Hbos - a bbc expose and a debate in the house of commons

Spandavia

Hi everyone, I have posted the following and I hope it will be of interest to many directors of SME's and anyone who is sick of being maltreated by banks. I hope you will take the time to listen to 'File On Four' as it really exposes a sickening example of how badly some banks treat us. I am posting this as a victim of this scandal and the BBC programme came about as a result of a two year investigation my husband and I have had to do in order to try and prove what was going on. Even now, the bank refuse to admit any culpability. We are hopeful that the result of both the BBC expose and the Debate will be a better deal for small businesses and some decent treatment for bank customers.

best
spandavia

INSIDE HBOS

WHAT DID WE BUY?

On Tuesday 26 May 2009, the BBC will broadcast across the News channels and on 'File On For' (Radio 4 at 8.30pm) an expose of totally unethical events at HBOS. This is an example of how certain millionaire 'Masters Of The Universe' failed to keep their house in order. After two years of HBOS strenuously denying anything was amiss with their risk management, the BBC can and has legitimately challenged this claim.


The programme shows how neither the Bank's own risk structure nor the regulators had any control of internal procedures at HBOS and how the Bank then mercilessly persecuted those customers adversely affected by their Executive's mistakes in an attempt to disguise what had happened.


HBOS has had billions of pounds of public money to bail them out and cover their debts – but what were we really paying for? Sub Prime and the effects of Global Recession? Or yachts and champagne for the boys? Was HBOS really a Bank or just one big jolly for the top dogs?


Thousands of people have been affected by the story the BBC will tell, business owners, their employees, shareholders, unsecured creditors and, of course, the taxpayer. Several MPs have pressed for a Debate in the House of Commons into this sordid situation. It will be held on 2nd June at 12.30pm. Please watch the BBC news on the May 26th and listen to 'File On Four'. And, if you are tired of being maltreated by banks or angry at what their actions have done to this country, then do something about it.


If you are a victim of this particular scandal then write to your MP and ask that they support James Paice MP in the Adjournment Debate. If you are not directly linked to this scandal but have suffered at the hands of unethical and sometimes corrupt banking practises, if your home has been repossessed, your business closed, your job lost or your savings have disappeared because of a bank, then please join our petition to the Prime Minister – who has known about this scandal in great detail since well before the Lloyds/HBOS Merger – but has done nothing.

PUBLICVSBANKS

(this is the name of the petition I have put up on the Gov. site. It should be active sometime next week – unless No.10 objects to it.)

As Joanna Lumley has shown us, if the public shouts loud enough as one, even Gordon Brown has to listen. Sign the petition to get transparency, integrity and justice back into our banks.

7sefton

So what actually happened to you?

Spandavia

7sefton wrote: »

So what actually happened to you?

How many hours do you have? I'd have to write you a book to really explain what happened. But in short, we were the victims of a rogue bank manager who was party to engineering a situation where by he and his consultancy buddies made an absolute fortune which cost the bank approx. £500M and cost many of the bank's customers, their businesses, their livelihoods and, in many cases their homes.

I don't want to go into detail as it would ruin the impact of the BBC expose but, as an example of what was going on, consider this; a company with an £800,000 facility announces in its 2004 accounts that its overdraft is actually £28.6M. These accounts are deposited in 2006. In 2007 and with no further accounts, the Company goes bust owing the bank £113M - £85M of which is on the overdraft. In March 2008, the bank wrote off £60M of the overdraft. Now that's what you call risk management!

Hope you enjoy the programme.

Best
Spandavia

withnell

Spandavia wrote: »

How many hours do you have? I'd have to write you a book to really explain what happened. But in short, we were the victims of a rogue bank manager who was party to engineering a situation where by he and his consultancy buddies made an absolute fortune which cost the bank approx. £500M and cost many of the bank's customers, their businesses, their livelihoods and, in many cases their homes.

I don't want to go into detail as it would ruin the impact of the BBC expose but, as an example of what was going on, consider this; a company with an £800,000 facility announces in its 2004 accounts that its overdraft is actually £28.6M. These accounts are deposited in 2006. In 2007 and with no further accounts, the Company goes bust owing the bank £113M - £85M of which is on the overdraft. In March 2008, the bank wrote off £60M of the overdraft. Now that's what you call risk management!

Hope you enjoy the programme.

Best
Spandavia

So basically your issue is that they increased a company's overdraft limit, and then that company went bust - that's a bad decision, but hardly corrupt

Fail to see how it cost anyone their house - maybe it reduced the dividend by a penny, and then anyone who relys the dividend to live on has only themselves to blame!

Spandavia

withnell wrote: »

So basically your issue is that they increased a company's overdraft limit, and then that company went bust - that's a bad decision, but hardly corrupt

Fail to see how it cost anyone their house - maybe it reduced the dividend by a penny, and then anyone who relys the dividend to live on has only themselves to blame!

If you are interested to hear the story you will have to listen to 'File On Four' tomorrow night at 8.00pm. I put the post up for anyone who feels they have been adversely affected by banking conduct as this story is an interesting and extreme example of bad behaviour in banks and the effects it has on people's live. Anyone who hasn't been affected by the financial melt down in the UK will probably not be interested.

mparter

I think what Spandavia's highlighting is an example. I'm assuming from their post that this isn't a one-off, and when this scenario did occur, rather than admit internal mistakes, they pursued others (i.e. wee Betty that owes a few hundred quid on a loan) to make up shortfalls.

AngelaSinclair

Or tried to get people like me to pay for a £2254 overdraft run up on my current account by fraudulent transactions. I beat the bank, though!

jambosans

Yes once I stood on a dog poo outside my local Bank of Scotland, which had not been cleaned up, fell, broke my leg, could not work, and lost my house as a result. Perhaps if the dirty swines at the top were doing their job none of this would have happened.