Dear listener

Oh good. The Financial Services Authority is to hire more staff at higher salaries. They are needed, says FSA chairman Lord Turner, to regulate the banks better. The cost will be met by raising the annual fees the banks pay to the FSA. But guess where the banks will get the money to pay those higher fees? Yep. From you and me. So already saddled with up to £50bn to buy shares in banks, up to £200bn ready to be lent to banks, and up to £250bn to guarantee the loans the banks make to each other, all bank customers (and hands up anyone who isn’t) will pay higher charges, earn lower interest on their savings, or pay more for their mortgage to fund a bigger, tougher regulator. The regulator already costs us more than £300 million a year. Its costs rose by more than 12% in 2007/08 and the pay bill for its Directors grew by 22%. That was the year the world banking crisis might have been stopped but wasn’t. Let’s hope the FSA does do better this year. Whatever it costs.

We are not doing that story this week. There is too much else to do. Here is the agenda at the moment.

*** Will interest rates fall to 1%? That prediction is being made today. We will explore it with a top economist. Are interest rates really going to fall faster than a bank share? And what will that do to inflation – which this week reached a 16 year high?

*** Ten days after the half point cut in interest rates, have mortgage rates fallen or savings rates drifted down?

*** We’ll bring you the latest on the Icelandic bank collapses – when will UK savers get their money back. And how much might offshore savers with money in Guernsey and the Isle of Man get back?

*** Money Box has looked at the problems faced by people who sell their home to speculators and then rent it straight back. This week the Office of Fair Trading says it too is worried about these deals. Its boss will tell us what changes it wants.

*** And 31 October is the deadline for getting back your paper self-assessment tax return. If you miss it you will have to file electronically – and once you do that you will never be sent a paper return again.

To find out what is bumped up, down, or off the agenda don’t forget to tune in on Saturday at noon, Sunday at nine (the repeat is back on this week) or go online anytime this week. You can also hear again the special one hour phone in we did last Sunday.

All Money Box programmes are available on a podcast you can download. But remember podcasts are only on the website for seven days. So it is better to subscribe and never miss an episode.

Best wishes

Paul

PS Don’t forget the programme taster on BBC Breakfast between quarter to nine and nine o’clock. If you miss it, you can watch it on the web until Wednesday after which it will be replaced by Samantha Washington’s midweek money headlines.

e-mail Paul Lewis