Carney’s Sense On An Independent Scotland And The Pound
Mark Carney has pronounced on how an independent Scotland would use the pound. It’s reported here and this is the first few paragraphs.
The Bank of England governor has said an independent Scotland would need to give up some power to make a currency union with the rest of the UK work.
Mark Carney said such a move, proposed by the Scottish government, “requires some ceding of national sovereignty”.
He also said the risks of not having a strong agreement had been demonstrated by problems in the Eurozone.
I think it is more complicated than he says, as would a government of what is left of the UK, want to let Scotland share a currency? There are plenty of politicians, who would want to settle old scores
And would Scotland be allowed to use the pound by the European Union?
I don’t care one way or the other, so long as I don’t have to foot the bill for extra taxes to pay for the mess politicians leave us in! Which of course, they always do!
The Bill For RBS Goes Up
On the first of January, I wrote this post, entitled Will We Ever Get Rid Of This Worthless Bank.
But now according to reports, like this one on the BBC, the bill is going to get bigger. The BBC article says that the bank needs another £3.1 billion for claims relating to the financial crisis. As there are sixty three million of us, that means, that even the granny in the council house and the baby just leaving the hospital will have to find another pound a week.
So next time, you look at your bank account or count the change in your pocket, think of the mess that the prudent Gordon Brown, dropped us in.
Now Lloyds Bank Has Card Problems
What is it with the UK banks computer systems, as Lloyds had problems last night, as is reported here.
Beware for a surge of spam targeting Lloyds customers.
It’s Not Their Money It’s Mine!
I haven’t used large amounts of cash for years, but I did a couple of times years ago, when I needed to buy a car, or in one case a truck privately.
However, I do think HSBC are being a bit heavy handed in this story from the BBC. Here’s the reaction of an HSBC customer, when he tried to withdraw £10,000.
Mr Cotton cannot understand HSBC’s attitude: “I’ve been banking in that bank for 28 years. They all know me in there. You shouldn’t have to explain to your bank why you want that money. It’s not theirs, it’s yours.”
Strangely, you’re probably better off using a peer-to-peer lender as an instant access account, as I do. If I needed £10,000 on say the 10th March, I could probably get it in returns from my Zopa account with little difficulty. But I’d have to plan what I was doing. On the other hand my credit raqting is good enough to borrow it from the sdame source, if I needed it urgently.
As peer-to-peer lenders get bigger, more common and flexible, we’ll see all sorts of innovative ways to manage our money.
Banks will probably die in their numbers, as they are incapable of innovation. I like the quote of Paul Volcker, who was once chairman of the Federal Reserve.
ATMs were banking’s only useful technological innovation in the last 30 years.
He is so right.
How To Muck Up A Country
When I was a child in the 1950s and 1960s, Argentina was reckoned to be one of those countries that would be an economic powerhouse in the future. I can remember positive stories about how it was developing a strong motor, aviation and other industries. It was also thought that dictators like the Perons were firmly in the past.
But now we only get stories like this one from the BBC, which talks about restricting on-line shopping and foreign currency transactions to limit the damage on reserves. Here’s the first bit.
Argentina has introduced new restrictions on online shopping as part of efforts to stop foreign currency reserves from falling any further.
Anyone buying items through international websites will now need to sign a declaration and produce it at a customs office, where the packages have to be collected.
The procedure will need to be repeated for every new purchase.
It just shows how politicians can so easuly drag a country into the mire.
Ariel On The Bank Of England
I’ve never thought that the actual building for the Bank of England, was much more than a functional one. Wikipedia says this about the building.
The Bank moved to its current location on Threadneedle Street, and thereafter slowly acquired neighbouring land to create the edifice seen today. Sir Herbert Baker‘s rebuilding of the Bank, demolishing most of Sir John Soane’s earlier building, was described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as “the greatest architectural crime, in the City of London, of the twentieth century”.
I’d thought it was much older.
As you walk alongside the building up Princes Street, it looks very much like an over-grand prison.
There is though, a gilded sculpture on the roof.
Ariel On The Bank Of England
Surely this isn’t the best place to put a work of art!
Robert Peston On Milliband’s Plan For The Banks
Now that Milliband has actually spoken it is interesting to see what heavyweight commentators are saying. The speech is reported here on the BBC and it also contains these comments from Robert Peston on what would happen if banks were limited as to market share.
Bankers have said to me this would lead to what they call a perverse outcome, that as they approached the maximum size they would dump customers they deemed low quality or loss-making.
It is unclear whether these customers would be able to bank elsewhere.
I wonder how many banks would want me as a customer, given that all I want is a money transfer company. And I don’t buy any other services from my bank, like insurance.
And I don’t see why I should pay for my banking!
Why Milliband’s Bank Plan Won’t Work
Ed Milliband’s plan to cut the Big Banks down to size described here, may be admirable, but it won’t work!
In fact I have a feeling that in a couple of years, it won’t be needed as the Big Banks will be a shadow of their former self.
Take myself, who is increasingly becoming a type of person common in this country.
I only use my bank account for one main purpose and that is to accept and receive money transfers and manage regular payments. They do provide me with a credit card, but it is not one I use daily.
My savings are stored in a separate account, which happens to be a peer-to-peer-lender, but could be a Savings Account anywhere. But more of us, are using innovative ways to keep our savings and this will increase.
I never write cheques and only ever go into a bank branch to use a cash machine, if I want to sit down to organise my money after withdrawing it.
I don’t know what percentage of the population are like me, who effectively use the bank as a money transfer company and possibly an overdraft source, whilst waiting for a payment to clear.
But it must be quite a high figure these days!
We don’t need banks at all and it is a market that people will target in an innovative way. Certainly, if a company, can give me a much better computer system for on-line banking, I’d join them like a shot.
But then banks and innovation are two words that rarely go together!
On the whole I suspect this group of customers, are probably pretty sanguine about banking and in most cases wouldn’t want the hassle of moving. I sometimes think about moving from Nationwide, but what I want is a better computer and support system and how do I find out if it’s what I want? With very great difficulty I suspect!
So Milliband’s banker bashing doesn’t impress, as we probably feel that any new bank would be more of the same grey product.
And anyway, I choose my bank, not politicians.
But a better innovative on-line bank, with a proper computer system, programmed in the UK, supported totally by the Internet and a UK call centre, with no branch premises will come.
Done properly, I’d transfer my business to it and I suspect many others would.
The other thing that would shoot Milliband’s fox, is if regulators made it possible to transfer our bank account overnight or at least in a couple of days, keeping the same account number.
One of the troubles about the next election, is that many of the people who vote will be up to their neck in Wonga and other loans and are the sort of people, a decent bank wouldn’t touch.
Bank Regulator Says Bank IT Systems Are Antiquated
This article from the BBC, tells how a senior regulator thinks that the IT systems of UK banks are antiquated. Here’s the jist.
A regulator from the Bank of England has told the inquiry into Northern Ireland’s banking system that he is a “very long way” from being able to say that UK banks have robust IT systems.
The Prudential Regulation Authority, should publish an on-line list of all the computer failures, that we could all see. After all, you wouldn’t want to transfer your account to a bank with a crap computer system, would you?
How To Lose Money Bank of Scotland Style
If we thought Fred the Shred and his crew of comedians were a wunch of bankers, this story from the Herald in Scotland is up there with his worst.
The Bank of Scotland loaned £11.2 million to an ex-banker to fund a new stadium for his football club; Dunfermline Athletic. Everybody then went bust leaving Lloyds Bank holding the baby with the gold-plated nappies. Here’s what the article says about the final outcome.
Despite being valued at £11.2m in 2011, the East End Park stadium was sold by administrators KPMG to a fan-led buyout team for just £700,000.
It strikes me, that there has been a bit of hanky-panky here. After all why would a club with average gates of a few thousand want a stadium that holds over eleven thousand? I wonder if Gordon Brown has any links to Dunfermline and its football club!
The Anonymous Widower 