Bradford and Bingley CEO does a runner

Treadmill

HBOS shares are lower than they where when they cried fowl play a while ago over shorting, the reason this time ?

m00m00

Treadmill wrote: »

I would, sod what anyone else thinks, the risk of losing it is very small but thats a lot of wedge. Not the sort of thing I'd want to be wrong about.

at the VERY VERY least this is a very good time to see if B&B is actually still the best home for your money in terms of rates/deals


it's not a good idea to have more than 35k in any one institution bar Northern Rock and NS&I (for obvious reasons) at the moment

WTF?_2

Treadmill wrote: »

HBOS shares are lower than they where when they cried fowl play a while ago over shorting, the reason this time ?

Bh

Indeed - which kind of makes a mockery of the supposed evil plot to short sell them a month or so back, which the FSA were so visibly proactive about investigating.

I wonder will the FSA be equally as proactive in investigating the statements coming out of B&B over the last few months? Seems like investors were deliberately mislead about the fortunes of the bank back in April :mad:

14th April - All OK, bank has no intention of going to the markets for capital.
14th May - Whoops, we need to launch a rights issue because we're short of capital, but don't worry: This will cover us for all we need.
2nd June - Errr, actually we just had to sell 23% of ourselves off to US private equity to raise additional funds over and above the rights issue.

There's a very good timeline of events in the Grauniad:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/bradfordbingleybusiness

snoopy78

!!!!!!? wrote: »

Your 30k should be safe.

It's like NR, the government can't let them fail.

(Having said that, If I had a large amount of cash with them and I could move the money easily with ebanking and I had another account somewhere I could transfer it to .. I would move it simply to minimise risk)

Although your money is safe, what they don't like to tell you is that it takes an age to get it back. We are talking a good 6-12 months, in which time you gain no interest (correct me if I am wrong).

codger

Snoopy; Where'd you get the 6 - 12 months info from?

Methinks no institution can get away with a time-frame as elongated as that.

meanmachine_2

!!!!!!? wrote: »

Indeed - which kind of makes a mockery of the supposed evil plot to short sell them a month or so back, which the FSA were so visibly proactive about investigating.

I was disgusted when, in the midst of these bank share price plunges, the FT suddenly changed tack and started banging the drum about it all being "wicked rumours".

Absolute tosh.

Banks are in trouble cos the properties against which they loaned stupidly large mortgages are fast losing value.

There - that ain't a rumour. That's FACT.

Maybe a body with some real teeth should start investigating the FSA. Then close it down.

Treadmill

I heard it said on the news tonight that the reason b&b shares have fallen heavily is that the buy to let market has never been tested in a reccession, its this uncertainty causing the fall in the value of banks with a lot of BTL business.

MarkyMarkD

There's no reason for this "6-12 months" talk.

For one thing, nobody lost a penny with NR, and nor will they with B&B. Any suggestion otherwise is baseless scaremongering. If the proverbial hits the fan, the government will step in precisely as they did with NR.

For another thing, it won't take any significant time for the FSCS to get together the money they need. And in reality, the government would sub them the money in the interim to avoid a revolution from savers.

Indeed, Martin's article on the subject quotes this from the government:

"In the unlikely event a major bank became insolvent the Government would ensure that the FSCS has access to enough immediate funding to pay out depositors in a timely manner, through borrowing from the Government or Bank of England. The FSCS could then levy up to £4 billion per year from the financial services industry to cover the costs of compensation."

So, please, can we have a bit less of the "6-12 months" fiction and over-reaction from people to the supposed risk of investing in various financial institutions?