Great 'Work in a bank? What should we know' Hunt

Extant

If you work for a UK bank - any UK bank - you really have no ground to be smug and claim your bank is immune and doing fine. Even HSBC, which is a relative giant, has lost 50% of their share price in the past three months and it is still going lower. The fact that it currently sits above other banks means nothing, you are being dragged down as well.

On Friday and Monday of last week I spent over eight hours on conference calls discussing the current situation and having my superiors tell me how everything is alright, blah blah. Whilst we do expect to report ahead of the 5.3bn expected profit, it's still not good enough.

If you work for Grupo [STRIKE]Scorchio[/STRIKE]Santander and are feeling you're fine and dandy too, I suggest you go take a look at your six month performance as well: also down from the £10 mark to the £4 range. Slight resurgence recently, but back onto the downward slope already. If - and it's a big if - the market recovers rapidly any time soon, you are still going to be damaged by the inevitable job losses out of A&L etc.

Now really is not the time for arrogance, just be realistic about it: we're all in a less than comfortable position, just like pretty much everybody working in the UK at the minute. We're not RBS, we're not "on the edge," but none of us are stellar at the minute.

Anyway, the real point of why I say all of this is because the majority of my savings are tied up in a bunch of letters, notably: BARC, HSBA, BNC, RBS and LLOY.

nwc389

The bank that I work for spent months telling us employees to reassure our customers that all was well and that we were a strong bank -no need to worry .
We now know that it almost went to the wall and that the staff and customers were lied to , our 'leaders' sent us out to unwittingly lie to our customers .
Do I feel bitter -you bet I do
Will I ever trust them again ? -well would you ?

Inactive

nwc389 wrote: »

The bank that I work for spent months telling us employees to reassure our customers that all was well and that we were a strong bank -no need to worry .

Indeed, and there is probably even more bad news still to come from many of the banks, none of us really know exactly how much toxic debt each of them carries.

chambta

nwc389 wrote: »

The bank that I work for spent months telling us employees to reassure our customers that all was well and that we were a strong bank -no need to worry .
We now know that it almost went to the wall and that the staff and customers were lied to , our 'leaders' sent us out to unwittingly lie to our customers .
Do I feel bitter -you bet I do
Will I ever trust them again ? -well would you ?

I feel much the same.

chambta

Staggered to see Northern Rock staff are being paid a 10% bonus. RBS has paid the same for at least the last 10 years but clearly no one's expecting as much as a sausage this year.

Aegis

chambta wrote: »

Staggered to see Northern Rock staff are being paid a 10% bonus. RBS has paid the same for at least the last 10 years but clearly no one's expecting as much as a sausage this year.

In all fairness, if the staff are doing a good job and have a bonus scheme in place, then they should still be rewarded for doing so, as it's part of their contractually agreed package.

On the other hand, 10% seems like quite a lot if it's an average figure.

chambta

Aegis wrote: »

In all fairness, if the staff are doing a good job and have a bonus scheme in place, then they should still be rewarded for doing so, as it's part of their contractually agreed package.

On the other hand, 10% seems like quite a lot if it's an average figure.

The bonus won't be contractual. In much the same way that RBS's isn't, even though it been paid for 10yrs plus and was almost taken as a given.

The 10% is the same for each member of staff regardless of salary etc.

Aegis

chambta wrote: »

The bonus won't be contractual. In much the same way that RBS's isn't, even though it been paid for 10yrs plus and was almost taken as a given.

The 10% is the same for each member of staff regardless of salary etc.

Ok, a flat bonus of 10% is definitely a bit fishy when you consider current circumstances. A performance related bonus calculated on individual merit would be one thing, but giving out a flat bonus at this time seems to be a ludicrous idea.

chambta

Aegis wrote: »

Ok, a flat bonus of 10% is definitely a bit fishy when you consider current circumstances. A performance related bonus calculated on individual merit would be one thing, but giving out a flat bonus at this time seems to be a ludicrous idea.

I was a little suprised to see the bonus structure in RBS/Natwest retail remain the same for this year, though admittedly tougher to get in terms of the sales elements.

harryhound

I remember past recessions - recession/downsizing takes more management effort than nice organic growth.
Turning a 100 million loss into a 10 million loss is more of an achievement than turning a 50 million profit into a 100 million profit.
Hard nosed managers who can get on with the job, earn their bonus.

I am still waiting for BarclaysManager to explain in greater detail just what he thinks is going on at Barclays. In the meantime I would suggest that he, and all Barclays employees and customers, have a read of this thread and realise that a very interesting situation is developing internationally. It makes most of the parochial concerns about Barclays on this thread almost irrelevant:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1435345

BarclaysManager wrote: »

Do I detect some closet racism? Why exactly does it matter to you or anyone whether the finance comes from Arabic companies and person or from HMG?

And to correct you, the amount repaid in our deal is comparable to what we would lose to HMG. Do you think our shareholders would have voted for it otherwise? :rolleyes:

Also consider the hold up nature of this forced recapitalization - which wasn't even needed, might I add - the FSA, one part of the government, tells us we need more money to make it happy - lots more money. It does so at a time when the credit markets are difficult at best. Then, another part of the government comes along with the offer of finance in return for a massive stake in the company.

Do you not see what might be slightly wrong with that?

Nov 11 2008 - In spite of difficult market conditions Barclays has increased its lending and overdrafts to small businesses by 5.3.%, from £9.6 billion September 2007 to £10.1 billion September 2008.
http://www.newsroom.barclays.com/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=1467&NewsAreaID=2

Dec 15 2008 - Barclays commits to making at least a further £1.5 billion available to SMEs in 2009, bringing its total commitment to some £16.5 billion by the end of 2009.
http://www.newsroom.barclays.com/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=1467&NewsAreaID=2

Do you write for the Daily Mail or something? At least do SOME research first.

Original response:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=17800479&highlight=NINJA#post17800479

Given the choice between a Gulf Arab and Gordon Brown, I think I am marginally in favour of the Arab as his currency is backed by black gold, while GB's currency is backed by the very negative tax & balance of payments surplus of our booming economy, its saleable products and the graft of its industrious workforce.

Etc. Etc.