Tony Smith Considers Investing Now

Last month I blogged about the forthcoming rate rise, and suggested that customers should look to make hay while the sun is shining. I did so on the basis that these historically low interest rates cannot be maintained forever, and we should expect to see a return to something approaching the norm (say 3-4%) over the coming decade. Some commentators are now suggesting that it will be 2020 before the next rate rise. The BoE has downgraded growth forecasts and does not expect inflation to reach its 2% target for the next two years at least. Mark Carney also said in his speech there were “powerful forces” preventing any rate rise in the near future, although he wrote in his summary that rates were more likely than not to rise by the end of next year. On the other hand, he has also said that they may very well head into negative territory. The BoE may well be outside the Government, but they are not beyond politicking themselves. I’m not sure if the Governor is right about inflation
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Tony Smith Considers the Forthcoming Rate Rise

As I’ve said here and in other places before, it is my belief that rises in in the Bank Rate are inevitable (standing currently at 0.5%, how could they not be?) and that a return to the historic average (or at least 3-4%) might easily be anticipated by early next decade. The Feds raised their rates last thing in 2015 and the Bank of England are due to make an announcement, at the time of writing, next Tuesday. So the question I am asking myself this month is, ‘Are the forthcoming hikes in interest rates imminent for our customers?’ The primary goal of the Bank of England, set by the Treasury, is to maintain inflation at a level of around 2%. If inflation is below 2%, you might expect interest rates to be cut in order to fend off deflationary pressures; if on the other hand it is above 2%, you might expect an interest rate rise to fend off inflationary pressure. Basically the idea is that by making money more or less expensive you can turn money supply on and off like a tap in or
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Are we taking the P out of P2P?

Tony Smith considers the attractiveness or otherwise of these platforms. The FCA are currently carrying out an investigation into P2P funders, seeing them as a potential risk to the financial stability of the marketplace. Yet we retain P2P lenders among our panel of funders. Why? Well firstly, this financial innovation has caught the imagination of internet users across the UK and simply goes from strength to strength. This is a fact we can’t ignore. We have a significant internet presence ourselves and many of our internet enquiries will ultimately end up being best served by one of these products. They are flexible, unsecured and priced very attractively. Bypassing the banks seems to have cut expenses and released a wealth of funding which might otherwise be tied up in capital controls and languishing in somebody’s bank account, earning very little interest. That being said, whilst this kind of product serves the borrower well, I’m not sure as an investor I’d find it quite s
http://businessfundingsolutions.co.uk/are-we-taking-the-p-out-of-p2p/