The Reporter: Rupert Jones takes a sideways look at the new

The Reporter: Rupert Jones takes a sideways look at the new

Mayday! Mayday! Batten down the hatches. Experts say interest rates are almost guaranteed to go up next month - and maybe again after that - after a surge in inflation. It's bad news for the millions of home owners not on fixed-rate mortgage deals. The Liberal Democrats say further rises "will cause misery for thousands of people in severe debt who have borrowed up to the hilt to secure a mortgage". Meanwhile, the $2 pound became a reality this week. "The most obvious winners will be UK tourists going to the US and other dollar-linked destinations," says Howard Archer, an economist at Global Insight.

Now there's a thought: Barclays got it in the neck this week with the publication of a survey that showed it is the "least trusted" of the big four high street banks. The personal finance website fool.co.uk polled 3,750 of its users and asked them whether they trusted their bank to sell them the right products. Only 28% of those who were Barclays customers said yes. Meanwhile, more than one in five Barclays customers said money had gone missing from their account. By an unfortunate coincidence, the research was published on the day that a former Barclays bank manager was jailed for two years after he admitted defrauding his local branch in Stroud, Gloucestershire, of more than £58,000.

Greenhouse savings: Another of the big four, Lloyds TSB, is the latest bank to display its environmentally.....continued below

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friendly credentials. Its insurance arm says it is helping green-minded households save money by providing free cover for wind turbines, solar panels and ground source heating pumps on its buildings insurance policies. Increasing numbers of households are expected to follow the likes of David Cameron and Jamie Oliver and go green after the recent government proposal to remove the need for planning permission to install renewable energy systems.

Skinned Cat: Seven years ago this month, the government brought in rules aimed at making it easier for people to find a decent mortgage deal. These minimum standards for home loans, dubbed the Cat standards, were designed to allow borrowers to benefit from the security of a good-value mortgage with low charges, user-friendly terms and no nasty surprises. But the Cat standards never really took off in a big way, and financial data provider Moneyfacts this week revealed there is just one mortgage product left on the market that still meets the rules: Nationwide's standard variable mortgage rate.

Horse sense: Two accountants who started an investment advisory business in a bedroom 25 years ago will be worth more than £250m each when it floats next month, pocketing around £70m in cash with the rest in shares. Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown founded Hargreaves Lansdown in Bristol in 1981. It has since grown into the largest independent financial advisory firm in Britain. But Mr Hargreaves' moneyspinning don't quite extend to his passion for racehorses. He was tipping his horse Dunelight for the 4.20 at Newmarket on Thursday. It came second to last.