The UK economy houses a conservative regulatory environment aimed at preventing Enron and WorldCom type scandals and incautious selling of financial products such as endowment-linked mortgages, but is in a healthy state with rising house prices, falling retail prices and declining unemployment. Consequently, despite the UK performing better than other major European economies, organisations in the sector are likely to suffer the knock-on effects of the continual technology-driven change and the risks of an peaking housing market. Meanwhile, consumer credit is expected to increase at a reduced rate of growth and the sterling is expected to remain strong since base rates are substantial higher than those of other leading economies, although low in UK terms.