A Dead Bus Outside NatWorst
Apparently, all of the passengers had jumped into the branch to get their money out. The cashiers decided to pay everybody out in 5p. pieces and the result was the extra weight caused the bus to stall and break down.
A Dead Bus Outside NatWorst
Apparently this ruse was tried in 1745 to stop a run on the Bank of England, when Bonnie Prince Charlie was marching on London. In those days though they used sixpences.
A Lady After My Own Heart
I’ve never heard of Merryn Somerset Webb, but I have heard of the magazine she writes for; Money Week.
One of my alerts pulled up an article entitled, For better returns, ditch traditional investments. This is something I definitely believe in. But I would say that after once investing £10 e.w.on a nag at 500-1 in the Derby, I don’t think conservatively. In the end as Terimon came second, I trousered upwards of a grand.
If you read the article, Merryn makes some interesting points. She mentions the first two of possibly many alternative banks aimed at SMEs; Cambridge and Counties Bank and Silicon Valley Bank, who have opened or are rumoured to be opening in the UK.
I don’t need such a bank, but I’ll be watching how both progress in the next few months.
Computer Disasters Inc.
Some years ago, I was discussing, what we might do with someone in Metier, if the whole venture had gone bust. I suggested an idea, which keeps coming back to me called Computer Disasters Inc.
NatWorst now is in need of such a company, which I envisaged as the Red Adair of the computer industry. NatWorst will certainly be paying out fees on a scale Red Adair would have thought reasonable.
Zopa in the Belfast Telegraph
Zopa has a good plug in the Belfast Telegraph today.
It’s probably opportune given the problems at Ulster Bank, which has a high presence in the province. On the other hand, if people haven’t got a working bank account, how are they going to repay their loan?
NatWorst in the Observer
I’ve been trying to see, if I can find any reference to NatWest as NatWorst on the internet. I found this interesting article from the Observer from September 1999. This is the interesting bit and it isn’t about the bank.
Listen, very carefully…is that the sound of a Wall Street crash? The Dow Jones has slithered back like a rattlesnake on a slagheap: not so much irrational exuberance as ungainly correction. It’s how it always starts: a large rise, followed by a stuttering correction followed by a crash. Oh, and it always happens in October. Look at 1987; look at 1929. So then, five days to go until we can kiss our assets goodbye.
I wonder if the journalist who wrote this, realises now what he said. So he was a few years early.
The Return of NatWorst
Some years ago, I used to do the programming and processing for a company called PressWatch, that rated the coverage of major companies in the UK printed media.
Some time before I programmed the system, NatWest had a string of bottom places and were labelled NatWorst by some financial journalists.
It would appear from its current computer problems, that along with other banks in the RBS Group, it is attempting to claim the bottom place again. Read about it here.
The article says it is a computer glitch. I would describe it as a computer disaster.
A computer glitch is what I’ve just suffered from Nationwide. They said my credit card statement would be ready online on Wednesday. It didn’t arrive until today. But at least, it didn’t cost me any money, although I did worry, that there might have been some illegal transactions, they were sorting out. Especially, as it’s the VISA card, I use for Olympic tickets. But all is now fine.
Peer-To-Peer Lending Gets a Plug in the Scotsman
The Scots like to think they are canny and one even thought he was prudent, so this article from the premier Scottish newspaper, the Scotsman should be very much welcomed by the peer-to-peer lending industry or at least its three major players; Zopa, Funding Circle and Ratesetter.
The Spanish Bailout and Gibraltar
Spain makes two sets of headlines today; it has got a massive loan to sort out its banks and it is expected to protest loudly at the Wessexes visit to Gibraltar. Although, we are not directly effected by the Spanish bailout, we could be in future, through the London market or the IMF.
Spain remember has a row going with Argentina over the nationalisation of Repsol’s assets in that country.
And then there’s the Falklands! Where Spain has usually supported Argentina.
There are reasons to believe that relations between Spain and the UK are going to be difficult in the next few months.
The Simon Gompertz Effect
Yesterday, the BBC published a well-researched article on its web site, by its Personal Finance Correspondent, Simon Gompertz, about peer-to-peer lending. I commented on it here.
It was the only article on the subject picked up by Google yesterday and featured on the BBC’s most read list of articles on its web site for most of the day.
As a member of Zopa, I follow their figures closely, which are easily accessible to any borrower or lender. The amount of money that lenders have demanded from the site has risen significantly.
At 09:00 on Saturday, the money demanded by prospective borrowers was £9.4million, whereas at the same time today the figure was £14million. Over the same period, the amount of money made available by lenders was £18.2million on Saturday and £12.1 today.
Doing a crude calculation means that £6.1million of lenders money has been allocated to borrowers and there are another £5million or so that could be lent. Zopa’s team of credit experts will be kept busy on Monday, checking all these new borrowers. And probably rustling up some more funds to lend.
Is this all the effect of one well-written article by Simon Gompertz on the BBC?
There’s another good article in the Observer today. I suspect that Zopa’s figures will be just as interesting tomorrow.
Update on 11th June 2012 at 08:00
Total demand is now £15.8million up and funds available are £11million. This works out as a swing of £13.6million over the weekend.
It did look at a few other weekends and typically, there is a swing between £2.5million and £4.5million.
Whatever the truth is, something extraordinary happened! And it is all good! Unless of course you’re a banker!
BBC Discusses Peer-to-Peer Networking
It does at last seem that personal finance correspondents like the BBC’s Simon Gompertz, are getting the hang and idea of peer-to-peer lending. He has just written this article about it. Here’s the first three paragraphs of the piece.
Lending via three websites that link savers with borrowers – bypassing the banking system – has topped £250m.
The “new age” finance carries no protection for deposits, but is being tipped as a serious threat to traditional banks.
The peer-to-peer sites are led by Zopa, which has lent more than £200m since it started in 2005.
I’ve been using Zopa since 2008 and would say that anybody who uses the Internet competently, has a basic knowledge of finance and is prepared to research how they handle their money, should consider Zopa or one of its competitors. So if you can’t be bothered to read Simon Gompertz’s article, then peer-to-peer lending is not for you.
On the other side of the coin, if you have a good credit record and need to borrow a few thousand pounds for say a new car or a house extension, get a quote from one of peer-to-peer lenders and compare it with what your bank offers.
Always ask a lender what happens, if I want to settle up early. Many lenders make their money by imposing extra charges at this point.
The Anonymous Widower 