The RBS Computer System Strikes Again!
Or that’s what it looks like according to this article in the Guardian. Here’s the first part.
NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland customers have become the victims of another technical glitch that has resulted in many being unable to pay for fuel at Tesco‘s petrol stations. Reports of the problems spread on social media after customers’ credit cards were declined when they tried to pay for fuel.
I still meet people, who bank with Britain’s most accident-prone bank! Why?
Will We Ever Get Rid of This Worthless Bank?
This report in the Guardian is depressing reading for the New Year.
If we look at the figure of £14.5bilion out of pocket, that means that all sixty three million of us will have to contribute around £230,000 each. I know some of that money will come from corporate taxes, but where do the big companies like BP, BT and Vodafone get their profits from?
If we look at the performance of the two state-controlled banks, we see that Lloyds is actually improving both in value and share price, but RBS is still an impossible basket case.
More and more, I’m coming to the conclusion that Gordon Brown’s decision to save RBS was one of the worst pieces of political judgement ever, that ranks with when Neville Chamberlain thought Hitler was a good bloke to be trusted.
I wonder how many idiots, still bank with RBS or their accident-prone subsidiary; NatWorst?
I know of one supposedly sensible guy who does, but he got a mortgage with NatWest, in the good times.
With RBS, the bill would have been lot less, if we’d put the bank down and compensated, all those individuals and companies, who’d lost money as a result.
But if he’d done that, Gordon Brown would have have lost every Labour vote in Scotland to the Nationalists.
He might though have retained power in 2010, as the rest of the UK, would have applauded his courageous action.
Now That’s What I Call A Robbery!
I was once called one of the Top Ten programmers in the world and as that was before I wrote Artemis, it is a compliment to the guy who said it, that he spotted my talent early.
I’ve never attempted to steal any money using a computer, but I have certainly had a few ideas, that I’ve kept to myself, or used in the odd unpublished short story. But this report on the BBC about how a series of cash machines were emptied, is completely unbelievable. Here’s the opening paragraphs.
Researchers have revealed how cyber-thieves sliced into cash machines in order to infect them with malware earlier this year.
The criminals cut the holes in order to plug in USB drives that installed their code onto the ATMs.
Interestingly, the crooks emptied the machines of the higher value notes first, so they could be away quickly.
This illustrates one of the big faults of the euro., compared to the pound. There are so many large notes in circulation, that the currency is a criminal’s and a money launderer’s dream. I don’t like large notes anyway!
I suspect it was an inside job, in that someone who worked for either the bank or the cash machine company was the guy behind it all.
But of course, these days, where software is produced under contract by those in far off countries, is it any wonder you get crimes like this?
I wound never put anything more than working petty cash into a bank or building society, as they’re all vulnerable to be taken out by a gang of clever hackers.
And they are a lot less vulnerable if all those in charge of the computer system and those who program it, are actually employed by the company.
Sadly, this is no longer always the case, as various calamities in the banking industry in the last few years has shown.
Analysis Of My 2013 In Zopa
I have been looking at my figures for 2013 for my investment in Zopa. What started as a bit of a fun punt has grown, as I have tended to use it as a dumping ground for bits of money, that I have no immediate use for.
If I look at how much money I have had invested at the end of the last few years, we see the following figures.
2011 – £40870.05
2012 – £103609.57
2013 – £146812.13
Averaging out the amount, throughout the year gives the following figures
2011 – £48962.13
2012 – £57628.61
2013 – £131194.47
The difference between the two figures is because, over the year, I’ve tended to add any unspent money or unexpected monies to my Zopa account.
The earnings for each of the three years are as follows.
2011 – £2862.86
2012 – £2514.18
2013 – £5846.81
Which corresponds to these returns.
2011 – 5.85%
2012 – 4.36%
2013 – 4.46%
Returns are not as high as they were, but that is because rates have softened, since Zopa safeguarded money that has been invested.
But the most interesting figure is how much money has been available to me to take out or reinvest. This is either interest or returned capital. in 2013, I have taken out £4900 and reinvested £76170 back in Zopa. That is a total of £81070, that I could have used to fix the roof, go to the World Cup in Brazil or use for wine, women and song. Obviously once taken out, it can’t be taken out next year.
But it does illustrate one of the advantages of Zopa and I suspect some of the other peer-to-peer lenders. If you need to realise investments to raise cash for an emergency or a long-planned spending, you can withdraw quite large amounts without penalty, by just withdrawing income, income instead of reinvesting it.
There is a corollary to this. If say you have a sum, that you might need, then investing it in Zopa, should give an acceptable return, until you need to withdraw it for another purpose.
It is also interesting to apply Justin Urquart Stewart’s, so-called Rule of 72, that he talked about in this article, in the Daily Telegraph.
There is the old “Rule of 72” which can also help. This number helps you to find out how often your money will double in value. What you do is divide into 72 the rate of return you hope to get. So for example let’s assume you could get 7pc after all costs on your investments in the long term (not an impossible figure) – then 7 into 72 goes roughly 10 times – so your money doubles every decade.
That would mean that as I get 4.5% or so, from Zopa, the money in there will double in sixteen years. I’ll only be 82!
Don’t Rob Banks, Because They’re Much Better At Robbing You!
This wonderful statement was made this morning by Justin Urquart Stewart on BBC Breakfast this morning, as he commented on a report saying bank robberies in the UK had dropped by 90% in the past decade.
Justin must be the nation’s most recognisable stockbroker. Or is he the only recognisable one?
RBS Tries A New Line In Customer Service
I love this story, from the Edinburgh Evening News.
For RBS customers, it’s Christmas.
But obviously, only in Edinburgh!
They would never have tried such a stunt to get new customers in Glasgow!
London Shows Contactless Cards Work On Buses
This article on Finextra, shows that what the Dismal Jimmies predicted when you could use your contactless cards for bus travel didn’t happen. Here’s the two paragraphs.
Transport for London is celebrating a successful one-year anniversary of the use of contactless payments cards on the capital’s buses, as it prepares to extend the technology to the entire transit network in 2014.
Since it was launched on Thursday 13 December 2012 when 2,061 customers made 2,586 journeys, more than 6.5 million journeys have now been made using an American Express, MasterCard or Visa Europe contactless payment card.
So now we have another good thing, that the banks have done for us in addition to the cash machine.
I hope, I’m young enough to be able to use my contactkess bank card on public transport all over the world. It would certainly have helped in Bilbao and a lot of other places I’ve visited this year.
The Dumbest Bank Of The Year
This has just been awarded by Bloomberg to the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers.
Bloomberg reports it here.
It doesn’t say, if the bank turned up to receive their award. Or did they send Gordon Brown? After all he started this fiasco!
Giving A Bank A Cyber Kicking When Its Down
RBS and its subsidiary NatWorst are getting attacked by hackers according to this report in the Guardian. Here’s the bank’s description of the problems and their explanation of what happened.
The bank said its systems had been deliberately targeted: “Due to a surge in internet traffic deliberately directed at the NatWest website, customers experienced difficulties accessing some of our customer websites today.
But the outcome is the same as ever and customers couldn’t use the web sites.
I blame some hackers, who have a vested interest in RBS going bust.
Perhaps they’re another wunch of bankers, who have hedged the share price!
Will the last customer to leave RBS/Natworst please close their browser!
Will Peer-To-Peer Lending Be Allowed In ISAs?
According to this article in the Telegraph, it looks like it might happen. Here’s the first bit from the article.
Savers will be able to earn tax-free returns on peer-to-peer lending websites under plans to allow this type of investment within an Isa, The Telegraph understands.
Industry sources said a consultation on opening up Isas to peer-to-peer lending – sometimes referred to as “crowdfunding” – is expected to be unveiled by George Osborne in the Autumn Statement on Thursday.
At present my total losses from my Zopa lending is £708.93. That should be judged against total earnings of £16,009.32.
But if they allow losses to be set against tax in ISAs, then I suspect, we may see peer-to-peer losses to be set against your tax bill. So on that basis, I will be a couple of hundred pounds or so better off.
Zopa at present is lending a small amount less per day, than it was a month or so ago. So allowing losses to be set against tax, may well get more people to put their savings there.
The only losers in this case, will be the banks and building societies, who pay a derisory rate of interest.
The Anonymous Widower 