The reality of what the budget cuts, put in place by the new coalition government in Britain, really mean is making headlines in the UK: the National Health Service and disability insurance are likely to see sharp cuts. Meanwhile, new measures agreed to by the G20 to increase bank capital requirements could mean £130 million less for banks to loan for home mortgages, writes the Telegraph.
Links to other sites: British Medical Association press release, The Scotsman
Ireland is creating what is alternately described as a creative financial undertaking or a gamble: a national bank that will spend €54 billion to pay banks for mortgages to free up lending. The country’s property prices have fallen about 50 percent in the past 20 months and defaults on home loans are rising.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Irish Times, Nama
Home sweet home
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Home loans, which account for 90 percent of bank credits in Switzerland, have grown by 5.2 percent in the first nine months of 2009, with the rate of increase up most strongly since March. And while the rate of growth of corporate loans is down, they, too, continue to grow.
“There is no credit crunch,” Manuel Jetzer, Geneva region head of Credit Suisse declared at the annual press conference of the Geneva Financial Centre 14 October. “There is no credit contraction in Switzerland.”
Much of the thanks for this goes to the home loan business, which is benefiting from historically low interest rates, with some banks offering new loans for as low as 1.65 percent*.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two big US home loan companies bailed out early in the financial crisis, say they will suspend some foreclosures, which will force people to leave their homes, until early 2009, to give people more time to work out loan deals. Reuters
