In-person preferred

A RECENT survey found that a third of the UK population prefer to do their banking in per‐son. Meanwhile, high street banks maintain in‐person services are underused although the survey found that people wanted person‐to‐person advice even when they were comput‐er‐literate and could obtain it online.

Forty‐four per cent of over‐55s said they would rather visit a branch but the survey by professional services company, Accenture, found that not only older generations were averse to change as the 18‐34 age group also hesitated to switch entirely to online banking. More people were using the Post Office to manage money as a result of branches closing, which often made it the only location where consumers and businesses could do their banking. ers will have access to this funding on the understanding that the properties will be available as social housing for at least 50 years,” government sources said. Not all of the 50,000 properties acquired by Sareb when the 2008 property bubble burst will be immedi‐ately available, however.

Twenty‐one thousand of the Sareb homes are finished and the bank possesses enough land to build 15,000 more, but a further 14,000 are at present occupied by squat‐ters. Raquel Sanchez, Trans‐port and Urban Agenda minis‐ter, explained during a La Sexta television interview, that where possible the govern‐ment hoped to be able to “le‐galise the situation” of the squatters.

The minister did not men‐tion that only 2,230 of Sareb’s properties were located in Madrid, Valencia, or Barcelona whose respective rents had risen by 10.4, 18.4 and 19.1 per cent since March 2022.

LONDON‐BASED accountancy firm Ernst & Young (EY) is cut‐ting 3,000 US jobs, citing over‐capacity. Days earlier, EY aban‐doned plans to separate its auditing and consulting divi‐sions although the company maintained that the reduc‐tions were unrelated. The cuts affecting approximately 5 per cent of its US workforce were part of its ongoing manage‐ment of the business, said EY, promising “comprehensive support” to those affected.