BANKS..... YET AGAIN!

A few weeks ago I blogged about bankers and rhyming slang. I thought that might be the end of it, however I remember that about a year ago I was warned by a friend of mine in the banking industry that there was going to be yet another scandal. 

Surprise, surprise... he was right!

We had PPI mis-selling, endowments that failed to provide a nice little sum for retirement let alone meet outstanding mortgages, LIBOR interest rate rigging, pensions proving to be worthless, bonus and fat-cat retirement payments to people like Fred the Shred. And yet the buggers are still wallowing in our money and getting away with blatant theft, while claims management companies make money for doing nothing.

Go back and look at my previous blog before continuing to the latest (because it won't be the last) scam by these pillars of society.

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8622544917745692912#editor/target=post;postID=5473502840016773581;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=2;src=postname

This week it was announced by a government sponsored committee no less, that RBS had been deliberately driving viable small companies to the wall, then seizing their assets and selling them for a massive profit.

A Kent hotelier took out a loan from Nat West (a sub of RBS) linked to a complex interst switching device that he didn't really understand. He was told by his bank manager not to worry and that everything was fine. The loan was in the small millions, but the hotelier was keeping up payments and his revitalised hotel was pretty well ready to open when with days to go Nat West called in the loan for no apparent reason. They wouldn't budge and the hotelier was told to put his business on the market. He had no option, but the amount he was told to ask was 25% of the valuation an estate agent had put on it, and well below the amount oustanding on the loan.

Eventually the hotelier had to accept an offer from a property company that was even lower, meaning that to clear the loan he not only lost his viable hotel business, but his home and everything he'd established in his lifetime. He also lost his wife to cancer (who can prove a link!)  and now supports his kids working as a labourer.

And the property company that bought his business? 
You guessed... it was a subsidiary of RBS.


Is this legal? .... Seemingly. 
Is it really theft? .... Bet your boots
Should those responsible be brought to account? .... Oh, yes!
Will they be brought to account? .... Probably not. Big payoffs and a pension probably.
Will the government do anything? .... Words and more words.
We own RBS. Will we have a say? .... Silly question.
Will the hotelier be compensated? .... Nowhere near enough, if at all.
Are other banks doing the same? .... Another silly question.

Lloyds Bank was initially a small family of sober individuals who looked after the farmers' market money when they took their cattle to Alsford in Hampshire once a year. They travelled with the farmers but never touched drink and were totally trusted. It was eventually agreed that instead of walking with the farmers carrying the money, the Lloyds family would stay in Alsford in a fortified house and keep the money in the reinforced basement where farmers could come and get it whenever they needed it. Everyone knew it was safe and the Lloyds family was paid a fee by each farmer.

Everyone was happy... until the bankers became too powerful and believed they were more important than their clients.

Grandmas are famous for keeping their money under the matress. Suddenly that doesn't seem so stupid. If I had any money left I'd probably do the same!

What's the next scam, guys?

Blog on, Dudes!