Upturn for insurers and banks

12 April 2012

BANKS and insurers saw an unexpected recovery in business over the last three months, although the outlook remains uncertain, a survey shows.

PricewaterhouseCoopers and the CBI said financial services firms grew at rates not seen for two and a half years. Of 122 firms surveyed, 56% reported a rise, 13% a fall. Three months ago, only 35% of firms expected to grow.

Companies dependent on the stock market are still gloomy, but those lending to industry see signs of increased investment as businesses prepare for growing demand.

CBI chief economic adviser Ian McCafferty said: 'We are now seeing the first signs of a turn in the investment cycle. Looking forward, financial firms still anticipate a modest - rather than rapid - recovery.'

Research group Experian said UK companies' annual return on investment is at a lower ebb than in the early 1990s. Returns fell from 10.84% last year to 8.3% in the year to March.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in