Metro Bank opened its doors this morning. Photograph: Graeme Robertson “The British banking revolution begins today,” claimed Metro Bank. But many experts were underwhelmed by its first set of products and the lack of introductory offers. “The rates generally aren’t going to trouble any best-buy tables,” said David Black at financial research firm Defaqto. There [...]

Andrew Sentance called again for rates to be increased from 0.5% to 0.75%. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian The Bank of England has raised the prospects of a fresh issue of electronic money to shore up the fragile economic recovery and offset some of the pressures from the government’s fiscal squeeze. In its first [...]