The Reporter

The Reporter

Spanish allianceThe credit crunch looks set to push Alliance & Leicester into the strong arms of Spanish bank Santander, which already owns high street giant Abbey. A&L this week accepted a £1.25bn takeover offer from Santander, saying the deal would put it on a sound financial footing for the future. It's not yet clear how the take-over- if it actually happens- will affect customers. There are sure to be branch closures, and merging systems often throws up problems. But having a parent company with deep pockets could potentially mean some better deals for savers and mortgage customers.

Double act Meanwhile, the stories in the press about "Fannie" and "Freddie" being bailed out by the US government have caused a few titters. For the uninitiated, "Fannie" and "Freddie" are Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation), America's two biggest mortgage finance corporations. There have been fears that one, or both, might be at risk of collapse as a result of the housing market slump, hence the US government's decision to rise to the rescue.

Festival zapped Another music festival has bitten the dust, leaving ticket-holders facing the hassle of having to claim refunds. Following our report a fortnight ago about the demise of the Wild in the Country festival (originally to be headlined by Bjork), an Oxford one-day event.....continued below

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called Zapfest has been cancelled "due to unforeseen circumstances". Zapfest was due to take place last Saturday. It was set to feature acts including Youthmovies and Sam Isaac, plus DJs and other attractions.

Heard on the grapevine There are some red faces at Tesco Wine Club after it emailed customers offering them free Clubcard points when they book tickets to one of its wine-tasting events happening around the country. This week, it had to re-email to say that "unfortunately, there may have been an error in this email stating that you would receive 1,000 Clubcard points when you book tickets, when in fact you will receive 100 points ... we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused".

Final warning It emerged this week that Britain's final salary pension schemes saw £45bn wiped off their value during June as a result of stockmarket falls. A study of almost 7,800 mainly private-sector "defined benefit" schemes revealed that their collective surplus plunged from £53bn at the end of May to £8bn at the end of June. The news coincides with the recent revelation that the BBC's £8bn final salary scheme had performed much better than expected, and boasted a surplus of £275m in April 2007. But the trustees have pointed out to members that stockmarkets had had a difficult time since then, and the position today might well be very different.