Santander / RBS Deal Off

anotherbaldrick

Mandelbrot wrote: »

Wot! no lifeboat?

Women and children first, but I have got an inflatable bouyancy aid (Mae West).

I assume in reflection the big software crash RBS/Nat West in June which melted down the Banks systems was a preliminary attempt to integrate the systems into Santander's database . Which has led them to conclude incompatability

chambta

opinions4u wrote: »

Santander agreed a price that, as time moved on, was over the odds.

They wanted to back out.

It staggers me that such a huge deal can be agreed and yet the buying party seem able to walk away from it literally years later without consequence.

innovate

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

I assume in reflection the big software crash RBS/Nat West in June which melted down the Banks systems was a preliminary attempt to integrate the systems into Santander's database .

Hah! At long last the real culprit of that RBS systems meltdown has been unveiled, by an MSE-turned-remote-detective forum buddy! Those nasty foreigners forced chaos onto the good people in RBS and their customers.

:rotfl: :rotfl:

innovate

chambta wrote: »

It staggers me that such a huge deal can be agreed and yet the buying party seem able to walk away from it literally years later without consequence.

To be fair, the exit clauses (for both parties) were all in the contract from day one. And both parties have sunk tens of millions of their own money (or taxpayer's money, in the case of RBS) into trying to make it work. I havent yet heard anything that either party can claim any damages from the other, so I'd assume both lost their money.

You may be right, may be the exit clauses (and others) should have been much tighter. Or the contract should never have been entered into in the first place. But in gigantic projects like this one was, there is always the danger that you unearth facts some way into the project that make the entire thing implausible.

This can, of course, happen once more with the new bidder / new approach. The likes of Accenture (who wrote the 'swansong' for the deal) will absolutely love it - it will keep hordes of their consultants in a job for months if not years.

alanq

It has been reported that Virgin Money has expressed an interest. Here's hoping that whoever evaluates the bids gets their sums right!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19940642

anotherbaldrick

innovate wrote: »

Hah! At long last the real culprit of that RBS systems meltdown has been unveiled, by an MSE-turned-remote-detective forum buddy! Those nasty foreigners forced chaos onto the good people in RBS and their customers.

:rotfl: :rotfl:

Like they did with Alliance Leicester and their customers.:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

CleanShirt

The Santander bashing is tiring in this place.

Santander wanted to acquire English RBS to grow its SME presence in the market. Santander have always wanted to diversify their mix away from retail and more into business- it makes good business sense.

Everyone knows the catastrophe the A&L migration was and the reputational damage it has done to the bank. Quite rightly they were trying to ensure everything was 100% before migrating anyone across to prevent another A&L nightmare. I cant imagine how hard that would be, especially as they had the benefit of owning A&L and its ancient systems outright. Its clear to see that this wasn't possible in a reasonable time scale so they've backed away after already investing so much money into it.

This is bad news for us and customers. Really shows the naked truth of banking on all fronts (rather than just 'blame' Santander- wasn't it RBS that messed up to such an extent that its now having to do this...) that customers are just an asset (pawn) in this ridiculous game..

anotherbaldrick

Santander are in deep doodoo back home in in España. Some financial pundits are concerned.

Banco Santander has set aside 2.9bn euros to cover bad loans, however it could sell some more of its assets - including Santander UK if it needs extra funds.

So it could be on the cards that the whole conglomerate could end up belonging to yet someone else again!

innovate

CleanShirt wrote: »

The Santander bashing is tiring in this place.

Couldn't agree more. I often wonder whether the bashers made actually even the slightest effort to look beyond their own nose and inform themselves of some crucial facts - - such as you mention, e.g. that a bunch of loonies at RBS started off the entire mess in the first place.

innovate

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

Santander are in deep doodoo back home in in España. Some financial pundits are concerned.

Please stop shouting, and may be start looking at UK banks and their deep doodaah rather than pursuing your absurd and badly informed Santander bashing.