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Bank or Building Society
Comments
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So how did the Cheshire manage to lend so badly then?bad lending is to keep shareholders happy
building socs invest for their members
How come the Town & Country Building Society collapsed and had to be bailed out by the Woolwich many moons ago?
Judging by the share price of many banks, bad lending doesn't seem to be keeping shareholders happy.0 -
opinions4u wrote: »I think it's dangerous to assume that building societies are safer than banks. They are as safe as the quality of their lending (or rather the credit agencies assessment of the quality of their lending).
Building societies are insulated from one huge form of risk - stock speculation - which can drive an institution into bankruptcy in minutes.
Since the Societies have no stock, they are largely immune to the effects of malicious gossip that the City gangsters who run the rating agencies peddle through the corrupt financial press. Short selling, and other forms of harmful speculation, are not an issue for Building Societies. That alone makes Societies intrinsically safer than banks.
Furthermore, Building Societies have largely avoided the cesspit that is "investment banking". The revocation of the Glass-Steagall Act, which once firewalled the deposits at the retail banks from toxic speculative activities, means that banks are more vulnerable than ever before.
We are teetering on the brink of a global financial collapse that could dwarf the Great Depression. As banks fall by the wayside, the trusty Building Society will be seen as one of the last safe havens for depositors."If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
-- Thomas Jefferson0 -
opinions4u wrote: »So how did the Cheshire manage to lend so badly then?
How come the Town & Country Building Society collapsed and had to be bailed out by the Woolwich many moons ago?
Judging by the share price of many banks, bad lending doesn't seem to be keeping shareholders happy.
bad luck and difficult economic conditions0 -
Banks have failed a plenty.
Name a UK retail bank that has failed and savers lost money in the last 100 years.I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.0 -
Johnson Mathey
BCCI
Barings0 -
Johnson Mathey
BCCI
The FSCS took over a decade before it *partially* re-imbursed depositors who lost money through BCCI.
That was a canny ruse of the Government. It got to play with depositors' cash for over a decade. The tardy compensation scheme was effectively an interest-free loan to the Treasury..
Imagine losing your deposits through bank failure nowadays, though.
Hyperinflation would gnaw away at your savings, making them essentially worthless by the time the FSCS cheque finally arrived in 2019!"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
-- Thomas Jefferson0 -
Johnson Mathey
BCCI
Barings
You've got to wonder how an Independent Financial Advisor forgot about those bank collapses!
Dunstonh on hearing of the banking crisis!"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
-- Thomas Jefferson0 -
Both banks that failed recently were building societies that got a little greedy after their demutualisation. We've also had two other building societies forced to merge with Nationwide. Personally I'd be thinking of the building societies and ex-building societies as the risky place after that track recordA building society has never failed ever
Banks have failed a plenty.
I am a Chartered Financial Planner
Anything I say on the forum is for discussion purposes only and should not be construed as personal financial advice. It is vitally important to do your own research before acting on information gathered from any users on this forum.0 -
Dunno. I sort of trust building societies more in terms of their financial dealings – particularly one like the Chelsea.
But then I got totally disillusioned by the big banks a couple of years back. After being a customer with Lloyds for many years, I got utterly fed up with them ringing me every other day trying to sell me 'products', despite the fact that I asked them to cease several times. I therefore switched to Nationwide for my banking needs. They have never bothered me with nuisance phone calls.
I don't really want to put my money into a bank that has shareholders, so think I will stick with building societies that have not demutualized. :cool:
The situation is quite scarey – think I may go and hide my head in the sand now. :T Nothing I can do about it anyway.0
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