A report out this week throws more light on the painful state of the UK commercial property loan book. Bearing in mind that the total loans involved amount to £200 billion, this is where the bank’s balance sheets are being ‘clogged up’. Commercial property lenders are currently comfortable agreeing loans which are about 65% of the property [...]

British Linen was/is the name of a very old established bank. Through mergers and acquisitions it became the ‘Merchant Bank’ of The Bank of Scotland, then became part of HBoS so was then swallowed up by the Lloyds Banking Group – who therefore currently own it and are responsible for it. British Linen (BL) did a lot [...]

Just read a great article about Cesar Millan – the ‘Dog Whisperer’ (in ‘What the Dog Saw’ by Malcolm Gladwell). Those of you who have seen his NatGeo programme will know that he is able to help owners with their dysfunctional dogs by building a trust, setting expectations and then creating predictability in relations between [...]