Savers and borrowers with the Halifax and its merger partner the Leeds Permanent as well

Savers and borrowers with the Halifax and its merger partner, the Leeds Permanent, as well as those with the National & Provincial (which is being taken over by the Abbey National), have been promised shares or cash amounting to perhaps pounds 800 or more each.
Other societies could well be taken over, convert into banks or merge In each case, savers and borrowers get to vote on changes. The society is planning to announce its conversion into a bank later this year, the Independent revealed last week. The switch could lead to an average windfall of pounds 590 for the vast majority of the society’s nearly 4 million customers. The move, which the Alliance & Leicester would not officially confirm, would be the latest in a series of structural changes among societies, which have proved highly lucrative for customers. Launch investors subscribing by 6 November also get 20 per cent upfront tax relief Prospectus on 0171-242 4900.. MILLIONS of savers and borrowers with the Alliance & Leicester are set to become the latest lucky beneficiaries of the shakeout among building societies.

Baronsmead VCT is a type of high risk fund that carries Pep-style tax breaks. The books are bound on the right and open from the left.Insurer Legal & General has slashed life insurance rates for new policies by up to 25 per cent.The first public offer opened for a new tax-free Venture Capital Trust. Broker trade body Apcims has complained to CrestCo, the company set up to run the new Crest system, and the Treasury.Richard Branson’s Virgin Direct has launched a corporate bond Pep, and claims it is the cheapest of this new type of high-income, low-risk investment.Charges total 0.77 per cent a year.Lloyds Bank has produced cheque books for the left-handed. For details, phone the Revenue free on 0800 660800.Policyholders with insurer Provident Mutual are set to benefit from pounds 25m of bonuses and cost control promises following a pounds 170m takeover by the insurance company General Accident.Private client stockbrokers say a new system of paperless share settlement due to come in next July will raise costs for private investors. Offences of the South African-owned company included failing to invest cheques from private investors quickly enough. Affected investors have been compensated for pounds 7,500, around pounds 20 per investor.
The Inland Revenue is offering to give back pounds 500m in tax that has been overpaid by up to 6 million people.

The main people affected are non-taxpayers who do not reclaim tax deducted at source on building society and bank interest or on share dividends. Non-taxpayers who fill in a form – IR85, which is available from banks, societies and tax offices – can receive their deposit interest gross. Details: 0121-200 7790 or, for Internet users, http:// www.esi.co.uk

Old Mutual Fund Managers, formerly branded Providence Capitol, was fined pounds 30,000 by Imro and ordered to pay further costs of pounds 17,000. THE Stock Exchange has backed down on its refusal to provide live share prices to a new dealing service to be run on the Internet in association with the retail stockbroker Sharelink. Indeed, it might well be unethical for us to recommend funds that could harm our clients financially.q Amanda Davidson is a partner at independent financial adviser Holden Meehan.*’An Independent Guide to Ethical and Green Investment Funds’ can be obtained free by phoning 0171-404 6442.. British Gas shareholders may not have made a direct difference – Cedric Brown still got his pay rise – but their indirect impact was enormous, subjecting top pay to a kind of scrutiny it had not suffered before.Finally, does ethical investment make money for the investor? Statistics show that the average ethical fund over the past five years has outperformed the average fund that was not screened So it is possible to profit with principles.