Santander Next Bank to fail ??!!

davidlizard

I use A&L as my day to day account. I must say that I am not overly worried at the moment. I note that on the log-in page to the online banking, a large red banner has appeared saying Santander is safe etc etc, so this may be in response to this.

If the worst comes to the worst and my funds in A&L become temporarily unavailable, rather than have a pile of cash at home, I will simply revert to my plan B that I have had in place for several years now.

My Plan B is that I have a Nationwide Flex Account that I primarily use for when I go on holiday, however, there is always a month or so's salary in the linked e-savings account that can be transferred into the Flex Account immediately should there be any problems with my primary (A&L) account - problems I have envisaged in the past is technical problems locking me out of my A&L account, or fraudulent access clearing my account of all monies. By having this available, I have an alternate and immediate source of cash which will keep me going for a month, by which time the A&L problem will have been sorted, or I can use some of my other deposits that take a few days to clear.

Dithering_Dad

mizzbiz wrote: »

Let's just hope they haven't had to borrow billions from the tax payer to do it like lloyds.

How come they have money and everyone else is going under? A bit suspicious methinks.

Good lord, is credit so ingrained in the UK psyche that people can't even consider that if you can actually save up for things and buy them with your own money?

Due to the combination of their prudent CEO and the prudent Spanish banking regulations, Santander has large reserves of cash and is now using some of them to cherry pick absolute bargains from the ruins of other people's folly's.

A bit like the HPC people will be doing over the next 18 months in the UK housing market.

chucky

mizzbiz wrote: »

Let's just hope they haven't had to borrow billions from the tax payer to do it like lloyds.

BTW is no one worried about the volume of banks Santander seem to be buying...
first Abbey, then A&L, then B&B savings etc etc. And that's just in the UK. How come they have money and everyone else is going under? A bit suspicious methinks.

I also read a lot of posts on these forums that advised people with defaults etc to try Abbey for mortgages as they didn't seem to mind if you were rubbish with paying it back.

Mewbie - does this mean that you're worried about the Spanish taxpayer as Santander are a Spanish bank? :-)

blue_monkey_2

Can I ask a question please as while I am trying to understand all of this sometimes it goes right over my head.

Is Abbey a UK or a Spanish Bank?

If Abbey does go under - and I can understand that there are risks with any bank at the moment - then will the governement start bleating that they cannot help because it is a Spanish Bank?

My kids have savings there - I am overdrawn atm but my benefits/tax credits go in there so shortly I will have money in there. So should something happen will they freeze accounts and stop us getting the money we have? As it is benefit money (DLA, CTC, CB) will the Government then step in?

My husband is with Barclays so should we move the kids money into the Barclays account to be on the safe side?

I am just a tad confused, while a lot of it is scaremongering, I agree, for those of us who rely on the money coming in to buy food and pay bill, it is quite scary so I can understand why people strip bank accounts and stuff like that.

More so I am worried that the Governement will not help those that have money with foreign banks. So is Abbey Spanish or a UK bank?

Another question. Where does all this 'bail out' money from the Taxpayer come from? I thought there was no money, there is no money for public resources, etc... so if we are borrowing to pay for the bank surely this is going to open a huge hole of debt that cannot be paid back if people cannot get to their money to pay their bills. Or have I got that all wrong? Sorry if that sounds dim, sometimes it is just hard to understand. They keep bleating on about the taxpayer but I thought this country had no money.

And where does the Government they 'borrow' from that they keep on talking about?

And have you seen Brown lately, it looks like he has not slept for a month!! There was he thinking how lovely yhis job was going to be as PM and he was signing up for a few jollies a month around the world to talk about climate change and all that blah blah - I reckon TB saw what was coming and jumped ship at the right time and left someone else to pick up the mess.

blue_monkey_2

I'd have to disagree with Mewbie, Abbey are quite selective who they lend to. I could not get a business account with them despite having around £2-4k per week going into my Abbey personal account and I wanted the money seperate. I had to fill in a form and they sent it off and 'the computer said no'. I went to Barclays and have my business account with them now. They seemed quite tight on lending money in my opinion to be honest.

Lotus-eater

blue_monkey wrote: »

I'd have to disagree with Mewbie, Abbey are quite selective who they lend to. I could not get a business account with them despite having around £2-4k per week going into my Abbey personal account and I wanted the money seperate. I had to fill in a form and they sent it off and 'the computer said no'. I went to Barclays and have my business account with them now. They seemed quite tight on lending money in my opinion to be honest.

When was this? Is there something you aren't telling us here? I've never heard of Abbey turning down a business account before. You did say you are overdrawn in your personal account in your other post, would this affect it?

BiggaThanBen

blue_monkey wrote: »

I'd have to disagree with Mewbie, Abbey are quite selective who they lend to. I could not get a business account with them despite having around £2-4k per week going into my Abbey personal account a .. They seemed quite tight on lending money in my opinion to be honest.

I do not get this example, you've tried to get a current account, not loan, how can it demonstrate that they have strict lending criteria ? :-/

sabretoothtigger

This bank had bought in no toxic debts previous to buying up other banks afaik
If they can buy other badly valued banks, handle the debt commitments and carry on then its easy money for them I guess but it also makes sense for the shorters to start circling overhead as they do now have a percentage of sub prime on their book

Add in that santanders business was presumably the spanish mortgage market which is in trouble then I guess its a good bet the share price will fall eventually.
However I dont think they will suffer like the uk banks did which you guys seem to be immediately be comparing them to.

We're in a falling market still, in theory you could choose to short any share and be making a reasonable bet. Is a&l still quoted on lse?

Pssst

luvpump wrote: »

It really would be Armageddon if this went under !!! :eek:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4926277.ece

I'll try not to sweat over it. He may be clever and wealthy but his position with Santander is inconsequential though it seems like a lot to us members of the proletariat, mainly because we are comparatively poor.

sabretoothtigger

http://www.breakingviews.com/2008/10/13/Santander.aspx?email

Santander paid $1.9bn in shares for the 76% in Sovereign it didn’t already own. The Spanish bank bought a 24% stake in the US bank in 2005 for $2.9bn. Meanwhile, Santander said it was injecting £1bn in its UK subsidiaries Abbey and Alliance and Leicester, boosting their core capital ratios to over 9%.