Dunfermline BS Stability

Trollfever

Keep up the good work b_b.

.

baby_boomer

Thanks Tf

The Times Business cartoon has a drawing of a Dunfermline branch.

The new sign says

"The Dunlending building society"

baby_boomer

Sky - Mysterious "Scottish Consortium" had been interested in Dunfermline

"......"Scottish Friendly [Society, another mutual,] became part of a Scottish-led consortium that was interested in opening discussions with Dunfermline Building Society regarding a potential merger.

"Initial approaches were made in the middle of March to DBS with Scottish Friendly joining the consortium shortly thereafter.

"Although numerous attempts were made to open exploratory negotiations with DBS, we were not given an opportunity to meet with them until Sunday March 29, less than 24 hours before a deal was announced.

"While we are of course pleased that the position of DBS members has been secured, the announcement of today's deal with the Nationwide precludes a Scottish-led solution that may have been a possibility if talks had been agreed between the consortium and DBS at an earlier stage in this process...."

## - Scottish Friendly to the rescue? Don't make me laugh :rotfl: All grist to the Scottish political mill, no doubt. Are the other members of the "Consortium" so ashamed of their involvement that they don't want it to come into the public domain?

baby_boomer

Hansard link to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's full statement about Dunfermline BS

Joint Administrators' Statement about Dunfermline BS

Count_Dante

The Times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6005644.ece

An inquiry into management and regulatory failings at the Dunfermline Building Society has been ordered by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, as the axe fell on the 134-year-old society, provoking fears of major jobs losses.

Jim Faulds is right to keep his head down now people are asking more searching questions about the quality of his work at the Dunfermline.

As to the Scottish proposal to keep the Dunfermline independent, this was no doubt a half baked plan that would surely sink every other institution that wasted it's money. The Scottish Friendly Society, reputed to be behind the plan would have been blown away with huge losses.

baby_boomer

An inquiry into management and regulatory failings at the Dunfermline Building Society has been ordered by Alistair Darling

When in deep political trouble, kick it into the long grass by announcing an inquiry.

This is primarily a measure to ward off , for a few months, the particularly pertinent questions from Vince Cable about the FSA's incompetence.

And it also keeps the Scot Nats at bay.

In time, the issue will lose its political heat which gives the government time to pause for breath.

And focus fully on the failure of the G20 meeting at the end of this week :rotfl:

bananagirl_2

Does anyone know if I can get out of a Dunfermline mortgage more easily now? There's been a lot of discussion here about savings, and the legal implications of the Dunfermline's collapse.

I paid them £900 for the pleasure of a 5.9% fixed rate in August - just before rates dived. I was hoping that now they are no more, I'd be able to get out of this - any ideas? My contract was with them, they collapsed...

Baldur

bananagirl wrote: »

they collapsed...

....... your mortgage contract will be taken up by a new institution (Nationwide, from memory) on the same terms that you originally agreed.

baby_boomer

Express - The SNP leader Alex Salmond goes a-spinning

Salmond's 1,000 year Scottish Mutual :rolleyes:

"....If there’s £1billion for Nationwide to take over this organisation and its profitable bits, then why wasn’t it a good idea to spend a fraction of that amount in allowing the organisation to trade forward as an independent entity?” asked Mr Salmond......

.........."If a fraction of the deal... had been available to the Dunfermline as an independent organisation, then it could have traded on for the next 140, perhaps even the next 1,000 years with that sort of money available."

## - So why not, indeed? Well, because the cost to the UK taxpayer isn't £1bn it's going to more like £10-15m. The Treasury's solution puts 90% of the £100m-£150m final bill onto UK savers via the FSCS, so you can see why the Treasury - responsible primarily for tax - would prefer to screw savers instead of injecting taxpayers' capital into a failing Scottish building society that might have limped on for a few years, unable to offer decent rates because of the cost of servicing its debts.

## -The Treasury will get back its £1bn from Nationwide. It's disingenuous of Alex Salmond to leave the Scottish people thinking otherwise.

But that's what Alex is good at!

Meanwhile it hots up for the FSA, targeted by Vince Cable

Scotsman - Government minister admits FSA was to blame at Dunfermline

"....Lord Myners [ the financial services secretary] said the Financial Services Authority (FSA) had missed opportunities to prevent the Dunfermline from descending into .... financial crisis....."

But I suspect Lord Myners will not be long in the government as the pension's "expert" who bungled and signed off Fred Goodwin's pension. Perhaps he is just hinting to Gordon how much damage he might do if required to step down. Or perhaps it's just another case of a non-politician not realising that the truth must never be told at all costs.

And the press has got no further in unearthing the companies in the mysterious "Scottish consortium" said to have been interested in Dunfermline in March, and which Scottish Friendly society later joined.

What have they got to hide? Might they be private equity companies so despised by the Scottish government and Scottish public as "spivs and speculators" ?

Count_Dante

baby_boomer wrote: »

And the press has got no further in unearthing the companies in the mysterious "Scottish consortium" said to have been interested in Dunfermline in March, and which Scottish Friendly society later joined.

What have they got to hide? Might they be private equity companies so despised by the Scottish government and Scottish public as "spivs and speculators" ?

I suspect they were a bunch of SNP supporting businessmen who got together and thought it would be a good idea (after drink had been taken, that is). However, they probably realised that propping up the Dunfermline would have been like buying a football team - a way to become poor and hated.