Retirement cost to hit £1 million for those over 100

Rising retirement costs will be a big problem for all people living in this economical turmoil. These costs will triple within the next two decades due to longevity and the rising food and fuel bills. By the middle of this century, the cost of retirement could exceed £1.3 million if the rate of inflation remains at current levels for someone living to 100. People are forced to take a long term look at their financial situation if they would like to have a comfortable older life, without the need of selling their houses to pay for their retirement.

Ulrich De Bleecker

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/3187425/Retirement-cost-to-hit--1-million-for-those-over-100.html

Hong Kong Backs Its Banks

Since the economical crises started approximately one month ago in the USA, lots of previously strong banks tumbled into a financial gap which caused huge losses for the shareholders.

To prevent scenes such as the one of Lehman Brothers, American and European governments forced Asian regulators to be aware and take precautions for their banks before they run into trouble.

Therefore Hong Kong’s financial representatives declared that they would inject their banks with $773 billion and reassured all the people that their banking system is robust, healthy and that there is no need to panic.

Hong Kong specialists say that they are rather making preparations for a rainy day instead of already fixing real problems in the banking system.

Roeland Delrue

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/business/worldbusiness/15deposit.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

G7 ministers forced to think the unthinkable

Since the financial crisis approached into a critical phase last month, the Finance Ministers of the G7 needed to come up with a strong rescue plan to save the global system by thinking the unthinkable.
In contrast with earlier times, the G7 Finance Ministers no longer believe in the old purist approach, which believes in a ‘creative destruction’ and at the last reunion the free-market solution did no longer dominate the thought of nationalisation.
The G7 agreed on a rescue plan that will only have an international impact if there are 3 changes established concerning finance policy.
In case the chancellor’s plan doensn’t succeed to restore the confidence, there are only few possible solutions left to try to end this crisis. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Lara Alboort

Mobile banking is ringing again. Will customers answer?

The use of cell phones to conduct banking activities is still a relatively new capibility for many banks. Not suprisingly then, that, according to a recent study, currently only 1% of all customers uses a cell phone to perform a banking transaction or seek financial information. As might be expected, younger people - particularly those in the 18-34 segment - have the highest awareness and current use of any of the subgroups they examined. As awareness and interest in mobile banking spreads to other age groups, and given the speed of technical adoption, mobile banking is expected to be used by 35% of online bankers by 2010.

Yasmin De Wolf

http://www.mobielbreedband.nl/tag/m-banking/