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[Neil]

And Chris beats me to it again. Yeah - what he said!

[Graham Knight]

Capitalism crumbles

If Karl Marx was still alive, rather than being buried in Highgate Cemetery, he would have found astonishing that the UK and US governments were at last adopting his principles.

BMI.com

and The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers

are effectively musicians' banks - are they the next to be taken over by the state?

[Jake Wifebeater]

Marx predicted pretty much all of this. There's a crisis roughly once every 10 years, with the exception of the long boom after World War 2 due to the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. Lenin picked up the point in "Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism" when he made the point that the huge companies tend to merge and swallow each other up, which is what's happening now.

Personally, I think it's brilliant when this happens, it shakes people out of complacency. It's also funny as fuck watching apologists for the system being absolutely bewildered by it all.

It's obvious to all but the most blinkered and fuck-witted that capitalism does not work as a world system. It works for a tiny minority most of the time, and if people's share prices get wiped out in the blink of an eye then tough. That's what happens when you speculate to try and make a killing. Whose killing is it, though?

Be interesting to see Moderator Dave's thoughts...

[Hugh_Jazz]

HBOS was actually a solvent bank with a relatively good balance sheet despite the credit crunch and their exposure to the mortgage market.

One of their biggest problems was greedy investors 'short selling' en masse on HBOS shares, which exacerbated the already downward trend in their share price and turned them from a struggling bank (no different to RBS, Barclays etc), to a bank that was royally fucked

This practice needs to be outlawed before it causes another big company to needlessly go under.

[Cloud]

Originally Posted by Neil

I think the general one is that the first £35,000 you have with any bank in the UK is protected regardless of what happens.

Be careful, the rule is that it's the first 35k with one institution rather than one bank.

Originally Posted by Tubthumper

Just out of curiosity, what will happen to Lloyds customers? I've already heard a few stories about folk moving their money from Lloyds TSB, so just trying to see where I stand. Is it wise to still be banking with them?

Very wise. Lloyds have managed to pull off a hell of a deal for HBOS, which has taken out one of their main rivals in Scotland and has given them a massive boost in terms of UK banking. They had the ability to pull it off, and the government will make sure that they don't run into any problems along the way.

[Lucky Rathen]

Originally Posted by Hugh_Jazz

This practice needs to be outlawed before it causes another big company to needlessly go under.

Don't tell me your upset at the demise of a fucking bank. Good riddance to the cunts I say. I've been waiting for this day for years.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Cloud

Be careful, the rule is that it's the first 35k with one institution rather than one bank.

It also counts brands within a group as one single entity. So if you have £20k with BOS and £20k with Halifax (or Intelligent Finance, Sainsbury's etc) then you'd probably lose £5k (hypothetically seeing as HBOS didn't go bust).

[Hugh_Jazz]

Originally Posted by Lucky Rathen

Don't tell me your upset at the demise of a fucking bank. Good riddance to the cunts I say. I've been waiting for this day for years.

I've got no affinity for the banks themselves. But I do have a major problem with a group of greedy investment pricks ultimately putting 40,000 people out of a job.

Had LloydsTSB not bought HBOS, it probably would have been the government who would have needed to bail them out......using our taxes.

But hey, good riddance to the cunts, eh?

[Hugh_Jazz]

Originally Posted by Chris

It also counts brands within a group as one single entity. So if you have £20k with BOS and £20k with Halifax (or Intelligent Finance, Sainsbury's etc) then you'd probably lose £5k (hypothetically seeing as HBOS didn't go bust).

Don't think so. You're covered up to £35k per "authorised institution". If the merged bank, retains separate authorizations (eg. RBS and Natwest) for the individual banks and you've savings in both, you'll be covered up to £70k

Read this on the BBC yesterday.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Hugh_Jazz

Don't think so. You're covered up to £35k per "authorised institution". If the merged bank, retains separate authorizations (eg. RBS and Natwest) for the individual banks and you've savings in both, you'll be covered up to £70k

Read this on the BBC yesterday.

I definitely read different on a news site yesterday. So I looked it up on the FSCS website:

2. What is the position for people who have multiple accounts with banks that are subsidiaries of another bank?

For people who hold multiple accounts in banks that are part of a larger group, if each of the banks is separately authorised by the Financial Services Authority:

FSCS would pay compensation up to the limit of £35,000 per person, per authorised institution.
If each of the banks is not separately authorised but is covered by the parent company's authorisation:

FSCS would pay compensation up to the limit of £35,000 once, irrespective of how many different institutions a person held accounts with.
If you have a question about how a bank or building society is authorised, please contact the Financial Services Authority Consumer Contact Centre on 0845 606 1234.

FSCS - Consumer home page - Consumer FAQs about FSCS - Deposit claims FAQs * *

So both is true depending on the status of the subsidiary