The fate of Chelsea Building Society is decided this week...

ScarletBea

Done, according to the bbc news site.

cvd

There is a statement about the merger by the Chelsea here

http://www.thechelsea.co.uk/media/media_press_release_20091202a.html

bryanb

scott_lithgows wrote: »

I find it hard to believe that the British people put their cash into Spanish and Australian banks but dont support their local Building Society.

I invested in a British BS. I now find I am an Investor in a Spanish bank, without even a vote (Bradford & Bingley)
Plus it's a fixed term bond so no option to withdraw. Habla Espanyol?

glider3560

bryanb wrote: »

I invested in a British BS. I now find I am an Investor in a Spanish bank, without even a vote (Bradford & Bingley)
Plus it's a fixed term bond so no option to withdraw. Habla Espanyol?

Incorrect. Bradford & Bingley Building Society became a bank in December 2000, after a vote by its member. Each member of the building society received at least 250 shares (worth ~£500, some received ~£5000).

ChiefGrasscutter

bryanb wrote: »

I invested in a British BS. I now find I am an Investor in a Spanish bank, without even a vote (Bradford & Bingley)
Plus it's a fixed term bond so no option to withdraw. Habla Espanyol?

As many others have stated elsewhere - including me, Bradford and Bingley went BUST, bankrupt, kaput...etc.

A Spanish bank very kindly offered to the Government to take over the liabilities of the B&B - your savings - which represents a liability on the organisations balance sheet.
From savers point of view it was a seamless transfer done over a weekend.
You are rather lucky that the Spanish bank honoured the general terms of the B&B accounts - they would have been under no obligation to as once it went bust all savings contracts would have been legally nul and void.

Had the Spanish Bank not done so not then the FSCS would have had to come to the rescue as per Icesave.

If such a thing as the FSCS did not exist for UK savers then you have got nothing - apart from a few pence as part of any liquidation proceeds.

What would you like to have had a vote about exactly?

Additionally you were not an "investor" with the B&B, as in owning shares in the bank - you were a "saver" in one of its offered investment products.

bryanb

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

As many others have stated elsewhere - including me, Bradford and Bingley went BUST, bankrupt, kaput...etc.

A Spanish bank very kindly offered to the Government to take over the liabilities of the B&B - your savings - which represents a liability on the organisations balance sheet.
From savers point of view it was a seamless transfer done over a weekend.
You are rather lucky that the Spanish bank honoured the general terms of the B&B accounts - they would have been under no obligation to as once it went bust all savings contracts would have been legally nul and void.

Had the Spanish Bank not done so not then the FSCS would have had to come to the rescue as per Icesave.

If such a thing as the FSCS did not exist for UK savers then you have got nothing - apart from a few pence as part of any liquidation proceeds.

What would you like to have had a vote about exactly?

Additionally you were not an "investor" with the B&B, as in owning shares in the bank - you were a "saver" in one of its offered investment products.

Sorry, you are right of course, it was an off the cuff reply without enough thought. But I still have some worthless B&B shares, although my savings are safe in a Spanish bank. I guess I'm an ex investor, and a saver.
But I should point out that there was no doubt that the FSCS existed to cover my savings, so hard to understand your comment about if it did not exist, and the "Null and void bit"?. FSCS limits covered all my savings in that case, whereas my Icesave savings were rescued, for which I am grateful.

So, is it not possible that I saved in B&B up till 2000, then had a bank account with them, plus some shares? I might have liked a vote in respect of those shares regarding the Santander takeover, but pretty pointless really.

ChiefGrasscutter

Ah so I was incorrect, apologies - you were both an 'investor' in B&B as well as a 'saver'.
I'm not sure what happened proceedure wise to shareholders in B&B.

You are correct about the FSCS that it is in place to guarantee your savings. Note though that go back a few years ago and the level of protection was far less: today it is £50K. Mid last year it was £35K, and before that for a long time it was far far less.
I was merely pointing out that we savers are lucky that such a compensation scheme exists
Given that the government so far has rescued 100% of savers deposits including those way above the £50K limit every time and ones not fully covered by the FSCS -ie Icesave one might say we have had (so far!) a de-facto 100% guarantee.
I believe in the USA they take a more rigid stance. Any deposits above their own guarantee level take their chances in the liquidation of the institution. Currently this is a almost weekly event with Bank Failure Friday lists published each week During 2009 so far the total of failures was 115 at the begining of November.

baby_boomer

D1zzy wrote: »

Looks like its the "Stamford Bridge BS" then....:D

Brilliant compromise.

Did you hear about the West End girls who wanted to watch their first footie match at Chelsea & took a cab? They got into South Yorkshire before they realised anything was wrong!

scott_lithgows

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

As many others have stated elsewhere - including me, Bradford and Bingley went BUST, bankrupt, kaput...etc.

A Spanish bank very kindly offered to the Government to take over the liabilities of the B&B - your savings - which represents a liability on the organisations balance sheet.
From savers point of view it was a seamless transfer done over a weekend.
You are rather lucky that the Spanish bank honoured the general terms of the B&B accounts - they would have been under no obligation to as once it went bust all savings contracts would have been legally nul and void.

Had the Spanish Bank not done so not then the FSCS would have had to come to the rescue as per Icesave.

If such a thing as the FSCS did not exist for UK savers then you have got nothing - apart from a few pence as part of any liquidation proceeds.

What would you like to have had a vote about exactly?

Additionally you were not an "investor" with the B&B, as in owning shares in the bank - you were a "saver" in one of its offered investment products.

Very kindly!!!!!!
They paid hard cash for the B+B savings accounts,if they had spent that amount on advertising they would not have got half the new business that they were handed.

scott_lithgows

bryanb wrote: »

I invested in a British BS. I now find I am an Investor in a Spanish bank, without even a vote (Bradford & Bingley)
Plus it's a fixed term bond so no option to withdraw. Habla Espanyol?

Hopefully there will be some building societies left for you to switch to when your bond does finish.My B+B accounts are now consigned to history,Yorkshire BS welcomed me with welcome arms :-)