Bank of England

Nicolas Moreau, the new chief executive of Axa's UK operations, plans to beef up the insurer's asset management business and enter the direct motor insurance market, says the Daily Telegraph .

The House of Lords have criticised the Treasury for producing "over-optimistic" forecasts which is making it "more difficult than it needs to be" for the Bank of England to set interest rates.

News out this week investment banks may be lowering their forecasts on average oil prices through 2007 should spell good news for anyone considering investments of any kind.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee(MPC) has frozen rates at 5% as widely expected.

The first bust company pension schemes to be bailed out under the recently-formed Pension Protection Fund were named today, says the Daily Telegraph .

Mortgage lending hit a three-year high of £9.8bn in October, according to the latest figures from the Bank of England.

Pension buyouts have received a ringing endorsement from Mike Samuel, the chairman of a new pensions advisory group, reports the Daily Telegraph .

A typical British household pays more than £200,000 in indirect taxes over a lifetime, according to a report by Axa, says the Scotsman .

Nationwide saw profits rise by almost a third last year, helped by an increase in mortgage lending, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Thursday's expected interest rate increase will put the squeeze on employees already suffering from a slowdown in average take-home pay, according to Voca, the company which processes all of the UK's automated payments.