The "Bank of Dave" 5% Savings Interest? .. or not (What is this?)

innovate

VoucherMan wrote: »

But no doubt still a massive waiting list

Anyone from MSE on it? I'm not, and not planning to, even if there was no waiting list.

JohnRo

From what I read you need to live in or around Burnley, it requires a face to face meeting and isn't something you can do over t'internet.

He says all profit goes to charity, I'd be interested if anyone has a number for that. I'll be watching the C4 program with interest, the original program was an eye opener, it showed just what a closed shop, pompous old boys club the banking industry is and how the "regulator" acts as little more than their protector.

alanq

As of October 2012 it was reported that there was a 6-month waiting list to invest and 2-year waiting list to borrow.
http://www.burnleyexpress.net/news/business-news/bank-of-dave-is-booming-1-5042854

JohnRo wrote: »

He says all profit goes to charity, I'd be interested if anyone has a number for that.

What do you mean by "a number"? A registered charity number or the amount donated? BS&L is not a charity itself. I seem to recall the TV programme showing Dave visiting couple of local charities and handing them cheques.

JohnRo

alanq wrote: »

What do you mean by "a number"?

Yes I meant how much, I saw the original program where he ended it by visiting the local charity shops with a cheque for each.

If I'm honest I am a bit cynical about why exactly he's doing it, self promotion and his existing business etc. but fair play to him. I'm all for his sticking two fingers up to the parasitic protectionist banking industry and their complicit regulator.

alanq

JohnRo wrote: »

Yes I meant how much,

Reportedly "about £20,000" in the past year.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2283361/Bank-Dave-Burnley-Savings-Loans-community-bank-offers-5-savings.html

innovate

I did see bits of the original series and he didn't strike me as some sort of Saint who selflessly works for no money or profit. He obviously needs to make money somehow. If he can't make it from his 'bank', he is making it some other way. Of course, he could make a killing from his 'bank', in which case it would be easy to lob the occasional cheque to a charity.

aleph_0

JohnRo wrote: »

Yes I meant how much, I saw the original program where he ended it by visiting the local charity shops with a cheque for each.

If I'm honest I am a bit cynical about why exactly he's doing it, self promotion and his existing business etc. but fair play to him. I'm all for his sticking two fingers up to the parasitic protectionist banking industry and their complicit regulator.

The charity bit concerns me more, in some sense. If he's making a profit, then using that money to build up the cash reserves to help cover bad debt would be a good idea. This provides a useful guarantee rather than just Dave's "personal guarantee".

On the lending side, part of the reason for banks moving to credit scoring is that it is more accurate than relying on individual judgement. Whilst I'm sure Dave's a Jolly Good Chap, the other weakness is that one has to trust Dave's judgement and believe he is indeed a Jolly Good Chap. Otherwise, going for a bigger peer-to-peer lending site would make much more sense.

alanq

aleph_0 wrote: »

On the lending side, part of the reason for banks moving to credit scoring is that it is more accurate than relying on individual judgement.

Submission to parliament by BS&L:
"Although credit history is looked at in most cases, judgements are made individually by what is in effect a Bank Manager, not by a credit-scoring computer. Default rates are no worse than those of High Street banks."
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/joint-committees/Banking_Standards/Written%20Evidence%2019%20December%202012.pdf

aleph_0

alanq wrote: »

Submission to parliament by BS&L:
"Although credit history is looked at in most cases, judgements are made individually by what is in effect a Bank Manager, not by a credit-scoring computer. Default rates are no worse than those of High Street banks."
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/joint-committees/Banking_Standards/Written%20Evidence%2019%20December%202012.pdf

That's good. The submission is page 185 of the document for anyone else interested.

I do hope it continues to succeed. But I'm still wary about such schemes, and the unregulated world he's working within. If I was local, I might be tempted, but only after seeing a lot more details of the accounts and loan book.

Ifts

Biggles wrote: »

That was (and still is) the title of this thread, back in Nov 11.

I was merely quoting the title of the article (dated 23 Feb 13) that I saw over on thisismoney.co.uk website giving a little back ground to what he has been through trying to set up a bank (but not succeeded).

But it still comes without FSCS protection

Yes you are right. Although no one was implying he's got FSCS protection now.
It does warn readers in that article that he does not have FSCS protection....

But without the copper- bottomed guarantee of the FSCS, customers’ savings will be at greater risk here than in an authorised institution