HSBC will increase its mortgage lending by 20% in 2009. Mortgage data showed last week that UK banks had approved the fewest mortgages since 1999.
As the bank prepares to set aside £15bn (nearly twice as much as in 2007), the managing director says that it has ‘no intention of closing its doors to customers’ next year.
Paul Thurston says: ‘We remain open for business to the tune of £15bn.’
Banks in the UK have faced pressure to increase lending to small businesses amid the economic downturn following the Government's £37bn bail-out of the sector, which did not include HSBC.
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Nature and nurture in the gardens of Bramham ParkTim Richardson looks at the innovative and superbly maintained 18th-century landscape garden of Bramham Park in West Yorkshire, home of Nick and Rachel Lane Fox. Photographs by Paul Highnam.
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If the future of Ferrari is electric vehicles, then it is our future tooIt's widely believed that Ferrari will unveil its first electric car this year. It's the signal that the internal combustion era is coming to an end.
