Ladies and gents - please calm down and stop adding to the hysteria

jm104

But this is the first time I have bothered to check this forum. If you are 'up' on the situation fair enough but I've been away on holiday last week to get back to Martins regular newsletter recommending Icelandic banks as having best interest!! Most people put their money somewhere to just leave it - like I did earlier in the year with the fixed account - it was recommended at the time and so I did it. How many more are going to get stuffed - this making your money work for you is alien to the majority in this country. People put their money into accounts they have used for years and leave it as savings are way below £50,000, especially with young families and the elderly so please don't get on any high horse when you have 'substantial savings' - most of you probably came good with the rise in house prices or won when a parent died - no investment skill there.

gax23

GeorgeHowell wrote: »

The media tend to overplay everything these days. If we had taken all their panic-mongering on board, we would have expected by now to be dead from AIDS, CJD, SARS, bird flu, or nuclear terrorism, to be frozen by southerly diversion of the Gulf Stream, to be blown to pieces by hurricanes or tornadoes, to be flooded by tsunamis, to see the planet thrown into the equivalent of a nuclear winter caused by the explosion of the Yellowstone National Park -- the list goes on and on, becoming ever more bizarre.

There is an immaturity about most things these days, not least in the media. They deliberatety or unwittingly lack the judgment as to how to pitch things about right. One might expect this from the Currant Bun. But we should not expect it from the BBC ......... oh I don't know though.

Hypothetical Situation #1: People listen to 'scaremongers' and move their savings to another bank. No banks go bust, no money is lost; no change.

Hypothetical Situation #2: People listen to the 'don't panic' brigade. Their bank goes bust and they lose their savings, if only for a few months.

I know which one I'm going for. See you on the other side :hello:

gax23

jm104 wrote: »

People put their money into accounts they have used for years and leave it as savings are way below £50,000, especially with young families and the elderly so please don't get on any high horse when you have 'substantial savings' - most of you probably came good with the rise in house prices or won when a parent died - no investment skill there.

:T Well said. There's far too much snobbery on this forum.

bazster

mikeymo wrote: »

Nobody has any experience of the FSCS, so how do we know that it'll work?

It just did work. The FSCS didn't have the money to bail out the B+B depositors if the bank went truly bankrupt, so HMG lent it the money. This in turn allowed Santander to take over the deposits, something no-one would have been prepared to do if they had been required to take the toxic mortgage book also.

HMG will get much of the money back, over the years, from the mortgage book. In the meantime, the FSCS (i.e. all the other banks) will have to pay (a lot of) interest on the loan, and if there's a shortfall once all the mortgages are gone, the FSCS will have to pay that too.

So there you have it, the FSCS in action. This is how come HMG can decide to increase the limit to £50,000, even though it's a private scheme: given the size of the tottering banks, the scheme cannot work without HMG loans, so if HMG says it must cover £50,000, so be it.

theowl_2

Hope this is useful, facts-wise. From The Times...
UK savings frozen after Landsbanki goes bust

Times Online

div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited !! color:#06c; } British savers have been blocked from withdrawing funds from Icesave, the internet savings bank that is owned by Landsbanki, after Iceland’s financial regulator took control of the country's second largest bank .
The Icelandic Government has dismissed the bank's board and put the institution into receivership.
Confirmation of the move came from Iceland's Banking Minister this morning, as the Icesave bank, controlled by Landsbanki, said that 300,000 British savers with the bank would not be able to withdraw their money.
British savers may now face a difficult struggle to extract their money from Icesave.
Related Links

• Icelandic Prime Minister addresses the nation

• Terror as Iceland faces economic collapse

• Iceland agrees emergency legislation

Landsbanki is one of a handful of European banks operating in Britain, which has the so-called passport exemption — meaning that when the bank fails, the first €20,000 (£15,500) needs to be reclaimed from the Icelandic compensation scheme, not the UK system.
Any further savings up to the maximum £50,000 now guaranteed by the British Government would still come from the UK scheme.
A notice on Icesave's website said: “We are not currently processing any deposits or any withdrawal requests through our Icesave internet accounts. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our customers. We hope to provide you with more information shortly.”
Iceland's banking minister confirmed today that the bank, where British savers have £4.5 billion of funds, would be taken over by the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority (IFSA), according to emergency banking legislation that was passed last night.
The move is the latest step by the Icelandic authorities to control of a crisis in the financial sector that has already led to the part-nationalisation of Glitnir.
The Icelandic central bank said that Russia had agreed to provide Iceland with a €4 billion (£3.1 billion) loan to strengthen foreign reserves and support the Icelandic crown, which fell by 35 per cent on Monday.
Russia said, however, that no decision on the loan had been made.
The Icelandic crown continued to be volatile in today's trading, forcing the central bank to introduce a currency peg at a value of 131 per euro. It was last trading at 144 per euro.
In a statement, the Icelandic financial regulator said: "“Based on new legislation, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority proceeds to take control of Landsbanki to ensure continued commercial bank operations in Iceland."
“Domestic deposits are fully guaranteed, as declared by the Government. Landsbanki’s domestic branches, call centres, cash machines and internet operations will be open for business as usual. The objective of the IFSA’s action is to guarantee a functioning domestic banking system.”
OMX Group, the stock exchange operator that owns seven European stock exchanges, also said that it had suspended Landsbanki from trading on the Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen exchanges due to uncertainty about its situation.
The suspension will remain in place until further notice.

Former_MSE_Forum_Manager

OK folks

Deep breath all round please. This is a very difficult situation and MSE Towers, along with a lot of forum users, are working extremely hard to keep everyone updated with the situation.

A lot of people are concerned and this thread is about facts. Let's please keep it that way and keep arguing and personal comments away. They are not helping anyone. Thanks.

gax23

isofa wrote: »

And posting misinformation about protection and the banking system has done people favours?

Good grief.

And what problems has it caused? Really? So some people have moved their money to a different bank. Has this caused you a problem?

genny

gax23 wrote: »

Actually, I made one post where I got KE mixed up with Icesave. I don't believe I stated anything as 'fact' in any other post. Get your facts straight, please.

Fact you've just lied, and here is the evidence:

Fact you posted on post 30, incorrect about KE: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=14767381

Fact you posted on post 34, incorrect about KE:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=14767827

Fact you igored the advice and as for evidence (already given) post 40:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=14768187

Fact, you suggested everyone would lose their life savings, post 60:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=14768657

Fact, only by post 70 did you admit you were wrong:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=14768809

mikeymo_3

GeorgeHowell wrote: »

The media tend to overplay everything these days. If we had taken all their panic-mongering on board, we would have expected by now to be dead from AIDS, CJD, SARS, bird flu, or nuclear terrorism, to be frozen by southerly diversion of the Gulf Stream, to be blown to pieces by hurricanes or tornadoes, to be flooded by tsunamis, to see the planet thrown into the equivalent of a nuclear winter caused by the explosion of the Yellowstone National Park -- the list goes on and on, becoming ever more bizarre.]

Well, in case it's escaped your attention, millions of people HAVE died from AIDS, thousands did die in the Asian Tsunami, 6 million did die in the Holocaust, 10 million in the Stalin's USSR, 4000 in the 9/11 attacks etc. etc. Really bad things actually do happen. They might not happen here, with the Icelandic banking system, but you can hardly blame people for taking notice of what's going on and trying to protect themselves. Seems prudent to me. Still, if you're not worried then stay not worried.

nigelF

I just wish everyone good luck wherever they have their hard-earned savings - it must be a worrying time for all and quite stressful. I have £1.5k in KE which I'm not really worried about, what DOES worry me that I was just a couple of weeks away from putting my £30k of 'waste of time' premium bonds and a £22k ISA into the same account - now I would have been worried then!