BEWARE! THE BANKS ARE OUT TO GET YOU!

[Stanley]

I try to divorce personal feelings from any forensic assessment. I think Gordon is worth listening to. Even Blair stumbles on the truth at times!

[Stanley]

Read THIS Guardian report on more trouble for RBS. The CEO has been accused of lying when he said he was not aware of any criminal behaviour in the heavily criticised practices at the lender’s Global Restructuring Group.
Two things strike me, PE has been banging on about the problems with this branch of RBS for well over a year, the malpractices have been obvious. The other thing that annoys me is that if you look at the letter from the CEO on the site the telephone number and email have been redacted. Why should a public institution want to hide its contact details. This is getting to common these days, customers are left no choice apart from being locked into an automated system designed to frustrate enquiry and delay response to complaint.

[Tizer]

`Sainsbury's-Asda deal faces investigation' LINK

[Stanley]

And so it should. For Asda read Walmart and they have some very questionable practices embedded in their business model. Funny thing is they don't get attacked much here but in the States they have a very bad reputation.

[Tizer]

The previous day it was Barclays and now it's NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank...online access failed and many people unable to get at their money. As far as IT is concerned the bankers have lost the plot.

[Whyperion]

`Sainsbury's-Asda deal faces investigation' LINK

Might get passed on consumer grounds with some sales of some stores desired and poss sell off of Argos ?

[Stanley]

"As far as IT is concerned the bankers have lost the plot." Spot on Tiz. I heard those reports as well.

[Stanley]

See THIS FT report on private bank profits. These are the banks that cater for the super wealthy and similar businesses. Wonderful how they manage to continually increase their profits whilst crying Wolf! Not everyone is suffering under current economic conditions.....

[Tizer]

In those famous words, `Well he would say that wouldn't he?"....
`PPI fuelling fraud culture, says Barclays boss' LINK
`The PPI insurance mis-selling scandal has turned many Britons into fraudsters, one of the UK's top bankers has claimed. Barclays chairman John McFarlane said it was "inconceivable" that all the claims fuelling a "flat-screen television" buying spree were genuine. "The percentage of fraudulent claims is enormous," he told the Mail on Sunday.'


McFarlane lives on another planet. Citizen's Advice has the true story...
`..Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, added: "PPI is one of the largest banking scandals in this country's history. It was regularly mis-sold, it was expensive and it was often a poorly designed product that people neither wanted or needed. "It is right that people are able to claim compensation. The banks dragged their feet when problems with PPI were first raised and they are paying the price for that inaction."

[Stanley]

Good one Tiz! See my remarks about Angela King and the spokeswoman for the CBI in Politics. These people pop up and defend the indefensible on the assumption that we are all mugs. They forget that there are people out here who are older and wiser than them and can see right through them. As Marvin the paranoid android remarked; "Here's me, brain the size of a planet.....".
The fraudster here is John McFarlane!

[Stanley]

Perhaps we should be noting THIS BBC report of the IMF warning that a world financial shock is 'imminent'. It sounds credible. the markets can't go on rising forever especially when you look at the conflicts in world trade. Tin hats at the ready? Just what we need at the moment. 'Events Dear Boy.....'

[plaques]

The main concerned appears to be the amount of lending to firms that are already up to their necks in loans that they may not be able to pay back. It looks like a re-run of the sub-prime lending bubble. The fear is that if America raises its interest rates many of these firms could go under bursting the bubble. We all know the end result. Another world recession, too big to fail, more austerity and Joe Public picking up the bill.

[Stanley]

Quite right P. Could it possibly be that the firms are incompetently managed and that the Lords of the Universe are driven harder by greed for profit than conservative lending policies. I have never bought 'Too big to fail'. More like 'we allowed them to get too big and now if they go down they take us with them as well'. What happened to regulation? Don't bother telling me, I know the story.....
I wonder if George Soros is watching and waiting........
Later this morning news comes in of selling and falling markets in the Eastern stocks. This follows minor falls on the Western markets yesterday. At the moment it is not reckoned to be the Big One so that's all right......
Later.... Falls of up to 10% are being reported......

[Tizer]

...and it's partly due to Trump stimulating a temporary bubble in the US by throwing out regulations etc to please his supporters.

A factor in the coming financial crunch in the UK is the Help to Buy scheme which has encouraged and facilitated the purchase of homes by people who then find they can't sell the houses or flats and may be faced with rising mortgage interest rates. This is partly because the housebuilders inflated the original prices in the knowledge that the buyers were being subsidised by the rest of us via the Government scheme. Now, the surveyors are giving the houses appropriate values.

[Stanley]

Right on both counts I reckon Tiz. Did you hear Trump berating the Fed for raising interest prices? Also a product of his trade war.
'Help to buy' was possibly the worst targeted subsidy ever given to the housing market. Spawned of course by Cameron and Osborne altering the criteria from affordable rents to affordable homes....
I think this comes under financial matters.... See THIS
They keep talking about getting people into work.... No mention of those who haven't a hope of doing so or the fact that contrary yo their slogan work doesn't pay for many. Why not come clean and simply admit that it was a Cunning Wheeze to slip another cut into the welfare bill by the back door. Go back and look at the Means Test in the 1930s, exactly the same scam, make sure the poor are bled white before you give them a pittance.

[Tripps]

Help to buy' was possibly the worst targeted subsidy ever given to the housing market

I think it really means 'Help to sell' and as such has been a great success.

[Tizer]

Yes, the housebuilding bosses love it!

[Stanley]

That'll be about right David..... Persimmon springs to mind.

[Stanley]

I've just been listening to a very plausible financial expert on Today who surprised me when he said that due to low interest rates and lack of regulation of banks emboldened by the 2008 bail-out, there is twice as much high risk debt in the system as there was in 2008. Can this possibly be right? This is the toxic debt that caused all the trouble last time round. Incredible if it's true.

[plaques]

Looking back to my previous post. ...'The main concerned appears to be the amount of lending to firms that are already up to their necks in loans that they may not be able to pay back. These loans are not always carried by the banks themselves but are sliced and diced into other complex derivatives which are sold off to other institutions. The worry here is that although these people are 'experts' nobody really knows at what stage the domino effect kicks in bringing a re-run of 2008.

[Tizer]

...there is twice as much high risk debt in the system as there was in 2008. Can this possibly be right?

Unfortunately, yes. I've heard and seen that from reliable sources. For a start there's all the usual risky lending. Then there's the Help to Buy scheme which is responsible for some of it. The return to `liar loans' for some more. And then there are new kids on the block: financial companies that operate on a buy now pay later business model aimed at the `millennial' generation.
-----------------------------------------

Later...bank customers have been demanding for years that this check be put in place but the banks have ignored them until now.
`Name checks to begin on bank payments' LINK
The name of someone receiving a payment will be as important as their banking details for the first time from next summer, in an attempt to combat fraud. At present, anyone wanting to transfer money enters the intended recipient's name, account number and sort code. However, the name is not checked. Under plans from the UK's payments operator, the sender will be alerted if the name does not match the account. Banks have been accused of dragging their heels in introducing the system. It is designed to combat cases when fraudsters mimic a genuine business and attempt to trick people into sending money to an account controlled by the con-artist.'

[Stanley]

Wouldn't you think that that would be normal procedure under Due Diligence? Amazing if it wasn't.....

[Tizer]

Nothing surprises me about the banks. How do they get away with it?

[Tripps]

Got this on email today - from my stockbroker. Sounds grand but I don't actually have any stocks. Really good example of 'nominative determinism'

Security seekers
In this year's annual survey we had a small number of customers who identified themselves as ‘security seekers’, which means, ‘I am an inexperienced investor and I do not like the idea of risking my money and would prefer to invest in cash deposits’.
If this description sounds like you, please consider whether an XXXX invest account is right for you. If in doubt, you should consult a suitably qualified financial adviser.
If you have any questions about this service update, please get in touch.

Yours sincerely,

Shane Cashin

Head of Customer Services

[Stanley]

An appropriate name for a broker....
"On second thoughts, I think it best to stow it away in the old oak chest"