Treasury

Today's Cabinet reshuffle has seen Stephen Timms MP become Financial Secretary to the Treasury while Ruth Kelly MP is appointed as Minister of State at the Cabinet Office.

Introducing a tiered inheritance tax band would cut the tax paid by nine out of ten people but still add an extra £150m a year to the Treasury coffers, says the IPPR.

Tax rates and regimes must be changed to reflect the different nature of property investment funds (PIFs) if these sorts of products are to have any chance of success, argues the IMA in its response to government consultations.

The Treasury has published a consultation paper linked to the independent review of the actuarial profession sparked by criticism contained in the Penrose Report.

Proposals to limit insider dealing and market manipulation have been outlined by the Treasury and FSA in a joint document consulting on how to implement the EU Market Abuse Directive in the UK.

The Treasury has today decided to raise the charge cap on stakeholder pension products to 1.5% for the first 10 years they are held, reverting it back to 1% therafter.

Undoing the 1% price cap on stakeholder products would only enable firms to maximise revenue from higher income earners without encouraging low- and medium-income earners to save more, warns the Consumers' Association.

The Consumers' Association says the Treasury figure of 700,000 endowment policyholders who are now time-barred from making complaints is more than reason enough to demand an inquiry into when the FSA and Treasury knew so many people would be denied redress....

Around 700,000 endowment mortgage policyholders have been ‘time-barred' from making a mis-selling complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, alleges a Treasury report.

Britain's financial services industry must recognise the big changes set to be unleashed by a pending wave of directives, regulations and other measures, the Treasury says.