Devised in the 1960s by Edward Altman, a Z score indicates the probability of a company entering bankruptcy within the next two years. The higher the Z score, the lower the probability of bankruptcy. A score above three indicates that bankruptcy is unlikely; a score below 1.8 indicates that bankruptcy is possible. It works by analysing the financial strength of a company using five balance-sheet and profit-and-loss-account measures profit to total assets, retained earnings to total assets, working capital to total assets, sales to total assets and market capitalisation to total assets. These are then weighted to reflect their relative importance before being combined into a single figure, the Z score.
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Inflation holds steady at 3.8% ahead of BoE meetingThe rate of inflation did not rise in August, but the Bank of England is still expected to keep interest rates on hold tomorrow
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Thousands of savers with £250k pensions take cash over tax-free money and IHT fearsWith a record £70 billion withdrawn from pensions in the year to March, experts are concerned savers are making knee-jerk decisions without advice that could affect their long term wealth
