It would be no surprise if pensions provider Partnership says next week that it hopes to list on the stock market this side of the summer holidays.

The FTSE 100 index has hit its highest level since December 2007, buoyed by a cut in Australian interest rates, some better-than-expected German factory output data and the afterglow from last week's decent US jobs report.

Fewer people are becoming insolvent now than at any time since the start of the world financial crisis.

It is, for our politicians at least, a long weekend for reflection. There is the specific matter of the gains by the UK Independence Party in the elections last Thursday, a sharp enough advance to affect the policies of all parties towards Europe in the months ahead.

Economic View

The deal

Interest rates on personal loans may be at record lows for those borrowing five-figure sums, but it's not all good news, with some lenders charging almost 30 per cent APR to customers who want a loan of £5,000 or less.

Penalties hit £136m in first quarter as City fears era of 'fine inflation'

The battle between credit card companies striving to offer the longest zero per cent term for balance transfers shows no sign of fizzling out. The latest moves in this field means that it's now possible to borrow interest-free for 26 months if you meet the credit scoring criteria.

At a private dinner a couple of years back I heard a former adviser to US President Barack Obama say that in 1982, after the Latin American banking crisis, several of America's biggest banks were technically bust.

Thousands of British ex-pats living in Cyprus will have their pensions temporarily halted and can nominate non-Cypriot bank accounts to ensure payments are not affected by the country’s controversial levy on savings, the Government announced today.

If interest rates stay low the Treasury could be in line for a £50bn windfall