sale of payment protection insurance.

Politicians have expressed concern that at a time of rising unemployment and the current credit squeeze, hard pressed consumers will turn to using their credit cards to raise emergency cash.

Check out the Defaqto best buy tables for purchases:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/credit-cards/best-buys/0-percent-on-intro-purchases.aspx

Best buys for balance transfers:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/credit-cards/best-buys/0-percent-on-balance-transfers.aspx

Standard credit card best buys:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/credit-cards/best-buys/standard-credit-cards.aspx

Try out the Defaqto credit card calculator:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/credit-cards.aspx

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Mortgage rates tumble as lenders yield to Government pressure

November 12, 2008 | posted by Pam Atherton in Mortgages |

Mortgage lenders are responding to last week’s dressing down by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, and reducing their standard variable rates in line with last week’s 1.5 per cent cut in base rate.

Coventry building society and Clydesdale & Yorkshire bank are the latest to announced they will cut their standard variable rates (SVRs) to mortgage customers by 1.5 per cent.

Their new SVRs will be 5.34 per cent for Coventry, and 5.14 per cent for Clydesdale & Yorkshire. The lowest SVR from a major lender, however, continues to be Nationwide’s 4.69 per cent.

This is great news for homeowners coming to the end of a mortgage deal who will normally be switched to their lender’s SVR (unless they arrange a better deal).

The latest re-priced SVRs are as follows:
HBOS 5.0%
Nationwide BS 4.69%
Abbey 5.44%
Lloyds TSB 5.0%
Northern Rock 7.34%
Royal Bank of Scotland 5.19%
Coventry BS 5.34%
Clydesdale 5.14%

Most of the best tracker deals were taken off the market late last week to be re-priced, with Abbey announcing its new tracker rates today.

Its two-year trackers have a ‘collar’ of 0.0001 per cent and are available for loans up to £250,000, as follows:

4.89 per cent with £499 fee for 60 per cent LTV
4.99 per cent with £995 fee for 75 per cent LTV

Its new 2-year fixed rate mortgage deals, also announced today, are as follows:

4.49 per cent with a £995 fee for 60 per cent LTV
4.54 per cent with £1,499 fee for 70 per cent LTV
4.79 per cent with a £995 fee for 75 per cent LTV

But mortgage lenders are being accused of using the huge cut in base rate last week to widen their profit margins. Borrowers must now pay up to 2.09 per cent more than base rate for a mortgage.

Before last week’s cut, Lloyds was charging homeowners 1.09 per cent above the official rate while Abbey and Alliance & Leicester have also increased profit margins and now charge up to 2.04 per cent above base rate.

Mortgage experts say that until a month ago, the best deals allowed borrowers to pay just 0.5 percentage points more than base rate, whereas the average now is 2.34 percentage points above base rate.

This means on a £150,000 tracker mortgage a home owner would pay an extra £170 on their monthly repayments.

Over the last few years, some tracker deals were actually less than base rate.

Try out the Defaqto mortgage calculator to find the best deals:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/mortgages.aspx

Take a look at the Defaqto guide to remortgaging:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/mortgages/remortgaging.aspx

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Norwich Union pays compensation for charging error

November 11, 2008 | posted by Pam Atherton in Pensions |

People who took out low cost stakeholder pensions with Norwich Union are set to receive compensation, following the discovery of a mistake in their pricing by the insurer.

Around 34,000 people who bought stakeholder pensions after they were introduced in April 2001 will receive an average of £300 in compensation, costing Norwich Union £11m in total.

The insurer, which is owned by Aviva, had been charging policyholders more than the statutory 1 per cent limit on charges which was applicable in 2001. Nowadays, pension providers can charge up to 1.5 per cent a year for stakeholders.

Norwich Union discovered the mistake during a review ahead of regulatory changes and says that customers who have already retired will receive a cheque in the next few weeks. Policyholders who have not yet retired will have their pension pots topped up to rectify the error.

Employers with five or more employees who do not offer any kind of pension scheme are required by law to provide access to a stakeholder scheme, but do not have to make contributions on behalf of their employees.

Stakeholders were introduced in 2001 as a way for low earners with no retirement savings to invest in a low-cost simple pension plan. These low cost pensions have been slated as a failure, but their introduction had the beneficial effect of subsequently driving down charges on personal pension plans.

They can also be extremely cheap. If you go to an independent financial adviser and pay a fee, you can negotiate even lower charges than 1 per cent.

I did just that and was advised to take out a Scottish Widows stakeholder pension which charges only 0.64 per cent a year. There are 30 funds to choose from, including those of three external fund managers.

Charges can have a significant effect on the final value of your pension pot and should always be taken into account when arranging a plan.

In bull markets, the effect of charges can appear less important, but in a bear market they can make all the difference between a negative and positive performance.

Find out more about stakeholder pensions:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/pensions/stakeholder-pensions.aspx

Try out the Defaqto annuity calculator to see how much income your fund will buy you:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/pensions.aspx

Want to find a pension provider?
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/pensions/a-to-z-of-pensions.aspx

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Lenders to reduce mortgage rates

November 10, 2008 | posted by Pam Atherton in Banking, Mortgages |

The major mortgage lenders caved in to Government pressure to reduce their lending rates last Friday, following a severe ticking off by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling.

Nationwide, HBOS, the RBS/NatWest and Northern Rock will cut their main variable lending rates by the full 1.5 per cent on 1 December, to reflect last week’s cut in base rate. Lloyds TSB and the Abbey had announced similar moves last Thursday.

The Nationwide is cutting its base mortgage rate from 6.19 per cent to 4.69 per cent, while RBS/NatWest is cutting its standard variable rate (SVR) by the same amount, from from 6.69 per cent to 5.19 per cent.

The HBOS SVR will fall from 6.50 per cent to 5.00 per cent.

Lenders had come under intense political and media pressure to pass on the full 1.5 per cent cut in base rate to their customers as quickly as possible, and in full.

But the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) warned that the precise level of any reductions would be a commercial decision for each individual lender because Libor (the London Interbank Offered Rate) - the rate at which banks lend to each and which, in turn, affects mortgage rates - remains stubbornly high at 4.49 per cent.

Lenders also have to balance the needs of their borrower with those of their savers, who will see a steep fall in their income. Building societies are particularly reliant on savers‘ deposits as they are not allowed to borrow as much as banks can from the capital market.

Michael Coogan, director general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, said: “I think over the next few days and weeks we will see that the banks and building societies will move by anywhere between 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent - the individual decisions will be on the basis of assessing what they want for their savers, as much as what they want for their borrowers.”

Almost all tracker mortgages have been withdrawn for new borrowers as lenders consider at what rates to reintroduce them.

Lloyds TSB, which owns Cheltenham and Gloucester, was the first to announce that it is to reduce the cost of fixed-rate deals for new borrowers.

Some deals for those offering a deposit of at least 25 per cent will become 0.3 of a percentage point cheaper from tomorrow (Tuesday 11 November).

The three-month sterling Libor rate - which has the greatest influence on new tracker mortgages - fell from 5.56 per cent to 4.49 per cent on Friday, its lowest level since the end of 2005.

But the rate remains almost one and a half percentage points above the Bank of England’s base rate - still well above pre-credit crunch levels.

Check out all the latest mortgage rates:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/mortgages.aspx

For the latest savings rates visit:
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/instant-access-accounts.aspx
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/regular-savings-accounts.aspx
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/cash-isas.aspx
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/notice-savings-accounts.aspx
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/term-accounts.aspx

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End in sight for Icesavers’ compensation nightmare

November 7, 2008 | posted by Pam Atherton in Banking, Savings |

The 230,000 customers of the insolvent Icelandic bank, Landsbanki, have started to receive emails from the Financial Services Compensation scheme explaining how they can access the £4.5bn of deposits held in its Icesave accounts.

The payment process, which will be rolled out over the course of November, should see customers receiving 100 per cent of their money transferred into their ’linked’ bank accounts as from next week.

Icesave customers will receive two e-mails from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), the first telling them that the process for retrieving their money is being launched, and the second giving them precise details of what they should do.

Savers will be asked to go onto the Icesave UK website using their existing login details and be given a time slot for logging in and transfering their money. The process will be entirely online, with customers being given a month to move their cash.

Savers can expect to receive the money in their linked bank accounts within five days of triggering the payment.

The FSCS’s maximum compensation limit for savings in an insolvent UK-authorised bank is normally £50,000, but the UK Government has agreed on this occasion to guarantee deposits up to 100 per cent.

Those with Icesave ISAs will be able to move their money to ISAs with other financial institutions, without losing their tax status.

However, the outlook for the thousands of investors in the Isle of Man arm of Iceland’s Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander bank, is less certain. Savers will have to wait until 27 November to find out whether they will get any money back.

Its Manx operation has 7,000 accounts, holding £850m, most of which is held by savers living outside the island.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, has said repeatedly that the UK Governement will not bail out individuals with offshore accounts and the Isle of Man’s Financial Supervision Commission only recently changed its compensation rules so that depositors, wherever they live, can claim up to £50,000.

In October, the UK Government arranged for the Dutch bank, ING, to take over the accounts of 160,000 customers who held money in the UK arm of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander and of 22,200 individuals with Heritable bank, a subsidiary of Landsbanki.

In Guerney, there is no compensation scheme at all for offshore account holders.

For more on the FSCS visit: www.fscs.org.uk

FSCS customer helpline 0845 7300 131 (Icesave enquiries only)

For more on compensation arrangements at Uk banks and building societies:
http://www.find.co.uk/saving/deposits/guide-to-saving-security

Visti the Defaqto savings account best buy tables
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/instant-access-accounts.aspx
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/regular-savings-accounts.aspx
http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/savings-accounts/cash-isas.aspx

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Time running out to register for pension protection

November 6, 2008 | posted by Pam Atherton in Pensions |

NEWS FLASH: Bank of England cuts base rate to 3 per cent

Time is running out if you need to register your pension fund for protection against penal taxation when you come to retire.

If you have a pension fund worth £1.65m or more, you may need to register for the so-called ‘Lifetime Allowance,’ to protect savings over this amount from being taxed at 55 per cent.

Those likely to be affected are high earners, with many years of membership in a final salary pension scheme, particularly if this started before 1989.

On April 6 2006 - known as ‘A-day’ - a new lifetime allowance was introduced, representing the limit at which pension savings can be taken tax-free.

Those with assets over the lifetime allowance were allowed until April 5 2009 to register the excess with the taxman. The lifetime allowance increases each year and will £1.8m in 2010-11.

There are two types of protection you can register for: primary and enhanced.

Primary protection
This applies if the value of your pension benefits on 5 April 2006 was greater than the lifetime allowance in force at that time, namely £1.5m.

This form of protection allows you to continue making pension contributions until retirement, when you will receive an uplift to the lifetime allowance as follows.

If, for example, your pension fund on 6 April 2006 (A day) was worth £3m, this was 200 per cent of the prevailing lifetime allowance of £1.5m in 2006-07.

If you retire in 2010, your uplifted lifetime allowance will be 200 per cent of the prevailing lifetime allowance of £1.8m for tax year 2010-11, giving you a protected fund of £3.6m - all tax free.

Any pension you draw over the £3.6m uplifted limit would be taxable at 55 per cent.

Enhanced protection
This is available to everyone irrespective of the value of their pension fund.

But, if you opt for ‘enhanced protection,’ you are forbidden from making any further contributions or receiving accruals to any pension scheme whatsoever as from 5 April 2006, and including personal accounts from 2012.

Providing you stick to this rule, the value of your pension fund as at 6 April 2006, plus all future growth is protected from taxation.

However, if you have put a penny into your pension since 6 April 2006, you will have destoyed your entitlement to enhanced protection.

So who is most likely to be affected by these rules?

The answer is largely individuals who have been members of a final salary scheme since before 1989. As a rough rule of thumb, if you multiply your years of membership by your highest salary while a member, and the answer is £3m or more, you should register

This is a very complex area and it is advisable that you consult an independent financial adviser in order that you register for the appropriate type of protection.

To find an IFA, visit www.unbiased.co.uk
To download the forms, visit www.hmrc.gov.uk/pensionschemes/protection.htm

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Financial services news round up

November 5, 2008 | posted by Pam Atherton in Banking, Insurance, Pensions, Savings |

Extreme economic turbulence continued to dominate events in October as concerns over the financial stability of banks, building societies and insurance companies intensified.

The FSA said it was keeping a wary eye on life companies, as life assurers suffered from a steep decline in the value of their portfolios of equities, bonds and commercial property.

Analysts, Fox Pitt Kelton, correctly predicted that Aegon and ING were among the most vulnerable and both received capital injections from the Dutch authorities to strengthen their balance sheets by the end of the month.

The FSA relaxed some of its capital requirements for life assurers to prevent them having to sell equities in a falling market. Some annuity advisers called for the age 75 annuity purchase rule to be waived temporarily because of the financial crisis, but to no avail.

The UK Government increased compensation on savings accounts to £50,000 per person and per UK authorised institution, following the collapse of three Icelandic banks. However, it agreed to guarantee UK-based retail deposits in Icelandic bank accounts up to 100 per cent.

For investors in the Icelandic banks’ offshore accounts, such as in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, the situation was less clear. IFAs with clients in offshore bonds, Sipps and SSASs were frantically trying to establish what compensation, if any, was available at the time of writing.

There were also concerns about money held in AIG Life’s UK enhanced fund which is to close on 15 December. Investors have the choice of withdrawing their investment or transferring it to a protected recovery fund.

Market value reductions were imposed on with profit policies provided by Friends Provident, Scottish Widows (15-20 per cent) and Norwich Union (13-22 per cent).

Elsewhere, as the industry awaits the final version of the Retail Distribution Review, financial adviser firm, Lighthouse, called for the review to be delayed due to the current financial crisis.

The Association of Independent Financial Advisers attacked the ABI’s attempt to undermine the sales/advice split proposed in the latest version of the RDR and warned that, if successful, this would lead to more mis-selling. Instead, it called for tied and multi-tied agents to be placed under the ’sales’ banner.

The Pensions Bill, which continues its tortuous journey through Parliament, included changes which will allow people to buy back 9 missing years of National Insurance Contributions if they retire before 2010, and 6 years if they retire after 2010.

However, potential entitlement to superior benefits via entitlement to the pension credit or via a spouse’s basic state pension, mean that many individuals will need advice as to whether it is in their interests to pay for missing years’ contributions.

Scottish Life’s pension guru, Steve Bee, highlighted the fact that the State Second Pension ( S2P) will soon become a flat rate top-up and that the loss of the earnings-related second pension will be a big issue for many middle earning employees.

With the relaxation of the self-investment rules for protected rights funds on 1 October, the FSA warned advisers to ensure they give suitable advice when transferring protected rights into Sipps.

As part of the latest ministerial reshuffle, Rosie Winterton became Pensions Minister, replacing the highly regarded Mike O’Brien, while Paul Myners became City minister, requiring him to step down from his role at the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority.

This led some commentators to predict the launch of personal accounts might have to be pushed back from 2012.

Elsewhere, the Financial Ombudsman Service announced plans to ‘name and shame’ financial firms with poor complaints handling statistics, while the FSA failed in its bid to use human rights legislation (which guarantees individual privacy) to block a freedom of information request about the ‘Lautro 12′ life offices.

The FSA hit back saying that the Tribunal needs to consider its other arguments before the IFA Defence Union can claim victory. But the IFADU said it was confident the information would be disclosed and that it would set up a fighting fund to investigate whether advisers can sue the regulator and the life offices.

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Savers’ dilemma puts focus on gilts

How to recession-proof your credit card purchases

Watchdog calls for clampdown on loan insurance

Credit card companies called to account

Mortgage rates tumble as lenders yield to Government pressure

Norwich Union pays compensation for charging error

Lenders to reduce mortgage rates

End in sight for Icesavers’ compensation nightmare

Time running out to register for pension protection

Financial services news round up

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