Was It The Cat?
UBS has discovered some unauthorised trading according to this report.
I’ve heard some interesting stories.
In one a trader typed in the value he wanted to trade. He then went home and left the computer switched on, with the value still there. The cleaner then dusted his desk and accidentally did the trade.
Or that’s what they think happened. Luckily the guy who sorted it out made a profit on the deal.
In another incident, it was the cat that stepped on the keyboard. Or that was the explanation to explain the loss!
In both cases though the software should have picked up the inactivity and shut the computer down.
Two Pieces from the Zopa Newsletter
The monthly Zopa newsletter is always worth a read. There are some older ones here.
Two pieces from the current August one, I received yesterday are worthy of note.
This is the first.
And fresh off the press today, there is an interesting column in today’s Evening Standard, which states that (and we quote) “maybe a banker-free future will be with us sooner than we think”
I’ve been saying that about banks for a long time. Alternative methods will keep cropping up for their key services. On Tuesday, I went into Nationwide at Islington to use their cash machine and comfy chairs and the place had all the excitement of a morgue.
The second piece is about the people who work for Zopa.
Last but not least, we are very excited in the office as we launch NEED:LESS, our new fundraiser, and we’d love you to join us on our mission! Starting on Friday, 9th September, the Zopa team will be living on just £5 a day, for a week. This will have to cover all food, fun and extras, while the remaining amount that we would normally spend will be donated to DEC in support of the East Africa crisis.
How many of the fat cat bankers would know how to live on five pounds a day? Five pounds a minute perhaps!
Zopa’s New Login
Zopa has changed it’s login screen and as would be expected from a company which is based on innovative software, it has created one of the simplest and secure login systems that I have seen.
You login initially with a standard user name and password. You can check either or both of two boxes.
- Remember the user name on this computer.
- Show the characters I’ve typed into the password.
Many systems like eBay use the first, but few use the second, which is important to me, as my left hand is a bit wayward with the shift key.
They then ask you one of three check questions, such as where you were born. This question has always been case insensitive, which is the way it should be. If it’s not, you then might have to write it down, which of course breaks the security.
I can truthfully say though that I’ve never had any problems with logging in to Zopa. Or any security issues either.
Closing A Zopa Account
Someone likes the idea of a Zopa account, but is worried about, how he could get access to the money in an emergency. I have been researching this and find that although it may not be the best financially in the long term to close a Zopa account, there are ways that will get most of the money out fairly quickly.
Let’s say you have £10,000 invested in Zopa and it is lent out on a three year basis. If you do nothing then over three years the money will be returned with the appropriate interest, subject to any losses from bad debts. There is only one way to assess these and that is by looking at the past performance of your loans and the proportion of bad debts that Zopa discloses. I have always adjusted the interest rate I charge to be not too greedy on the one hand and not too low on the other to get the money lent out quickly. I also make sure, I don’t lend over large sums to any borrower.
Analysing my borrowers, shows that only a small proportion have missed a payment and only five out of over 2300 loans have gone bad. Ask anybody who has run a finance company about that rate and they will say it is very small.
If we look at our notional £10,000 it will earn about seven percent a year, which is £2,100 over the three years. I’m assuming here that you reinvest the money in Zopa. Looking at Zopa performance it would appear that about two percent of loans fail. So if we look at the our £10,000 then expect to pour something like two hundred pounds down the drain.
It’s not quite as simple as that and I’ll be putting together an Excel spreadsheet that is properly calculated.
But the point is that you will still get 98% of the original money back, plus a bit of interest.
But supposing you want the money quicker. Only a small proportion of my loans are not available for Rapid Return, which is Zopa’s get out quickly method. This will cash out most of the money in a couple of months.
But I wouldn’t do that!
The notional £10,000 will give you a cash flow of about three hundred pounds or so for the three years, but if reinvested in Zopa it could be longer. This may in fact be what you want to do.
The trouble is if you have cash-in-hand you always want to spend it.
Shopping At Nags Head, Holloway
I was not impressed yesterday, when I went shopping there. Both Marks and Waitrose were empty of things I wanted ans so was the cashpoint at Santander. But they did deduct the money I tried to take out, although it was reversed correctly this morning!
Except for Franchi, I think I’ll give the area a miss in the future.
Is Fred Goodwin a Coeliac?
The reason I ask this question, is that we have one important thing in common; we both hate pink vanilla wafer biscuits. In my case, I’ve avoided them all my life even before I was diagnosed as a coeliac and of course can’t eat the normal ones now. But I’d never write an e-mail about it, as Fred did and I reported here.
But hope is at hand, as Sainsburys are now selling Pink Panther gluten free vanilla wafers.
Who’s to know, if Fred might have liked them? If he had, the train crash that was RBS might not have happened.
Fred the Shred’s Annoyance Over Pink Biscuits
A new book, Masters of Nothing: The Crash and how it will happen again unless we understand human nature
The former boss of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) vented his anger over the pink wafer in an email titled “Rogue Biscuit” in an example of his “overbearing” management style that may help explain the collapse of the bank in 2008, the new book claims.
I find it strange that the biscuit was pink. Is there a psychologist out there, who can offer a better explanation than the obvious one?
I think if anybody had treated me like that, I’d have gone straight to my lawyer and someone like Max Clifford.
The only way you will rid businss of overbearing bullies is to stand up to them using the full force available.
Those accolytes who surrounded Fred the Shred must be partly guilty in many peoples’ eyes for the mess they allowed him to create.
And what were the non-executive directors doing? If the answer was nothing, they were failing all of the bank’s employees, customers and shareholders. And of course ultimately, UK taxpayers. Have any of those non-executive directors been disqualified? The respected newspaper calls them the Silent Nine.
Should My Bank Pay Me Not To Have a Cheque Book?
I’ve written three cheques since I moved to London. Two were for small jobs done on the house and the other was to a friend for some tickets. In all cases I could have used cash, if I’d been forewarned, but I’d have preferred to have used a credit card, a direct transfer or something like PayPal.
Thinking about it, I have a feeling, one of the cheques hasn’t been presented to my bank yet. It’s only for a few pounds, so it shouldn’t cause any trouble.
I would be happy if my bank said that if I gave up cheques, they’d give me a small financial reward. Either as a direct payment, or perhaps a discount on charges.
I wonder how long it will be before banks give up traditional premises in many cases.
Suppose there were free cashpoints in places like Starbucks. This would get round my need to sit down to sort out everything after a withdrawal. One branch of Nationwide I use is actually next to a Starbucks anyway.
I have hardly ever seen a bank manager in recent years, but why shouldn’t they see you at a convenient location or on the phone.
Payment Protection Insurance and Credit Cards
I got a letter yesterday from Aviva saying that the terms of my payment protection insurance were being changed. It indicated that the insurance was with HSBC. Now HSBC may be a reputable bank, but I’ve never dealt with them. It then turned out that the insurance related to a credit card that I have that is managed by the bank.
When C died, I had a problem with household expenses and needed a second card to keep them separate from my business expenses, so I got one quickly. It would appear that in the form, you needed to check the box to say you didn’t want the insurance, rather than say you wanted it. So I was fooled and have been paying for something I didn’t want for three years.
I wonder how many others have unnecessary insurance they don’t want.
I hadn’t spotted it, as every month I just paid off the value at the bottom of the account. Others may even do this by a direct debit to save money.
I wonder if C was paying this form of insurance on any of her cards! I shall be finding out, as her method of paying cards was to write a cheque for the full amount and then put the bill through the shredder.
You may think that I can’t claim as she died three years ago. Oh! Yes I can! Sometimes the bereaved get very angry. You may have a target out there, who will give you enough money for a small celebration.
It’s not difficult to claim. Just go to this page in Money Saving Expert. It might be a profitable way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon, and as Martin Lewis says it’ll only cost you some paper and a couple of stamps.
Banks Cut Services To Pay Bonuses
The Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers has now decided that a good proportion of its customers must use a restricted set of cash points.
Obviously, the savings will be going to pay banker’s bonuses and Fred the Shred’s pension.
The Anonymous Widower 