Is Carpetbagging Dead

granta

planteria said:

granta said: I recently opened a building society savings account and had to sign the form about charitable assignment, but it said the agreement lasted 5 years. Does that mean after 5 years anyone might benefit if there was a windfall....?

yes it does. whether those windfalls will materialise remains to be seen, but as elsewhere in this thread, they have done before, and are doing so at the moment via another type of mutual. if you are being sensible and 'bagging as part of an overall saving/investment strategy it's a one way bet really.

Thanks. How do you mean when you say another type of mutual?

happybagger

planteria said:

happybagger said: Nowadays more about access to decent accounts - being able to open ESBS Monthly Saver or Bucks BS RS Locals was only possible by being an existing member

are they decent accounts? or better to just keep a flat £100 in each and put money into something with real growth?

Already got enough of my money in other stuff.
The RS accounts I opened as existing member do as my instant access accounts
Yes, there are a few with the 100 mark in for simplicity, but the total amount wouldn't make much of a boost to my other investments

happybagger

Bemr said:

happybagger said:

Such a shame the forums at rpoints were deleted. Probably the only place where the dodgy goings on at Holmesdale were ever discussed

What happened at Homesdale?

A new director (Mark A Thompson) was appointed, and of course the membership sheep duly voted him in at the AGM
The society then underwent a "strategic review" costing hundreds of thousands. They claimed this saw them able to refocus and boost their mortgage lending. There was no evidence of this in their accounts.

Interestingly, the company doing the "review" was a newly-formed company with no track record, whose directors were, you guessed, the new non-executive director, and his wife.

If you search companies house for Tiptree House Ltd you will find them there.

HBS would not reveal if this "strategic review" was put out to tender, so one suspects not.

Despite this "strategic review bearing fruit" (apparently), before the next set of accounts could come out, they bailed out and were swallowed by Skipton.

Jeff Prestridge at Mail on Sunday, who was at the time keen on holding BS directors to account, was initially interested and passed me on to a lesser journalist, who gave up on the story.

planteria

granta said:

planteria said: ...but as elsewhere in this thread...

Thanks. How do you mean when you say another type of mutual?

page 3 of this thread.. re LV: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6124575/is-carpetbagging-dead/p3

planteria

happybagger said: ....Jeff Prestridge at Mail on Sunday, who was at the time keen on holding BS directors to account, was initially interested and passed me on to a lesser journalist, who gave up on the story.

good work HB. another story of what are arguably the 'real' carpetbaggers. 
we have a "merger" of two Friendly Societies [Kingston Unity > Oddfellows] within the coming weeks.. 
we have a demutualisation and takeover of a mutual by a private equity group within the coming months..
[LV > Bain Capital, as it happens covered here by the same Mr Prestridge: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-9129135/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-End-mutually-owned-insurer-LV.html ]
i wonder whether there will be changes in the Building Society sector this year. how many remain? how many to remain at the end of 2021? 

couriervanman

planteria said:

happybagger said: ....Jeff Prestridge at Mail on Sunday, who was at the time keen on holding BS directors to account, was initially interested and passed me on to a lesser journalist, who gave up on the story.

good work HB. another story of what are arguably the 'real' carpetbaggers. 
we have a "merger" of two Friendly Societies [Kingston Unity > Oddfellows] within the coming weeks.. 
we have a demutualisation and takeover of a mutual by a private equity group within the coming months..
[LV > Bain Capital, as it happens covered here by the same Mr Prestridge: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-9129135/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-End-mutually-owned-insurer-LV.html ]
i wonder whether there will be changes in the Building Society sector this year. how many remain? how many to remain at the end of 2021? 

Possibly a 1 or 2 mergers but with zero payments just a case of saving them going bust

Manchester BS could be a favourite

planteria

i'm surprised Manchester Building Society hasn't been absorbed by another society before now.

happybagger

Manchester has been running the business down for between 10 and 20 years now yet they never go under. They were never a real BS, they just kept buying up loan books. There is no branch presence. While the directors can continue to draw salary for running a business into the ground, they will continue to do so. The fact that nobody has been interested in voluntarily taking the business, even now it is a shadow of what it was, speaks volumes.

As for the others, they will be under sustained pressure when furlough ends and people are allowed out normally again. Branches will have become an irrelevance (their normal selling point). Low interest rates means they can't sell their normal "mutual margin" stuff. 

planteria

has there not been cause for the regulator to step in??.. in previous cases of a building society struggling they have persuaded another society to absorb them.

EarthBoy

planteria said:

has there not been cause for the regulator to step in??.. in previous cases of a building society struggling they have persuaded another society to absorb them.

Manchester Building Society has been on its last legs for years and rumour has it that no other building society is interested in taking it over.  The regulator is believed to have tried to persuade Nationwide to rescue it, but the Nationwide refused to touch it with a bargepole.  
We discussed it in detail on the rpoints forum, -now sadly deleted :-(
The Manchester sued its former auditors, Grant Thornton, but lost, so they appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.  The case was heard by the Supreme Court in October, and judgement is still awaited.  I don't really expect any news on the future of the Manchester until the outcome of the court case is published.
Here are some links with information if anybody is interested:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5448271/manchester-building-society
https://www.coppolacomment.com/2016/04/the-building-society-broken-by-its.html
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/apr/15/manchester-building-society-warns-customers-limit-savings
https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2019-0040.html