Wake Up to Money - 06/05/2010

The European Central bank will meet to set interest rates for the Eurozone today against the backdrop of Greece's economic crisis. We ask Peter Westaway, Chief European Economist at Nomura, how the ECB will react to current problems. The US government sponsored mortgage bank, Freddie Mac, asked for an additional $10.6bn, bringing the total cost of its rescue to over $60bn. Gary Schlossberg, Senior Economist at Wells Capital Management in San Francisco explains the bank's unique role in the US mortgage market. Lloyds Banking Group's AGM is today, and some investors are unhappy that chief executive Eric Daniels could receive up to £6.2m for 2010 in salary and bonuses. We ask Sarah Wilson, Chief Executive of Manifest, a proxy voting agency if she feels the pay at Lloyds is excessive. Golf has also been affected by the global credit crunch - the European Seniors Tour has received backing in the Far East and Africa, because support from the traditional counties has dried up. Andy Stubbs, Managing Director of the Tour, which returns to the UK this year explains just how challenging the past year has been. According to research into personal loans by Defaqto, on an average £5,000 loan repaid over 3 years, rates have gone up from just under 9% in April 2007, to nearly 13% today. We ask Kevin Bray - a banking analyst from Defaqto who did the analysis - for his advice to people who have to get a loan.