sky = hbos - lloyds deal done!

neverdespairgirl

Dan: wrote: »

My main bank accounts are with Halifax - always been shoody since they merged with Bank of Scotland IMO so god knows what it will be like now the likes of LloydsTSB are involved.

Im moving all my accounts to the Nationwide.

My parents moved from Barclays to Lloyds in the mid 1980s, after my Dad got seriously fed up with them (he "moved his overdraft" as he put it). I've been with Lloyds since opening my current account in 1996, and they've always been great - like most barristers, I bank at the Law Courts branch opposite the Royal Courts of Justice, and found Lloyds pretty good.

Cranston_2

baby_boomer wrote: »

I disagree. They played their role and I'm not convinced HBOS was so far out of order.
!

Here is where you are wrong.

The share price did not fall by its own accord. The share price fell because the markets correctly anticipated that the HBOS loan book was very weak. The loan book was weak because of bad management decisions - this and only this was the root cause.

Short selling, downgrades are all a symptom of the cause.

Thus banks like Lloyds are still operating as normal and have not been attacked because when others where making foolish decisions the board at Lloyds made sound and prudent ones. It's that simple.

neverdespairgirl

Cranston wrote: »

We once had only 4 clearing banks in the UK. Today we have Lloyds, Abbey (A+L), HSBC (+FD), RBS(+NW), Barclays, Nationwide, Citibank. That's 7 banks that I know about providing cheque accounts. I don't think monopoly fears are real.

Many of the numbers quoted by the media may not be accurate as many people have accounts with both HBOS & Lloyds.

When was that, though?

My grandfather worked for most of his career for Martins Bank, and for the last few years, for Barclays, as they took over Martins, in about 1970, I think.

Martins Bank was a cheque account bank, for sure - I've seen the cheque books! And my mother's account when she was a university was with Martins. It was mostly a northern bank, I understand - and my grandfather moved all over the place. My mother was born in Wallasey, in Cheshire, and before the family made their final move to Surrey when she was 13 / 14, she'd lived in Buxton, Skipton, Shrewbury, Birkenhead, and another town I've forgotten for the moment.

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

karmarama wrote: »

I escaped to Halifax after following advice from this very site when I set up a repayment plan with Lloyds just over a year ago for my current account and loan. Lloyds accepted my offer to repay monthly for these but I'm still sorting out the Mastercard repayment I had with them. I felt all safe and calm over at Halifax with their EasyCash account, now I'm worried it will all go to pot. Is there any other account like EasyCash with another bank that I can transfer to whilst I get myself together for the next few years??

Karmarama, Lloyds have said that there are no 'immediate' plans to get rid of the HBOS brand, so I would also assume that to mean that there won't be any cross reference of information between the companies. It may even be a case of breach of Data Protection rules if they did.

http://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=173117

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

A piece about Alistair Darling saying that HBOS had problems for weeks and it wasn't an overnight flop.

http://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=173122

BWD_2

Hi there,

I'm new to this site and I have a query.
Two and a half years ago I declared myself bankrupt, after much difficulty I managed to get a Halifax 'Easycash' account. While in the mainstay of my financial trouble a bank account of mine was closed by Lloyds TSB as it ran into difficulty. Recently I spoke to Lloyds TSB and they said because of this they would never be able to offer me any sort of account. My question now that they have taken over Halifax are they likely to want to close my accounts, even if I've run them perflectly since I've been with them. I'm seriously hopin not as it's the only form of debit card I can seem to get!

dannyboycey

baby_boomer wrote: »

There are more pressing matters at stake e.g. can we avoid the need to nationalise our banks. That would create an even bigger "monopoly" and I'd prefer doing business with Lloyds than with the UK Treasury .

Rock / Hard place. Other large companies are likely to follow suit as they will not be able to compete on a level playing field as things stand. The smaller companies will not stand a chance against these giants and the lack of competition will have a negative effect on everyone.

Is this a cue for Mr 'anti monopoly' Richard Branson to step in and do something? I believe once the dust settles he will. Watch this space. Or is this way bigger than that? Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 is currently discussing 'the collapse of capitalism'! Surely it's not THAT bad??

dopester

BWD wrote: »

My question now that they have taken over Halifax are they likely to want to close my accounts, even if I've run them perflectly since I've been with them. I'm seriously hopin not as it's the only form of debit card I can seem to get!

Just be grateful you're not Grant Bovey.

dopester

Cranston wrote: »

I disagree with your reasoning.

Lloyds have been trying to buy something for years. They tried to get Abbey in 2001. And to assume they could get something cheap during the crunch is good planning on their part.

Yes. It puts RBS's 3-way £76 billion top-money buy-out of ABN AMRO, at the beginning of another historic credit-crunch (they've never studied past ones?) in to perspective. Fully bullish about it even after NRK had hit big trouble.

As I remember, RBS gazumped Barclays by 10%, and held firm with the price even after AMRO's share price slumped 10%.

All FTBs should act like Lloyds. Let the market come to us with a solid value purchase deal. Glad you're back NDG. Hope you enjoyed the beach/surfing.

WTF?_2

Cranston wrote: »

Here is where you are wrong.

The share price did not fall by its own accord. The share price fell because the markets correctly anticipated that the HBOS loan book was very weak. The loan book was weak because of bad management decisions - this and only this was the root cause.

Short selling, downgrades are all a symptom of the cause.

Thus banks like Lloyds are still operating as normal and have not been attacked because when others where making foolish decisions the board at Lloyds made sound and prudent ones. It's that simple.

Absolutely - the current fad in the media and with politicians is to blame short sellers for everything. It certainly couldn't have been years of laissez-faire fiscal policy and looking the other way whilst the banking system gorged itself silly on loony loans and dodgy credit, oh no!

If HBOS was in good shape, it would not have had to be taken over.

As you say, lower share price is a symptom of the problem, not the reason why it ended up being taken over.