Greek and eurozone crisis-are banks like Santander safe?

martin57

Hi,

I was listening to (think it was Sky news) yesterday and someone was being interviewed about the Greek and euro zone crisis and repercussions for UK.

Jut got the gist of it, but I think he mentioned (if the worst was to happen) runs on banks in countries like Spain, and then went on to mention Santander in UK.

If worst was to happen to Santander and the knock on repercussions for its subsidiaries Like Cahoot, would all savings with them in UK be REALLY safe?

1 I know about the £85k financial services compensation scheme but is it as simple as this if the worst was to happen to Santander?

2 Since the Bank of England and the government are quick to print money, would they just do so in the event of the above happening and hand it out to the depositors?

Thanks very much for your views.

martin57

Linton

AIUI Santander in the UK are a British bank owned by a Spanish one and are covered by the £85K FSCS guarantee in the UK. The £85K guarantee is in the first instance covered by a levy on other British banks and companies regulated by the FSA, so there is no call on government funds. The government acts as final backup to the FSCS.

srcandas

Being well spanish connected , wife, family and todo, the possibility of spanish banks suffering runs is very serious. My family there are already moving their savings to sterling. I should say they are working class spanish - the rich shipped their money out ages ago.

But most concern is with the seven banks that make up the toxic carrier Bankia. 'It holds property on its balance sheet that may be over valued by a factor of three!!!!

As I understand it Santander fence each national operation and are a very profitable and stable bank - which has nothing to do with their spanish operation. Most of the group profit last year came from Brazil.

So I believe there is no reason to be concerned.

Further UK Santander clients being compensated up to the £85000 level is not a great deal of money in terms of bank rescue amounts

But if it concerns you then take it out. Life is too short for stress :beer: