RBS, property, spending and identity theft

Royal Bank of Scotland is to pay $1.1 billion (£846 million) to settle US lawsuits over claims it sold toxic mortgage securities to two American credit unions in the run-up to the financial crisis, according to The Telegraph. But the bank still faces almost 20 claims over its sale of mortgage-backed securities in the US, the largest of which are those brought by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the US Department of Justice (DoJ). RBS investors were rattled earlier this month when the DoJ demanded a $14 billion settlement from Deutsche Bank, sparking fears the German lender will be crippled by the bill. Analysts estimate RBS could end up paying billions of dollars to settle the various suits. Property London has been replaced by Vancouver as having the frothiest property market of any major city in the world, The Telegraph reports. UBS’ Global Real Estate Bubble Index said London has the second most over-valued homes, and described it as being in ‘bubble-risk territory’. Only Hong Kong is more unaffordable than London, when taking into account increasing house prices and average earnings. In London, house prices are 15 per cent higher than the 2007 market peak, but incomes are 10 per cent lower. Shopping The strength of Britain’s high street sales appears to be waning after shops reported a weaker than expected September, according to The Guardian. The CBI’s health check of retailers and wholesale businesses found that the balance of firms reporting a fall in sales over the last year dropped to -8 from a high of +9 in August. Good weather in much of the country failed to prevent a decline in sales of groceries, food and drink and leather. Steady sales of clothing and footwear and DIY goods kept the tills ringing enough for a balance of +7 per cent of retailers to say that their sales volumes in September were good for the time of year. In other spending news, new research from Savills and intu suggests that young people are set to increase the amount they spend on fashion over the next 12 months, and are the age group that enjoy shopping in physical stores the most, but they also say they find it hard to find the products they want.

Nearly half of those aged 16-24 (‘Generation Z’) say they envisage increasing their spend on fashion over the next 12 months, compared to just 22 per cent of those aged 65-74 (‘Baby Boomers’), but 50 per cent say there is not enough fashion choice for them, according to the ‘Spotlight: Retail Revolutions’ report.

Bogus emails

Crooks are being blocked from duping victims into handing over their bank details by sending them emails that appear to be from the taxman, according to the Daily Mail.

The Government has launched a major crackdown on online criminals that impersonate official email addresses to lure savers into handing over financial information.

Criminals have been sending fake emails from HM Revenue and Customs, which end with gov.uk, which is the sign-off used by all government departments.

Identity theft

New research has revealed that cash is winning out over convenience as Britons prefer to make payments via cash than card. The lead reasons driving this include wanting to reduce the risk of identity theft that card payments can be vulnerable to and wanting to keep a close track of spending.

The team at www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk conducted the research as part of an ongoing study into British attitudes towards money. 2,410 Britons aged 18 and over, all of whom stated that they are in control of their own finances, were quizzed about how they felt about cash payments as opposed to card.

Minimum wage The Guardian reports that just three employers have been prosecuted for paying workers below the minimum wage despite HM Revenue and Customs finding 700 who have broken the law in the past two and a half years. Since February 2014, the government has ‘named and shamed’ 700 employers who have underpaid more than 13,000 workers by over £3.5 million. But less than a quarter of a percent of them have been prosecuted under laws that in theory provide for prison sentences in the most extreme cases of wilful non-compliance. Travel

New research has revealed that people who opt to fly out from an airport that isn’t the closest one to their home in order to benefit from cheaper flights, actually end up spending more in the long run due to the travel costs; hampering their efforts to save money.

According to the poll by online travel agency www.sunshine.co.uk, 79 per cent of Britons opt to fly from an airport that isn’t the closest one to their home, with the majority doing so in order to get cheaper airfare. The top ways in which Britons try to save money on their flights have also been revealed following the research, including that 62 per cent will fly at awkward (i.e. very early or very late) times in order to shave money on flying.