Safe place for large sum of money?

DreamweaverB

I've just sold my business and am about to receive a fairly large sum of money (over a million sterling.)

The money will be paid directly into my hsbc bank account and I've been so busy lately that I've really not had time to think about what I'm going to do with it so it could be sitting in the account for some time.

I'm obviously aware that banks are not as safe places as they once were but opening up dozens of accounts to put £50k in each seems a bit ridiculous to me!

Any suggestions on how to minimise risk in the short term or am I worrying about nothing?

kingmonkey

Northen Rock

NS&I

Lol_UK_2

kingmonkey wrote: »

Northen Rock

NS&I

Northern Rock- forget it (look at the figures).
Standard Chartered bank - just posted a healthy profit. Name me another bank that has!

kingmonkey

Northen Rock & NS&I are government owned. If you think the government is going to default then its probably time to get out of the country.

Lol_UK_2

kingmonkey wrote: »

Northen Rock & NS&I are government owned. If you think the government is going to default then its probably time to get out of the country.

Absolutely! The pound will devalue anyway, so any small amounts of interest won't mean a damn with either institution...but look at the Northern Rock losses!...after all that money pumped in and taken over by the government- the only conclusion is they don't know what they are doing!!

kingmonkey

The OP is looking for safety + I dont understand your point. Who cares if the pound devalues unless your importing?

If OP is worried about inflation (is this what you mean?) then he could buy fixed term inflation linked bonds with NS&I.

kingmonkey

Lol_UK wrote: »

Standard Chartered bank - just posted a healthy profit. Name me another bank that has!

I wouldn't be surprised if it was due to accountancy fraud/creativity.

simon_templar_2

Santander 8.8 Billion profit.

tradetime

Lol_UK wrote: »

..but look at the Northern Rock losses!...after all that money pumped in and taken over by the government- the only conclusion is they don't know what they are doing!!

That would be one conclusion, which, may or may not be right, but another would be that the initial mandate of the new crisis managment team was to wind down the business and pay the taxpayer back, thus in unwinding the mortgage book they sold off all the quality and are left with the high risk stuff, so there's no surprises that they are making losses, and will continue to. The money pumped in was to stabalise the capital requirements since they were unable to borrow in the money markets, not to fix loss making loans. But they probably should have been allowed to go bust, but that's easy to say in hindsight.

Lol_UK_2

kingmonkey wrote: »

I wouldn't be surprised if it was due to accountancy fraud/creativity.

But you're prepared to trust the UK government and the banks here...after all that has happened and will continue to happen?...I'm frankly amazed!

Do your research- Standard Chartered have stricter lending controls (and smarter investment people) and this has protected them from too much colateral damage. Sounds like a 'good' bank to me!

Yes the OP is looking for security...and if (or rather when) the pound is debased and we have inflation our pounds will be worth less, and everything will cost more- so in real terms you will make a loss on an investment that pays small amounts of interest.

kingmonkey

Lol_UK wrote: »

Yes the OP is looking for security...and if (or rather when) the pound is debased and we have inflation our pounds will be worth less, and everything will cost more- so in real terms you will make a loss on an investment that pays small amounts of interest.

How will they try and curb inflation? They will increase interest rates. Cash deposits keep up with inflation over the long term.

Yes I do trust the government to pay out since they've been doing it for a long time - through many wars etc.

Saying the pound will be worth less & everything will cost more is really the same thing as they are both relative to eachother. Price of goods increase therefore you need more pounds to pay for them. The cost is really the same, as there is also wage inflation.