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Safest Bank in the event of a property crash
Comments
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Don't fancy sleeping on gold barsbrightonman123 wrote: »cash or gold, under the mattress!You've never seen me, but I've been here all along - watching and learning...:cool:0 -
Here is my view based on a great many factors, including exposure to the housing crash, financial treatment of assets, money raising ability, share price, and other factors
Safest
NSI, is the safest
NR till it is brought out of 'temporary public ownership' - end of 2009, i suspect.
HSBC - cos if they go down, the last person to leave the planet should turn the lights off.
Safeish
Lloyds
RBS
Icesave
Ing
Co-op
Nationwide
Fairly safe
Barclays
The other building socieities.
Kaupthing Edge
Iccici
The other foreign banks
Decidely unsafe
HBOS (Halifax, and bank of scotland et al)
A&L
On it's last legs
B & B
rbs comes under hbos doesnt it?0 -
no RBS is Royal Bank of Scotland and Natwest
HBOS is halifax, Bank of Scotland0 -
So whats the news with HBOS? Why are they in such a bad position?!0
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Halifax are the biggest mortgage lender in the UK so would have the most exposure to a crash.
A few have questioned the liquidity of the bank and they had issues with a scaremongering attack a few months back which did not help their cause as many savers removed money from them as the scaremongering made it sound as if we had another NR on our hands.
Share prices dropped by 22% at one stage (They have returned back to better level now).0 -
not really it was £2.75 today, sold some at £11 once
and then received my rights at the same price lol
work there, they are changing their focus now0 -
Halifax are the biggest mortgage lender in the UK so would have the most exposure to a crash.
As well as being very exposed to the US market through some questionable investments in sub-prime derivatives.
A few have questioned the liquidity of the bank and they had issues with a scaremongering attack a few months back which did not help their cause as many savers removed money from them as the scaremongering made it sound as if we had another NR on our hands.
Well the reason that their liquidity was questioned was broadly that they were illiquid. The fact that the FSA, and the Bank Of England have bent over backwards, to defend them, on two seperate occasions, and introduced emergency regulations, specifically to help them, and it is strongly rumoured and alleged, supplied them with emergency funding, points to this. LEX in the FT even waded in to re-assure, this worked for about a week.
Share prices dropped by 22% at one stage (They have returned back to better level now).
Not in this universe they haven't. They have a rights issue at 275p. This will have to be underwritten, as it is highly unlikely that shareholders will want to buy shares at 7p premium, or whatever. which will not please the underwriting banks, So is liable to be re-structured and or basically fail.
In addition to their liquidity problems, they are facing big problems with their asset write downs, and balance sheet. Hence the rights issue.
The fact that they are being heavily shorted. (investors betting on the fact that the share price will fall) And despite the FSA's and the BoE's best efforts the future of the bank in it's current form is doubtful. At best the shares will even out, and they will limp on, maybe be bought out by a larger rival, at worst the share price will crash to firesale levels, and an asset stripper will buy them out like B & B.
Either way things don't look good.0 -
ad44downey wrote: »It won't matter. any UK bank is safe now as the government will bail out any failing bank out as in the case of Northern Rock.That set a precedent that the government has to maintain for political reasons if nothing else.
It is highly unlikely that the BoE or the Gov could mount another rescue. They are strongly rumoured to be providing emergency liquidity, (we aren't allowed to know, in case it causes another run!!) and of course the 'in the open' collateral loans.
But they will not and cannot, bail out any more more banks, if as is happening, their asset capital levels fall. The public fianances won't stretch to that. We as a country, are at the limit of what the IMF thinks is accpetable in terms of budget defecit, and taking on more loans to bail out failing banks is not tenneable.
In a sense the market has come up with a solution. Short the failing bank down to firesale levels, and wait for an asset stripper to buy them out.
This is what's happening to B & B. Very hard on the share holders, and employees. But depositors are safe, and loan and mortages holders will be ok to as long as they keep up their payments.0
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