Nationwide Building Society

Chancellor John Healey has summoned the bosses of Britain's biggest banks to a pre-budget summit next Tuesday, amid industry expectations of a tax raid later this month. Sky News has learnt that the chief executives of lenders including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and NatWest Group have been asked to attend, with the bosses of Santander UK and Nationwide also understood to have been invited. It will be the first such in-person meeting Healey has held with UK bank chiefs since he replaced Rachel Reeves as chancellor in July, and comes ahead of his inaugural major fiscal event towards the end of the month. Banking industry fears are growing that he will hike taxes on the sector by billions of pounds a year to fund spending commitments or tax cuts elsewhere, and sector chiefs have embarked on a frenetic lobbying campaign to head off a tax raid. Earlier this week, Sky News revealed that Revolut was among a pack of challenger banks urging the chancellor to remove the threat of an immediate tax raid, with a dozen mid-tier lenders signing a letter calling on him to lift the threshold at which the corporation tax surcharge applies to banks from £100m to £500m; the signatories also included Monzo, Paragon Bank and Shawbrook. Healey has not yet met the bosses of the UK's biggest banks, but has held face-to-face talks with Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, who has raised the prospect of cancelling a major new UK headquarters if international banks are hit with higher UK taxes.

UK house prices in September grew by only 0.8% year on year, the slowest rate since December last year and half the 1.6% increase seen in August, while falling short of economists' expectations of a 1.3% rise. Nationwide Building Society reported today that on a monthly basis, house prices fell 0.2% in September, the fastest decline since May and below analysts' expectations of a flat 0%. Nationwide's chief economist said activity in the market and house prices have remained subdued in recent months, partly reflecting an economic backdrop that remains uncertain, with higher borrowing costs due to the conflict in Iran weighing on demand.

Barclays has withdrawn its cheapest two-year fixed mortgage from the market after soaring fuel prices triggered fresh inflation fears. The high-street bank's market-leading 4.75pc two-year fix and 4.93pc five-year deal will no longer be available to new customers from Sept 29, with Barclays saying its two-year fixed-rate products would increase by 30 basis points to 5.05pc and the five-year fix to 5.03pc. The conflict in the Middle East pushed oil prices above $108 on Monday, and average pump prices for diesel have hit a record 199.18p, according to the RAC, while swap rates sat at 4.69pc on Monday, according to comparison site Moneyfacts. It is the second time this month that Barclays has increased its rates, after raising its two-year fix from 4.55pc to 4.75pc on Sept 16, and comes after Nationwide raised fixed-rate mortgages by 0.30 percentage points, with HSBC and TSB also increasing their rates. The average two-year fix was 5.91pc on Monday, according to Moneyfacts, and the Bank of England held rates at 3.75pc on Sept 17, though expectations are mounting that there could be another increase in the Bank Rate before the end of the year.

The co-chairs of Parliament's Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group have written to the chief executives of every major UK bank, asking them to explain how they treat crypto and digital asset firms. The letter, sent Tuesday by Labour MP Gurinder Singh Josan and Lord Vaizey of Didcot, says the group has heard repeated instances where crypto and digital asset firms have struggled to open accounts with UK banks, alongside reports that several banks have restricted crypto-related payments. The co-chairs put six questions to each bank, covering policy, current service to crypto firms, transaction limits, driving factors, the impact of the incoming regime, and what the Government or regulators could do to help. UK banks including HSBC, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander and Starling have curbed crypto-related payments in recent years, with research from the UK Cryptoasset Business Council in January finding that banks were blocking or delaying an estimated 40% of attempted transfers to crypto exchanges. HM Treasury has already conceded the problem, with Economic Secretary Lucy Rigby telling Parliament in March that under the new regime the Government would not expect FCA-licensed firms to face restrictions from banks simply because of the sector they belong to.

A cross-party group of UK lawmakers has launched a parliamentary inquiry into the banking problems dogging the country's crypto industry. The Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group, co-chaired by Lord Vaizey of Didcot and Labour MP Gurinder Singh Josan, will probe why firms struggle to open accounts and why banks curb crypto-related payments. The inquiry comes weeks after the UK finalized its new crypto regulatory framework and will test whether banking barriers could undermine the Government's goal of making the country a global leader in digital assets. It will examine access to accounts and services, including insurance, along with transfer limits and payment blocks imposed by banks such as HSBC, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander and Starling Bank. The APPG is taking written evidence until August 31 before publishing a report with recommendations ahead of October 2027, when the new crypto regime becomes mandatory.