News

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has reported gross mortgage lending reached £16.5 billion in March - a 12 per cent decrease from the last three months of 2014, and a 3 per cent decrease on the first quarter of 2014. The figure was 21 per cent higher than February (£13.6 billion), and 7 per cent hi

The owner of The Belfry has made a formal offer to buy Gleneagles that values the iconic Perthshire golfing destination at more than £150m. KSL Capital Partners, a US-based private equity firm, is one of two remaining bidders for the venue of last autumn's Ryder Cup.

Scottish VAT fraudster Michael Voudouri’s has been frustrated in his attempt to hold on to his £1 million Stirlingshire house. The Crown Office will now sell the luxury home in Bridge of Allan that Voudouri, 47, left behind when he fled to Northern Cyprus in 2012 following his conviction for runn

Sarah Speirs Scottish construction firms are still being prevented from growth because of persistent difficulties in sourcing skilled workers, a survey has found.

Joe Stather A Granite City with a more diverse economy in the wake of the plunge in oil prices may make the Aberdeen hotel market more attractive to investors, according to property consults CBRE.

James Watt and Martin Dickie Crowdfunding pioneer and Scotland’s largest independent brewer, Brewdog, has announced that it has embarked on the largest ever equity crowdfunding drive attempted in the UK in a bid to raise £25 million.

New rules making it easier for people to switch their current accounts to other banks has hit two of Scotland’s major lenders hard, according to new figures. Royal Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale have lost a total of almost 18,000 customers in a mass exodus prompted by the new system.

Richard House Edinburgh-based Standard Life Investments has launched a fourth strategy in the suite of Emerging Market Debt (EMD) products it currently has available to retail and institutional investors.

Merrill Lynch International (MLI) has been fined £13,285,900 by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for incorrectly reporting more than 35 million transactions and failing to report another 120,000 transactions between November 2007 and November 2014. The FCA said the size of the fine – the hig

An employee at a Glasgow law firm has admitted to embezzling £180,000 from her employers. Teresa Kidd, 44, a purchase ledger at Maclay Murray and Spens LLP (MMS) took thousands from her employers between October 2006 and November 2011.

Edinburgh-based Tesco Bank has seen pre-tax profits rise by 10 per cent to £168m and its customer base grow to 7.4 million over the past financial year. The challenger bank division of supermarket giant Tesco Group said profits were impacted by costs incurred on its expansion into mortgages and cur

Susie Swift Accountants Saffery Champness are advising those who let rural houses and holiday property to take the opportunity to place their tax affairs in order as HMRC launches its latest Let Property campaign.

Ian Williams Credit card companies are giving Scottish customers more credit, even though they haven’t asked for it, research from debt advice and solutions provider Debt Advisory Centre Scotland has revealed.

Scottish property prices, driven by high-end buyers scrambling to complete purchases before the introduction of new Holyrood tax rates, rose at their fastest rate in February for eight years, according to latest figures. The Your Move/acadata Index found that the average house price north of the Bor

Bryan Jackson The number of Scots going bust in the first quarter of 2015 fell by 2.4 per cent compared with the last quarter of 2014 and by 15.2 per cent year-on-year, according to latest figures.