HBOS - what's happening?

dad-of-4

Plasticman wrote: »

That happened back in March:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/mar/20/creditcrunch.hbosbusiness

I haven't seen anyting more recent - do you have a link?

As Standard & Poor's have cut their rating, it looks like more than rumour this time.

sory for not getting back to you sooner with a link. http://money.uk.msn.com/investing/articles/nicklouth/article.aspx?cp-documentid=9618554

heres a small excerpt

Unfounded rumours
The Financial Services Authority said this afternoon it was investigating unfounded market rumours that a British bank, said to be HBOS, was meeting the Bank of England to get help with liquidity.
"There has been a series of completely unfounded rumours about UK financial institutions in the London market over the last few days, sometimes accompanied by short-selling," the FSA said.
HBOS has been targeted by short-sellers, those who borrow shares in order to sell them and buy them back later more cheaply. Almost a third of the shares are said to be "shorted".
In a very brief statement to the Stock Exchange, the bank said: "HBOS has a strong capital base and continues to fund very satisfactorily."

Walletwatch

Microstar wrote: »

Sorry, much as I dislike Brown I'm afraid you are posting nonsense. The asset bubble was global, not confined to the south-east, and Brown was nothing but a bit-part actor in it. The notion that Brown is responsible for the house-price bubble is bonkers. Difficult to see how he could have stopped it, even if he's wanted to. Can you imagine the fury that the right-wing press would unleash upon ANY government which sought to limit house price inflation? The next housing bubble is probably less than 10 years away and no politician of any party will step in to contain it, that would be political suicide.

I agree with this assessment. I think crediting Brown with the nous and craftiness of having somehow magically triggered this catastrophe while having furthered his own political agenda is nothing short of an unbelievable Bollywood flick. What I do agree with is that Brown benefited from the common man's own acceptance that the economy was doing well when in fact, it was just struck by obesity, bloated with too much credit.

frank.hopper

If their shares keep dropping!



I'll buy them up next week, with ma provi loan.

Rabiddog_2

SomeBody who pays £25 to get their few hundreds out of the HBOS is not a true money saver. Anything below £35000 is Gtd by the Govmnt so that's £25 plus whatever interest you were getting, wasted.... on a needless panic.

slipthru

Rabiddog wrote: »

SomeBody who pays £25 to get their few hundreds out of the HBOS is not a true money saver. Anything below £35000 is Gtd by the Govmnt so that's £25 plus whatever interest you were getting, wasted.... on a needless panic.

While you may be right, do you think you will get your interest from say the 10% regular saver where it doesn't get credited till the end, if the bank were to fail say next week.

Plus how long do you think it will take to get your money back, it's not as if the system has ever been tested.

I think things will be ok the worst that would happen is another northern rock, but who knows.

alared

Shares now down another 68p to 113p a 38% drop already today.

meester

Wow, this is great entertainment. A few minutes ago, FTSE up 100, all the banks up 10% or so, suddely, HBOS down ANOTHER 40%, and other banks falling, FTSE back to 5k.

worldtraveller

Apart from all the shorting that's going on, Fitch have downgraded HBOS and Bank of Scotland to AA from AA+ and said the outlook remains negative.

The downgrade came after Standard & Poor's cut its credit ratings to A+/A-1 from AA-/A-1+.

meester

worldtraveller wrote: »

Apart from all the shorting that's going on, Fitch have downgraded HBOS and Bank of Scotland to AA from AA+ and said the outlook remains negative.

HBOS *is* Bank of Scotland.

squibbs25

Sorry to hijack this thread, i wonder if any of you can answer a quick question before i run off to work.

I have accounts held at the Halifax in my name aswell as trustee to my kids, i am also a shareholder (freebie shares). If the bank were indeed to fold would i lose my money (just read shareholders wont get money back, as shareholders NOT guarantee'd protected by g'ment)
Would my children lose their money as im a trustee for them, also shall i transfer money into a different bank, have joint account with hubby at barclays, we use our joint account at Halifax.

This is the article i've jsut read
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2008/09/why_hbos_cant_go_down.html

Appologies if i have posted in the wrong place, but i'm really dont know where else to put it.

Squibbs