SKIPTON Building Society has boosted the sparse 95 per cent loan-to-value mortgage market with a deal aimed at first-time buyers.

Small businesses focus on their survival, and rarely look at their financial statements. Accounting information can serves as a valuable tool, when decisions are made about the business.

Ciena sees hard times ahead. Payless pays off. Hovnanian tries to find its way home.

Consumers are getting edgy from Sumatra to Schleswig-Holstein, and that quite likely portends more weakness.

Short-sellers are convinced that Jos. A. Bank has a dim future, but they keep reading results and weeping.

Depending on where you look, you can find economic conditions to match your outlook.

Here are a few questions you might want to ask Mel Karmazin about Sirius if you meet him on the street.

Energy may be toast, and the dollar's dose of weakness has probably run its course. Now what?

Consumers research financial products online in search of a mix of product details, comparisons, and help choosing the right product. Since most financial firms don't provide that information, many researchers are going to independent Web sites to find the information that they want. These independent sites are chipping away at financial firms' retail relationships, threatening to relegate the firms to the role of manufacturers.

Most European online financial researchers start at search engines and then use a variety of other sites to research their financial decisions. Portals, price comparison sites, and independent review sites are all popular among European online financial researchers. Different types of customers visit different sites when they research online. Self-Directed consumers are drawn to comparison and review sites; Validators are more likely just to visit their main bank's site.