My savings in B&B!

freddysmith

For anyone wanting to read the legal jargon

http://www.gov.im/fsc/investor/dep_comp.xml

and FAQ on the BBI website

http://www.bbi.co.im/offshore-savings-resources/FAQs.aspx

EalingSaver

julio69 wrote: »

Good point. BBI say they are a subsidiary of BB, so their parent company would discharge any liabilities, plus any saver is protected by their depositors compensation scheme (maximum of only 15,000GBP). Does that mean if the government or anyone else take BB over, they would also be taking on BBI?!

Link to their website information, but surely you know all this anyway?
http://www.bbi.co.im/bradford-and-bingley-international-BBI/

Summary. BBI is a wholly owned subsidiary of B&B. Therefore if B&B is taken over so would BBI be (its one of its 'assets'). If however BBI went bust in its own right, in theory B&B could let it do so. (I think - note I'm not a legal eagle). However, site also says that B&B has undertaken a legal obligation to cover BBIs liabilities in that event. But of course that is not your worry, your worry is over B&B itself.

Point1. Its extremely unlikely that a UK retail depositor will be allowed to go bust.
Point2. It could be taken over, though the fact that no-one has yet made an offer for it even though the cost of buying up its shares, even at a premiumu to current value, is now close to zero (relative to the assets/liabilities it has) suggests no one thinks its a particularly attractive purchase.
Point3. It could be taken over but with an injection of some sort from the government, (possibly what potential acquirers are waiting for).
Point4. It could be nationalised a la NR.
Point5. It might, extremely extremely unlikely, be allowed to go bust in some scenario must of us don't want to even think we'll ever get to.

Now, lets assume the last 2 scenarios here. A questoin I would ask is are you an Isle of Man resident....or are you using it for offshoring??

In the event that either scenario 4 or 5 happens. A question I would ask myself if I was in your position is this. IF, and again I think its unlikely, but if the government wanted to make any point or constrain the costs of rescue to the UK Taxpayer, what from a political perspective would they think would be a soft target? They may feel there is limited political fallout from 'offshorers' losing an element of money. Of course they would have to be weighed against the long term impact on the standing of the UK as a finanical powerhouse, but...

In summary I completely hate the scaremongering. I think the risk of you losing anything is extremely small. However, everyone has to weigh risks etc. and with this particular investment you may be in a slightly different position than a standard retail bank depositer (politically as well as in point of fact viz a viz the protectoin).

You seem to be getting very concerned about it. Only you can weigh up and balance how concerned you are, how much security of mind you want, how much of your savings this represents etc. and therefore what you should do. 'Losing' £550 versus the impact on your state of mind of a very very small risk of losing several thousands is only something you can weigh up.

ad44downey

julio69 wrote: »

Good point. BBI say they are a subsidiary of BB, so their parent company would discharge any liabilities, plus any saver is protected by their depositors compensation scheme (maximum of only 15,000GBP). Does that mean if the government or anyone else take BB over, they would also be taking on BBI?!

The government is going to take them over. It doesn't matter if it's a subsidiary of B&B , you'll be covered as was the case with Northern Rock

EalingSaver

ad44downey wrote: »

The government is going to take them over. It doesn't matter if it's a subsidiary of B&B , you'll be covered as was the case with Northern Rock

That is a statement of opinion, not a statement of (current) fact. Only fair its not portrayed as such

ad44downey

The scaremongerers are still at it. I wonder what they're going to find to do with their time next week after B&B is taken over. Yawn....

Slater

I'm in the process of transferring my isa from Natwest to B&B. I'm not to worried but I can't help but think what would happen if the worst was allowed to happen. I've read on this board that when transferring and isa, the money can disappear for a while before showing up in the new account. If the worst did happen at this stage, were would my money appear? Is this just my immagination or could it be lost?

RayWolfe

No. No. No. No.
What is certain is that we are all going to die.


............. please go away and worry about that.

EalingSaver

ad44downey wrote: »

The scaremongerers are still at it. I wonder what they're going to find to do with their time next week after B&B is taken over. Yawn....

If this is referring ot my post...I was not scaremongering, just pointing out that to say it /is/ going to be nationalised is not a fact. To say it will be nationalisd could be read as you meaning that the government had made a statement to that effect. It hasn't. It could contiue to limp along for quite a while, it could be taken over by another bank, it could be nationalised. [Interesting that in this post you say "after B&B is taken over." I thought you said 8 minutes before that it was going to be nationalised....]

I think you'll see on the other posts I've made I'm very clear that the idea that it will be allowed to go bust is extremely remote, and if we ever got to a point where a retail bank is allowed to go bust we'll be in much much deeper trouble to really care any longer...

katies_mum

We opened B & B accounts about 2m ago, and have a joint account £14000, sole account for me £10,000 and a sole account for himself £3,000. Would all this be covered if anything did happen - I know its less than £35,000 but not sure how it works as we have 3 acounts. Thanks.

freddysmith

katies mum, you will be fine, just like the rest of us with savings even if more than 35K. Monday should bring some more news for the B&B who are in talks with the government.