Update: The Bank of England held interest rates today at 5.25 per cent – this column has had figures updated to reflect that.

Inflation was revealed to have dipped again yesterday to 6.7 per cent – a figure that just two years ago would have been seen as horrifyingly high but is now seen as something to be pleased about.

Despite the CPI reading still being a chunky number, it’s an important step on the road back to the ‘old normal’ – where both interest rates and wage rises are higher than inflation.

This is Money readers will not need reminding that falling inflation doesn’t mean life is getting cheaper, just that it’s getting more expensive at a slightly slower rate.

They will also be acutely aware a combination of CPI inflation at 9.9 per cent in August last year and 6.7 per cent this year, means the pound in their pocket has lost almost 17 per cent of its value in just two years.

But the ONS’s latest inflation figures did still contain two bits of good news.

Firstly, although inflation only inched down from 6.8 per cent to 6.7 per cent, this was a fall when a rise to about 7.1 per cent was widely forecast.

Secondly, core inflation – the reading that strips out volatile energy and food prices and tax-heavy alcohol and tobacco – fell back to 6.2 per cent from 6.9 per cent in July.

These two things point to inflation heading in the right direction, albeit it is highly likely a jump in petrol prices driven by the oil price spiking may push CPI higher next month.

Nonetheless, inflation is on its way down and economists suggest it could be below 5 per cent by the end of the year and keep declining towards the 2 per cent target throughout 2024.

A major contraction in money supply – the amount of new money being created in the economy – also points to disinflationary pressure.

> What falling inflation means for you – and where it could end 2023

Regardless of how swiftly CPI falls and whether the landing ends up being quite bumpy, it shouldn’t be long before the Bank of England base rate is above inflation.

The Bank’s monetary policy committee was widely forecast to raise rates again at midday today to 5.5 per cent, with a growing weight of opinion this may be the last rise.

Instead, the bank’s ratesetters opted to pause at 5.25 per cent, although further rises are not ruled out. 

That’s a shift from the inflation-panic forecasts in early summer when base rate was tipped to top 6 per cent.

> What the interest rate pause means for your mortgage and savings 

Rates may not spike as high now, but they will potentially stay higher for longer.

So, if the Bank sticks at 5.25 per cent into next year – or still moves up to 5.5 per cent – and CPI falls as forecast, by the end of 2023 we will be back to the point where base rate is above inflation.

That was the old normal, before the financial crisis and offbeat monetary policy arrived.

Since then, inflation has largely been above base rate, as the Bank of England kept interest rates on the floor.

This low-rate world was the ‘new normal’ that many expected to go on and on.

The recent inflation crisis that caught central bankers napping brought an abrupt end to that scenario and I suspect many ratesetters see the silver lining of this rude awakening as being a golden opportunity to get back to the old normal.

Part of the old normal also involved wages risen faster than inflation, which is something we have once again returned to.

Although current wage growth of 8.5 per cent is unsustainable long-term, employees across the UK will be hoping that as inflation moderates their pay increases remain above it.

Companies should back that idea, as it involves a return to the world of real pay rises and people getting a little bit richer each year – something good for a consumer economy.

As inflation falls, hopefully savings rates will stick above it – meaning a real return for savers.

Put your money into the top one-year fix from NS&I now at 6.2 per cent and it might be below inflation now, but you should make a real return on your cash over the next twelve months.

But savers should remain on their guard. Yesterday’s figures nudged down rate rise expectations and so will today’s rate pause – this will filter through to the best savings rates on the market.

Don’t expect too many of those 6 per cent-plus fixed rate savings accounts to stick around.

A fortnight ago, I warned of vanishing savings deals and advised readers to sign up to our Savings Alerts.

Shortly afterwards, Santander pulled its blockbuster 5.2 per cent easy access account. It only gave warning in the morning that savers had until midnight to get it.

If you were signed up to our savings alerts then you would have known and had time to act, as we emailed readers to warn them.

So, if you’re not part of the gang yet, sign up to Savings Alerts here.

This is Money podcast

Lender Aldermore enters race for Co-op Bank

By Daily Mail City & Finance

Updated: 20:43 EDT, 20 September 2023

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Britain urged to freeze ties with AIIB – China’s answer to the World Bank

By Patrick Tooher

Updated: 08:34 EDT, 17 September 2023

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Confidence in Bank of England plummets to all-time low

By Hugo Duncan

Updated: 02:54 EDT, 16 September 2023

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Biden laughs at query on handing over bank records amid Hunter probe

By Nikki Schwab, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Updated: 12:32 EDT, 1 September 2023

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President Joe Biden laughed off a question Thursday about whether he would share his bank records with Congressional Republicans who are probing his son Hunter’s business deals and threatening with opening an impeachment inquiry. 

Biden made a surprise visit to FEMA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. amid the agency’s Hurricane Idalia response and in the aftermath of the deadly wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui. 

There the 80-year-old president answered several questions from reporters after bringing pizzas and addressing FEMA’s workforce. 

After answering questions about overdose awareness day, a potential government shutdown and if he’d spoken to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who suffered from another health scare earlier this week, he laughed when asked if he’d hand over his bank records to the House GOP. 

‘Let’s talk about why I’m here,’ he said, and then answered an addition question on whether he wanted Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend next week’s G20 summit in India and revealed he would travel to Florida on Saturday to survey storm damage.

Biden has continually blown off questions about House Republicans’ investigations into son Hunter’s business deals in Ukraine and China but House Speaker Kevin McCarthy raised the stakes Sunday by saying an impeachment inquiry ‘is a natural step forward.’ 

‘That provides Congress the apex of legal power to get all the information they need,’ the California Republican said in an interview on Fox News. 

Despite there being no solid evidence linking the president to his son’s business deals, which were taking place at the height of Hunter’s crack cocaine addiction, McCarthy insisted there was a ‘culture of corruption that’s been happening within the entire Biden family.’ 

On Friday, NBC News reported that the White House had stood up a ‘war room’ of two dozen lawyers, legislative aides and communications staff to aggressively respond to a Republican impeachment inquiry, which comes as Biden is running for reelection. 

Sources told the network that the ‘war room’ team plans a vigorous response and will characterize the GOP’s efforts as a fact-free partisan sham that shows the party’s ‘penchant for chaos,’ NBC said. 

‘Comparing this to past impeachments isn’t apples to apples or even apples to oranges; it’s apples to elephants,’ one White House aide told NBC. ‘Never in modern history has an impeachment been based on no evidence whatsoever.’ 

It’s no surprise that some of the loudest voices backing impeachment are also top surrogates for former President Donald Trump. 

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told constituents Thursday night that she wouldn’t vote to fund the government unless House Republicans opened up an impeachment inquiry on Biden. 

‘I’ve already decided that I will not vote to fund the government unless we pass an impeachment inquiry on Joe Biden,’ Greene said at a Floyd County, Georgia town hall. 

She also pushed to have Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has now twice indicted Trump, defunded and Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss fired. 

Weiss, a Trump appointee, was elevated to special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland last month. 

He’s overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax and gun case in Delaware federal court. 

Greene announcement received cheers and applause from the conservative crowd. 

In a statement on Thursday night, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said: ‘The last thing the American people deserve is for extreme House members to trigger a government shutdown that hurts our economy, undermines our disaster preparedness, and forces our troops to work without guaranteed pay.’ 

‘The House Republicans responsible for keeping the government open already made a promise to the American public about government funding, and it would be a shame for them to break their word and fail the country because they caved to the hardcore fringe of their party in prioritizing a baseless impeachment stunt over high stakes needs Americans care about deeply – like fighting fentanyl trafficking, protecting our national security, and funding FEMA,’ he added.  

I have endured a lot of panic since last Thursday when Nationwide unexpectedly blocked my current account. It is my only bank account. 

I have no money for food or transport. On the day it happened, I had to borrow money to get home from work. 

I contacted the bank for answers, but it informed me that I would have to wait until the following Thursday to hear back about an investigation. 

This morning, I contacted Nationwide again, urgently requesting a small transfer of £10 to my new bank account. 

This would enable me to purchase a return bus ticket to reach the nearest Nationwide branch. I hoped that by visiting a branch in person, I might have a chance to access my locked funds. 

Shockingly, my plea was met with denial, even though the £10 represents less than 0.005% of the total amount. 

I don’t know why the account was frozen, but I recently received some money as an inheritance and think that perhaps has something to do with it. I provided proof of where this payment had come from, but it didn’t seem to help. 

I understand the need for security at Nationwide but I think this is really unjustified. J.W, Stirling

Helen Crane of This is Money replies:  I was sorry to hear that the finance industry’s fervour for ‘debanking’ has claimed yet another victim. 

As I have written before, having a bank account is an essential service in this day and age – and it’s not right that so many innocent people are having theirs ripped away. 

And like most of the others, you couldn’t get your bank – or in this case building society – to give you a proper explanation. 

You were at work – about 100 miles away from where you live – when you discovered that a block had been placed on your account, and had to borrow cash from someone just to get yourself home. 

Often in these cases, people are simply sent a letter telling them the bank ‘no longer wishes to provide them with banking services’ and told to await a cheque with their balance on. 

But fortunately – although I’m sure you didn’t feel very fortunate at the time – your account wasn’t closed for good, only frozen. 

You were promised a call from a fraud specialist within a week of your account being closed, but this didn’t happen until later after I had got involved. 

Seven days is too long to go without a bank account anyway, but making you wait even longer is unacceptable in my opinion. By this point, you were running out of food. 

You were told by Nationwide that, if you wanted to withdraw any money while you waited, you needed to go to the nearest branch with a form of ID. 

That was a problem, as you live in a rural area and didn’t have any money to get there. You resorted to begging Nationwide to allow you access to £10 for a bus ticket, and when that wasn’t possible you made a complaint. 

In the meantime, you opened a current account with another bank, but as it was the end of the month you couldn’t arrange for your salary to be paid into it in time. 

After you had been without your bank account for five days, you contacted me and I got on to Nationwide to ask what was taking so long – and whether it would give you some money to live on in the meantime. 

In the course of doing so, I uncovered a surprising reason for what had happened.

It turned out that you had raised suspicions by doing too much charity work. 

You volunteer for the charity the Trussell Trust, which supports a nationwide network of food banks. 

You had made an agreement with your local branch of Sainsbury’s to donate food to the charity. 

You would order the food online using your debit card every few days, and then the store would reimburse you.

How this appeared on your bank account was that, in June and July 2023 there were more than 80 transactions to Sainsbury’s. Each was for £46.00 or £46.50, followed by refunds for amounts of £60.00 or £60.50.

Whilst there is a difference in the amounts paid compared to the refunded amounts, this is due to an agreement between you and Sainsbury’s which I won’t go in to here.

Once you were able to speak to Nationwide’s fraud team and explain this, it said it was happy with the clarification and removed the block on your account. It has also agreed to pay you £50 compensation. 

They do say that no good deed goes unpunished, and in total, you were left without a bank account for 11 days. 

A Nationwide spokesperson said: ‘Due to a high volume of unusual payments on our customer’s account, we placed a block on his debit card and online banking as a precaution while we investigated the issue. 

‘The block was removed as soon as our customer was able to clarify the reason for the transactions. We apologise to our customer for the delay in reviewing his account and will be offering him £50 compensation.’

I do need to give Nationwide some credit for explaining what the issue was – in the end. Too often, banks are tight-lipped, even after someone has been proven not to have done anything wrong – and that is immensely frustrating for them. 

I fully understand that banks and building societies need to be vigilant when it comes to potential fraud. 

For every person who writes to me because they have been ‘debanked,’ there is another who has fallen victim to a nasty scam where a criminal has taken money from their bank account. 

But I think it is taking too long to get things sorted when issues are flagged. 

If the fraud team had called you on day one, you might have had your account back within hours – rather than struggling to get by for 11 days.

While households struggle with historically high inflation and eye-watering borrowing costs, Britain’s banking industry is enjoying bumper profit growth. 

HSBC last week posted half-year earnings growth of more than 144 per cent to $16.9billion, following rivals Lloyds, Standard Chartered and NatWest Group, which all revealed double-digit earnings expansion.

The results triggered a torrent of criticism from some politicians and activists who accuse the banking sector of benefiting at the expense of financially-stretched Britons.

Some critics say banks should pay a windfall tax, like that imposed on oil and gas companies last year. 

But Italy’s government was forced to water down such a move this week after the announcement sparked market movements that posed serious financial implications for the country.

Italy’s banks will still fork out more in tax, though – could Britain follow?

What Italy did – and why was it such a shock?

On Monday, Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s administration declared an ‘extra profits’ tax on its banking sector to fund tax cuts and mortgage support for Italians.

They said a 40 per cent levy would be imposed on net interest income – the difference between income earned from loans and interest paid to savers.

The move led to a meltdown in Italian banking stocks and implications for the country’s borrowing costs.  

Italy was forced to water down the plan just a day later.

The country’s finance ministry has now told lenders their tax bill will be capped at 0.1 per cent of their total assets. Italian banking stocks have subsequently revived. 

How have investors and analysts responded?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, some prominent shareholders in Italian banks have been critical of the plans.

David Herro, the chief investment officer of Harris Associates, a major investor in Italy’s largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, called it a ‘tragic’ policy that would punish a sector that has, until recently, struggled with low interest rates.

Cole Smead of Smead Capital, an investor in UniCredit, echoed that theme, tweeting that banks ‘starve on low rates [only] to then be punished for higher rates’.

Analysts at broker Jefferies predict the revised proposal will raise €2.5billion (£2.2billion) from the ten largest publicly-listed Italian banks, about €2billion less than under the original plan, and cause a 12 per cent average hit to annual profits this year. 

However, credit ratings agency Moody’s warned the move would be ‘credit negative’ for Italy’s banking industry, which is already being burdened by weak lending, elevated inflation levels and higher operating costs.

Are there any examples of windfall taxes in the banking sector?

Several European Union countries have introduced extra levies on the financial industry over the past year in response to spiraling inflation and consumer pressure.

Spain and the Czech Republic recently slapped higher taxes on their banks – a 60 per cent levy in the latter country – to fund support for citizens and companies affected by cost-of-living pressures.

Meanwhile, Hungary and Lithuania have brought in banking windfall taxes, partly to boost military spending amid the growing threat posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

The UK last imposed a banking windfall tax in 1981 during Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, when a one-off 2.5 per cent levy was put on banks’ deposits after interest rates were hiked to record levels to combat double-digit inflation.

UK banks also currently face a levy on their balance sheets, most of which applies to their debts. 

Every year HMRC assesses all funds deposited in banks and taxes them accordingly.

The idea, having been conceived in the fallout of the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, is to encourage financial discipline and cut down on overly risky behaviour. 

Who supports introducing a banking windfall tax in the UK?

Neither the Conservative nor Labour Party support extending the windfall tax currently on North Sea oil and gas producers or banks, though many backbench Labour MPs have called for one.

One major proponent has been former Bank of England deputy governor Charlie Bean, who says it could raise tens of billions of pounds to help cut the budget deficit.

Outside Bean’s old workplace last week, campaign group Positive Money staged a protest against base rate hikes while calling for a windfall tax on the financial sector.

The organisation argues that lenders stand to make a killing over the coming years from the BoE remunerating them just for holding reserves at the central bank, which it points out would be partly funded by taxpayers compensating the BoE for losses from its gilt portfolio.

What would a banking windfall tax in Britain look like?

Positive Money has suggested raising the bank surcharge from 3 per cent to 35 per cent, in line with the energy profits levy. 

It claims this would raise at least £20billion from the ‘Big Four’ British banks of HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest.

Alternatively, the group says a 4 per cent tax on unreserved deposits would generate more than £50billion per year.

Simon Youel, its head of policy and advocacy, told This is Money that the revenues raised just from the ‘Big Four’ could fund a 2.5 per cent cut in VAT whilst also lowering inflation.

He additionally said a further £2billion raised from other lenders could finance free school meals for all primary and secondary school children in England.

What are the arguments against a UK banking windfall tax?

Britain’s financial services sector already contributes a significant amount of tax: £28.8billion in 2021, according to HM Revenue & Customs.

Putting up taxes too much would drive business to other markets, piling further pressure on an industry already struggling with Brexit and a growing international preference for Wall Street over the City.  

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said the Energy Profits Levy has already caused some oil and gas companies to shelve investment.

The North Sea’s largest energy producer, Harbour Energy, is cutting jobs and shifting spending away from the UK after barely scraping a profit last year due to the levy.

On the banking sector, he said it played a vital role during the Covid lockdowns in keeping the UK economy ticking over, which given their role in the financial crisis was the ‘least they could do’.

He added: ‘Politicians need to be aware that profits not only go to shareholders, of which the government is one in NatWest, but they also help the bank funding lending to businesses, and consumers.

‘Remove the incentives to take risks, and banks will take less risk with all the damage that could with regard to funding new business and start-ups.’

The Reserve Bank’s outgoing governor Philip Lowe has admitted he’s the most unpopular man in Australia – but argued inflation would be even higher without his aggressive rate hikes.

Dr Lowe told a House of Representatives economics committee in Canberra he wasn’t worried about being unpopular, in his last appearance before a parliamentary hearing before he finishes in September.

‘It’s unpopular but we’ll do what’s necessary and want the community to understand that because if people come to doubt us, that will make the eventual task more difficult,’ he said on Friday. 

Dr Lowe was seated next to his deputy and successor Michele Bullock, who next month will become the first woman to lead the Reserve Bank in its 63-year history. 

He said that unlike politicians, he didn’t have to worry about being re-elected, after Treasurer Jim Chalmers declined to extend his seven-year term.

‘The reason that monetary policy has really been assigned to an independent, central bank is it’s very difficult for the political class to do what we’re currently doing – that is putting up interest rates,’ Dr Lowe said.

‘People are hurting, it’s very uncomfortable and we’re putting up interest rates.

‘In parts of the community, we’re incredibly popular – I often read in the paper that I’m the most unpopular person in the country. That’s fine.

‘It’s much harder for the political class to be unpopular in the way that the Reserve Bank and I am unpopular.’

Australian home borrowers have copped the most aggressive pace of interest rate rises since 1989 – with 12 increases since May 2022 that have taken the cash rate to an 11-year high of 4.1 per cent. 

Variable mortgage rates have typically surged by 64 per cent in little more than a year with borrowers servicing an average $600,000 mortgage paying $17,800 a year more than they did 15 months ago.

Despite that, Sydney’s median house price has been climbing in every month since February, last month rising by another one per cent to $1.334million, CoreLogic data showed.

Dr Lowe noted that Australia’s population growth pace of 2 per cent was outpacing the 1.5 per cent increase in new homes, arguing those buying now regarded the hiking cycle as being over. 

‘There’s an understandable perception in the community that the peak of interest rates is either now or close at hand,’ he said.

‘People say, “If I can afford the current rate of repayments and I don’t lose my job, there’s going to be strong demand going forward”.’

But with rents surging in Australia’s biggest cities, Dr Lowe spoke out against the idea of a rent cap, a policy advocated by the Greens.

‘They’re short-term fixes that make the problem worse,’ he said.

‘In most cases, rent controls reduce the incentive to add to supply.’

Dr Lowe said that even if rates were to rise again, they wouldn’t be going up to the same extent with crude oil prices now lower than they were last year. 

‘Interest rates have increased a lot, who knows what’s going to happen in the future, but we won’t see the type of increases in interest rates that we’ve seen over the last year,’ he said. ‘That pressure will go away.’ 

He made the suggestion despite indicating in 2021 that interest rates would stay on hold at a record-low of 0.1 per cent until 2024 ‘at the earliest’. 

Australia’s 6 per cent inflation rate is lower than the 32-year high level of 7.8 per cent reached at the end of 2022, but it’s still much higher than the wage price index of 3.7 per cent. 

‘I know high interest rates are unpopular but it’s the way to get inflation back down and real incomes rising again,’ Dr Lowe said.

‘The biggest drain on real, household disposable income over the past year isn’t higher interest rates, it’s high inflation.’

Dr Lowe, whose seven-year term expires on September 18, promised wages growth would overtake inflation in 2024 and suggested less of the cost of living burden would fall on the young.

‘There are clear differences across households – younger households who borrowed during the pandemic are having to restrain their spending more than older households who have a lot of financial assets, don’t have any debt,’ he said.

‘I think we’ll see a more equal experience over the next 12 months than we’ve had over the past 12 months.

‘The key to that is to get inflation down and to get real incomes rising again because that will help everybody.’

Australians are typically suffering a cut in real wages, whether or not that owned their home outright, had a mortgage or were renting.

‘The first point I’d make is everybody’s hurting because high inflation is eroding people’s real income,’ Dr Lowe said. 

‘And when real income goes down, you have to cut back your spending and we see that cutback in spending right across the board.

‘High inflation is eroding people’s incomes and that’s causing everyone pain and that’s why it’s so critical to get inflation down.’

The Reserve Bank is expecting wages growth to exceed four per cent in 2024, for the first time in 15 years.

Dr Lowe warned that without productivity improvements, real wages, economic growth and profitability would suffer. 

‘If we don’t we’re going to have problems,’ he said.

The RBA is expecting inflation to return to the top of its two to three per cent target by mid-2025 but Dr Lowe noted that would have still meant four years of inflation being outside the band. 

‘If we let it drift longer, people might rightly say, ‘Was the Reserve Bank really serious about this?’,’ he said, adding this would see people demand higher wages and lead to higher prices.

‘The whole inflation psychology would shift and once that happens, we know that to get inflation eventually back down means even higher interest rates and more unemployment.’

The 30-day interbank futures market and three of Australia’s Big Four banks – Commonwealth, Westpac and ANZ – believe the rate rises are over.

But NAB is forecasting one more increase in November that would take the cash rate to a 12-year high of 4.35 per cent. 

Banks have been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons lately – shutting down accounts, penalising savers, losing customer trust. But Solihull-based Secure Trust Bank strives to be different.

Under ambitious chief executive David Creadie, the bank defines its mission as helping consumers and businesses to fulfil their ambitions.

In a world awash with flowery but meaningless corporate gobbledegook, Secure Trust’s ethos is reassuringly simple. And it is backed by hard graft and consistent service across four main areas of lending – goods and services, cars, professional property and business.

The first arm is all about helping shops to offer credit, largely interest-free, to their customers. 

Secure Trust works with more than 1,500 retailers, including Watches of Switzerland and furniture giant DFS. Creadie also supplies all the Premier League clubs with finance so they can offer season ticket deals to fans. And with some London clubs charging well over £1,000 for a single season of games, supporters need all the help they can muster.

Not so long ago, Secure Trust focused on costly loans for hard-pressed shoppers. Now, the bank tends towards interest-free credit, generally offered to more affluent consumers, who are less susceptible to economic pressures. 

Bad debts are lower, credit facilities are higher and Secure Trust is expanding at a fair clip, increasing lending by more than £1billion last year alone, while remaining prudent about the customers it takes on.

Secure Trust also supplies finance to nearly 500 car dealers and brokers so they can offer deals to motorists in search of second-hand vehicles.

Again, business is brisk. The bank offers cutting-edge technology that allows loans to be made swiftly and efficiently and new business more than doubled last year. 

On the property front, Creadie is keen to distinguish his business from other buy-to-let mortgage lenders. His bank specialises in lending to individuals and small firms that own four or five properties, each with several flats. These are experienced property hands, borrowing around £10million on average. 

But Secure Trust takes a conservative approach to lending, so bad debts are minimal. The bank supplies credit to small businesses too, generally backed by assets such as invoices. Typical customers include food processors and manufacturers which supply supermarkets and may have to wait weeks or months before invoices are settled.

The bank advances up to 90 per cent of the funds up-front, so firms have access to the working capital they need. Across the group, net lending rose 17 per cent to more than £3billion in the first quarter of 2023, with further growth expected throughout the year.

Loans are largely funded by deposits and here too Secure Trust is expanding, attracting more than £2.5billion of savings in the first quarter of 2023 and on track to deliver more of the same through the year. 

Secure Trust shares have been hit hard by macro-economic worries, more than halving in value to £5.56 since last August. The price is a poor reflection of current trading and future prospects.

Interim figures, out this week, should prove encouraging. Secure Trust is a minnow compared to other banks, valued on the stock market at just £107million. 

But it has more than 1.2million customers and Creadie is confident of delivering growth. He took the helm in 2021, has made some canny moves to date and won support among City analysts. Brokers forecast a 13 per cent increase in profits to £44million this year, rising to £53million in 2024. Dividends are pretty decent too, with 43p pencilled in for 2023, rising to more than 50p next year.

Midas verdict: Secure Trust shares were more than £12 last summer. Now they are just £5.56, even though the business has grown, costs have been streamlined and the outlook is bright. 

Banks may be unloved right now but Secure Trust is a rather different animal and David Creadie is determined to make his mark. The shares are a buy and the 7.5 per cent dividend yield is an added attraction.

Traded on: Main market Ticker: STB Contact: securetrustbank.com or 0121 693 9100