After B&B fiasco, what about other BSs ie Principality

bristolleedsfan

cvd wrote: »

However, as I pointed out in another thread, carpetbaggers have destroyed the ability of members to affect the direction and management of a building society - and by members, I mean members who want the society to succeed.

I and many others believe ( those that dont can agree to disagree) that both PLC and BS boards do whats best for them and their big fat salaries and bonuses.

Building Societies in many opinions have very little accountability, at least PLCs are accountable to the stockmarket.

There are lots of people who wanted the Portman and many other Societies to succeed, all the decisions to get kill of both local interests and the societies themselves were all taken at board room level in some cases for apparent vested interests.

Moggles_2

Originally Posted by Mable
I have savings with the Bradford and Bingley and have been trying to access my account on line but continually unable to get through...

ad44downey wrote: »

The reason you can't access their website is because thousands of people are needlessly panicking and trying to access the website at the same time as you!

For the record, the B & B site was down while some changes were made. (For instance, the Money In and Money Out links on the Account Summary page have changed to one link called Move Money.) We were forewarned that this would happen over the week-end, so it came as no surprise to those of us who visit the site regularly.

Milarky

cvd wrote: »

However, as I pointed out in another thread, carpetbaggers have destroyed the ability of members to affect the direction and management of a building society - and by members, I mean members who want the society to succeed.

Does not follow. Members can only use their votes when asked to. Boards conveniently forget about asking members all the time these days. You seem to blame some ('carpetbagging') members for the behaviour of directors - which suits the directors very nicely. Carpetbagging is partly a myth because relatively few people intentionally go around opening BS accounts [some of the passbooks do look pretty, however, and maybe some of them are just collecting these?] and no one has the stats or research to prove it. Nationwide has a staggering number of additional members (about 9 million) since it introduced the 'signaway'. Not sure if all those 9 million were just taking a punt or came through the doors for something else (although it was unlikely they came for the coffee and customer service) :rotfl:

Reaper

I think you need to draw the right lessons from the UK bank/building societies than have got into trouble. They are:

1) Foreign banks who weren't as foolish plus wealthy Arabs will snap up anything that that is in short term trouble but with long term prospects.
2) The government will step in whenever there are no buyers to do whatever if necessary i.e. either a full nationalisation or to take over the unattractive bits so another bank will buy them.

You should be reassured by what has happened, not worried. And we still have not yet had to resort to the second line of defence - the FSCS.

If you have under £35,000 in your savings you can sleep easy at night.
If so have over £35,000 you still shouldn't be particularly bothered, though I suggest you spread it around a bit whenever you can do so without paying withdrawal penalties.

savetilibleed

Moggles wrote: »

For the record, the B & B site was down while some changes were made. (For instance, the Money In and Money Out links on the Account Summary page have changed to one link called Move Money.) We were forewarned that this would happen over the week-end, so it came as no surprise to those of us who visit the site regularly.

These site was unavailable from 11pm Friday 19th Sept to 11am Sat 20th Sept at which time the changes described above (and a few others) were made.

cvd

Building Societies in many opinions have very little accountability

Building societies demonstrate virually no accountability to the views of members - I never said otherwise. I never vote on the AGM motions - because building societies just want large numbers to vote in order to proclaim they have their members' support. They give members no choice on directors or the direction of the society. The votes are all sham.

My point is that this is an inevitable consequence of the carpetbagging movement. Calls for more democracy are viewed as a front for trying to obtain a windfall payout - because the strategy of calling for more democracy has been tried by carpetbaggers in the past. Windfalll payouts are a cancer which has destroyed the building society movement. Would the Halifax have been able to win a vote on demutualisation if they had not been able to bribe members with a payout?

savetilibleed

Reaper wrote: »

<snipped>If you have under £35,000 in your savings you can sleep easy at night.
If so have over £35,000 you still shouldn't be particularly bothered, though I suggest you spread it around a bit whenever you can do so without paying withdrawal penalties.

I read today in the money part of the Observer that the FSCS is expected to follow the lead of their Irish counterparts who recently increased their protection to €100,000 (~£78000?). Did anyone else hear or read this from elsewhere?

fatpig_2

It hardly matters. After N.R. and now B&B it's obvious the government will bail out completely any failing UK bank for all savers deposits.

IGK

MABLE wrote: »

I have savings with the Bradford and Bingley and have been trying to access my account on line but continually unable to get through. You think it is safe putting it into savings account. I know we are protected up to £35k but just the inconvenience of it all.

I can see in time we will be asking the banks to fill out an application before we trust them with our savings so we can check on their financial situation.

Just for interest I had a go at logging in, and I got in no problem. It was slow, but it got there.
I happen to have a fixed rate bond with B&B which doesn't allow early withdrawals, so my hands are tied in that case, but I do have an ISA which I could in theory withdraw, but haven't.