Mortgage fraud case opens in Glasgow.

A mortgage fraud case has opened in Glasgow and the amount could reach as much as £3.2m. Institutions believed to be affected inlcude HBOS, which operates the Halifax and Bank of Scotland brands, and Lloyds TSB. A total of nine people have been arrested.
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A recent BBC report put UK mortgage fraud at around £700m and the attraction was that it was a low risk activity. One surprising issue is how some solicitors and accountants are prepared to risk their professional status by indulging in mortgage fraud.

Later note: the problems of Bradford & Bingley apparently have included fraud amounting to £15m.

Is Bank of England governor defending UK financial markets?

Is the Bank of England governor Mervyn King defending UK financial markets? Obviously, he would not like to be lectured by overpaid bankers over the need to hose
the markets with cheap cash. However, this might be necessary to get things going
again. I assume the governor is very aware of the dangers of importing inflation
with the depreciation of sterling. This should help exporters but this has never
been the priority of the Bank of England.
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Mr King must be as mystified as the rest of us that the banks have not cut dividends
and raised capital. This would be allied with management changes. How many
Barclays SIVs can go bust before the management does the decent thing.
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The credit crunch in the United Kingdom - how long?

I don't want to be negative but previous credit crunches in the United Kingdom have coincided with recessions. They seem to go together like ham and eggs and I can't
see British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and UK Chancellor Alistair Darling managing to persuade the banks to resume lending. I would assume the credit crunch to last
for the whole of 2008 while the housing market is already suffering from a lack of buyers. Some areas such as London are going up but others such as the West Midlands
are going down.
I think Brown and Darling should cut stamp duty rates to help pep up the housing market, a market, which is being dampened by the slimming down of Northern Rock.
www.searchifa.co.uk. In some respects the
housing market could just freeze up if vendors do not decide to lower prices. There would be just a Mexican stand-off.

Non-doms are hit by confusion in the UK.

In the United Kingdom, non-domiciled residents may be feeling a bit aggrieved with the sudden change in their tax position. The HMRC has finally got its way on an issue, which was always batted away by former premier Tony Blair.
It looks like a one-off opportunity for tax advisers to deal with their non-dom clients before they leave the country.