HSBC and RBS considering Merger

Kavanne

marshmallow79 wrote: »

Just completed a training course for Natwest (owned by RBS) not 5 hours ago and we would have been told if there was going to be any sort of merger with HSBC (we had updated info based on the HBOS Lloyds TSB merger come through during the week).
Don't think there's any truth in this at all!

What will your job be at natwest? (I work there too)

marshmallow79

Kavanne wrote: »

What will your job be at natwest? (I work there too)

Only a CSO for now but I'm planning on clawing my way up as quickly as possible. What do you do?

gt94sss2

marshmallow79 wrote: »

Just completed a training course for Natwest (owned by RBS) not 5 hours ago and we would have been told if there was going to be any sort of merger with HSBC (we had updated info based on the HBOS Lloyds TSB merger come through during the week).

I'm don't know if this rumour is true or not but I can guarantee you that if it was there is no way they would tell it to their staff during a training course!

Regards
Sunil

PBA

Ah, this takes me back to my induction week at Abbey back in 2004. We were assured by our trainer that there was no way anybody could afford to take Abbey over. At the end of the week I went to a party in London hosted by a mate who worked in the city, where everyone asked me what I thought about the takeover. I knew nothing about this. The next day it was in all the papers that we were being taken over by Santander.

My point, only the board will know if there's any activity going on, your trainers certainly won't know until the day a deal's announced.

RayWolfe

Yep, that level of naivety does not bode well for the future of banking staff, to whom people may be going for advice!

marshmallow79

RayWolfe wrote: »

Yep, that level of naivety does not bode well for the future of banking staff, to whom people may be going for advice!

Just a bit uncalled for! You don't know me! Sorry if I want to have faith in the people I work with! There is a huge difference between someone being naive and someone not jumping the gun.
If you believe everything you hear in the press then I'm afraid you are the one that's naive...either that or just stupid (think you fall into the second category Ray)!

Kavanne

marshmallow79 wrote: »

Only a CSO for now but I'm planning on clawing my way up as quickly as possible. What do you do?

I am a CA in TAS. Your worst nightmare, basically!! lol

LongTermLurker

Kavanne wrote: »

I am a CA in TAS. Your worst nightmare, basically!! lol

What's a CA and what's TAS?

Just a bit uncalled for! You don't know me! Sorry if I want to have faith in the people I work with! There is a huge difference between someone being naive and someone not jumping the gun.

Sorry, but Ray is 100% right. You want to have faith in the people you work with, but how many layers are above you before you reach board level? I'll give you a clue, I don't work in the banking sector, but there are 2 people between me and the board, I'm on first name terms with some of the board and I can assure you that when redundancies were announced no-one except senior management knew in advance.

I've known someone who worked at a reasonably high grade in banks (above branch manager level) and they said there were so many layers that they didn't know the name of their manager's manager's manager!

Looked at another way, you've just come onto the Internet and stated what you think is your employer's business plans - now if I was a board member, why would I want to give you such sensitive information? I suspect you were told about the HBOS merger because they are competition and that knowledge gives you an advantage when talking to potential customers.

RayWolfe

Well marshmallow, bear in mind what LTL says about the number of layers. This sort of information (thoughts about mergers & acquisitions) is kept at the very highest level until the deal is done. This is to comply with Stock Exchange rules and to avoid suggestions of insider trading.
Learn this and other aspects of business regulation and then, with luck, you may be of some use to some poor old lady who walks of the street looking to you for advice.
So, you could be right and I am stupid, but pots, black, kettles and other words spring to mind.
Oh, and by the way, I haven't believed what I read in newspapers since the day I started reading them at the age of seven, 60 years ago.

Milarky

If you listened to Monebox today you would have heard the 'big cheese' representing the FSCS (the depositor protection scheme) His general advice for those concerned about which banks are tied together and which operate separately under the scheme he runs was "ask your bank". Pathetic. He was asked by Paul Lewis directly on whether a comprehensive list of separately registered compancies would be a good idea for consumers. He simply evaded anwsering that alogether.

Now suspicions always attach to spokespeople (the 'Sue Slipman' effect, if you will): does this johnny know more about PR than the organisation he currently works for? Does he know anything useful? If he did, would he tell anyone?

So castigating entry level bank staff for their lack of awareness is one thing - but when someone is well paid to nominally do a high profile 'public service' job and then promptly appears on the media and behaves like a muppet you've got to accept that bad communication (rumours etc) begin with the banks' own chronic attachment to spin.