HSBC and RBS considering Merger

RayWolfe

Yep. I heard it myself and was appalled. But, of course, he was being paid specifically to obfuscate.
Customers last, as ever! :rolleyes:

Dylanwing

I had not seen the rumour, but once the HBOS deal was waved through, I did wonder if their might be another mega-merger, as competition rules went out of the window for Lloyds and a contentious takeover was allowed unconditionally. Was HBOS really in that bad a shape, or was it opportunistic, knowing that GB would back anything rather than risk another NR during Conference?
Marshmallow, I think you owe Ray an apology as he is absolutely spot-on, as there are strict rules regarding disclosure of information during takeover talks. It might surprise you, but some Bank staff would use such information to 'fill their boots'.

marshmallow79

Dylanwing wrote: »

Marshmallow, I think you owe Ray an apology as he is absolutely spot-on, as there are strict rules regarding disclosure of information during takeover talks. It might surprise you, but some Bank staff would use such information to 'fill their boots'.

Owe him an apology for what, telling him he doesn't know me, or for the fact that I dare stand up for myself? Again you don't know me so what gives you the right to insist I apologise to someone who was very offencive and rude to me?

LongTermLurker

marshmallow79 wrote: »

Owe him an apology for what, telling him he doesn't know me, or for the fact that I dare stand up for myself? Again you don't know me so what gives you the right to insist I apologise to someone who was very offencive and rude to me?

MM, I don't think he was being very offensive and rude to you, he only said he thought you were naiive - I do too, but I'm not having a go at you. The reason I think you're naiive is because I know that a customer-facing person will not be privilege to commercially sensitive information, for the very reasons that have been detailed above - 1) it's not in the company's interest and 2) it has legal ramifications.

The main reason why I think you're being naiive is because you say you want to trust the people you work with to be straight with you, but the people you work with don't make merger decisions and aren't party to such information. You seem to have taken one person's comments far more seriously than was necessary. Incidentally, I doubt there's anyone on here who necessarily believes that there will be a merger, but all will agree that it won't be known one way or the other until the deed is done.

I'm sure everyone's sorry that you're upset by the statement of naiivity, but that's what happens when you join an open forum on the internet; everyone is entitled to their opinion.

RayWolfe

marshmallow79 wrote: »

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)!

That's what you said sweetie, had you forgotten?

natweststaffmember

I am watching this thread with interest.....
I don't think I want to comment on this speculation at the moment. There have been some strange things happening in the UK banking sector. I can see it happening from one aspect of it in that the government would waive the competition rules for financial stability, but at the same time, I am not sure how much HSBC want to be exposed to the US with the acquisition of ABN-AMRO and Citizens Bank that RBS owns. I guess we are all in uncertain times.

LongTermLurker

Too right, NWSM - anything could happen in this climate; never say never (or "definitely" for that matter!)

Dylanwing

Marshmallow79 - For the reasons already stated, your post was naive, and Ray stated so. If you think that calling him stupid is acceptable, check the 'Forum Etiquette'. BTW, I don't know Ray, but having seen many of his postings, be assured that he is not stupid.

ShelfStacker_3

natweststaffmember wrote: »

I am watching this thread with interest.....
I don't think I want to comment on this speculation at the moment. There have been some strange things happening in the UK banking sector. I can see it happening from one aspect of it in that the government would waive the competition rules for financial stability, but at the same time, I am not sure how much HSBC want to be exposed to the US with the acquisition of ABN-AMRO and Citizens Bank that RBS owns. I guess we are all in uncertain times.

Like I say, HSBC and RBS are both on a good footing right now. The financial stability thing doesn't apply. There's also the rather more salient fact that while Lloyds and Halifax tying up will be massive, HSBC and RBS would be incomprehensibly huge. You'd have Lloyds BOS, RSBC and Barclays, the first two having (at a guess) about a 50% share of the current account market between them. The Competition Commission wouldn't allow that in a million years.

gt94sss2

ShelfStacker wrote: »

Like I say, HSBC and RBS are both on a good footing right now. The financial stability thing doesn't apply. There's also the rather more salient fact that while Lloyds and Halifax tying up will be massive, HSBC and RBS would be incomprehensibly huge. You'd have Lloyds BOS, RSBC and Barclays, the first two having (at a guess) about a 50% share of the current account market between them. The Competition Commission wouldn't allow that in a million years.

HSBC is on a good footing - it always is.. !

The rumour starts as no one knows exactly how strong RBS is atm - it raised 12bn of new capital some months ago which should be lots of money but then again has just admitted facing losses of 1.5-2bn just from the collapse of Lehman Brothers alone.

I can't find the figures for share of the current account market right now, but in the UK, HSBC is the lowest of the big banks at around 14% (from memory) - so a combined RBS/HSBC would still (I think) have be a smaller % of the UK market than Lloyds/HBOS)

If RBS was/is in trouble, then the government would not send the deal to the Competition Commission - just as they have done with the Lloyds/HBOS deal.

HSBC/RBS would be a huge bank internationally, but then HSBC is already the biggest bank in the world..

In fact, I am slightly suprised that the government didn't encourage HSBC to buy HBOS - if only as (I think) job losses would have been a lot less as last time I looked HSBC only has about 10 branches in Scotland..

Regards
Sunil