BRITAIN – To become a Nation of Shopkeepers?.

03 11 2009 Extra £30bn for bailed out banks. The Treasury has announced the injection of some £25.5 billion into The Royal Bank of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Scotland and some £5.7 billion into The Lloyds Banking Group, this new money being necessary in complying with EU competition rules.

While Mr Darling said the changes mean there will be more competition RBS is selling branches in England and Wales, NatWest branches in Scotland, the Churchill and Direct Line insurance arm and parts of its investment banking business. Lloyds will offload branches in Scotland. Although this bail-out represents over five times of the annual cost for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq Shadow Chancellor George Osborne argued that the measure would cost the equivalent of £2,000 per family. He also charged Chancellor Darling of not even being prepared to put the full figure of some £39.2 billion before the Commons.

 

ISSUES:

1. Credit Default Swops [ CDS ] – Invented by a team working for J P Morgan in 1997 and signed into Public Law(106-554) by President Clinton on the 21 Dec 2000. Winnings through gambling on the FAILURE of others!. Also of interest is JP Morgan analysts comment of “Boring,” to Supermarket Sainsbury profit (News 12 11 2008).

2. While the Banking System be financial “shops” loosing money the Supermarkets as shops are gaining vast profits – like TESCO whom plan to OPEN BANKS (news 01 04 2009 )

3. RBS: Cross party Commons Committee (News 10 02 2009) hears that four witnesses admit to having no formal Banking qualifications!.

4. Gov announces extra financial help for “increasing advice” for the unemployed (News 17 12 2008) - help in filling-in application forms, drafting CV’s, obtaining references and preparing for interviews as well as “looking for jobs”. The Chancellor - we will use it to make sure we continue to provide a first class service to everyone looking for work.

 

In addition to the loss of jobs by those whom were employed one has Graduates and School leavers escalating the need for the creation of jobs but are all to be finally gainfully employed by Supermarkets as the suppliers of all our needs?.

 

 

OLD NEWS

?? 09 2007 Northern Rock - for the first time since 1860 there was a run on a British bank. Although the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority have jurisdiction in such cases Darling authorised the Bank of England to lend Northern Rock up to £20 billion. Mr Darling was then criticized for so much public money being tied up in a private company!

22 04 2008 RBS announces £12bn rights issue. Sir Fred Goodwin defended his position after asking shareholders to pump in £12 billion of new capital. Sir Fred, whose £4.2 million pay package last year included a £2.9 million bonus, said the £12 billion capital-raising was the "right thing to do", and dismissed calls for his resignation

02 06 2008 Competition watchdog to probe banks. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) confirmed it had launched an investigation into "alleged anti-competitive conduct" by Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland and raided two premises. The watchdog said the probe had a "narrow focus", relating to the provision of loan products to professional services firms.

12 11 2008 Sainsbury profit at top end of forecasts. Britain's No.3 supermarket group said on Wednesday profit before tax and one-off items rose 13 percent to some 272 million pounds in the 28 weeks to October 4. "Boring," said JP Morgan analysts, about the first-half results.

14 11 2008 RBS plans to axe 3,000 banking jobs. The bank, which is in line for perhaps a £20 billion taxpayer handout to help shore up its finances, is understood to be cutting the posts from its global banking and markets workforce over the coming weeks.

28 11 2008 Government to own majority of RBS. Taxpayers will perhaps take a 57.9% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland after investors snubbed its £15 billion share offer, the bank said. In August the company unveiled its first loss in 40 years as a public company after suffering writedowns of £5.9 billion as it reported statutory pre-tax losses of £692 million for the first half of 2008. RBS is receiving the biggest injection of public funds under the Government's £37 billion bail-out package announced in October.

15 12 2008 RBS reveals Madoff exposure. Royal Bank of Scotland, Man Group and Nomura on Monday joined a growing list of financial groups acknowledging exposure to the alleged $50 billion (33.3 billion pound) fraud surrounding Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff. A report in the Financial Times said HSBC Holdings had emerged as one of the largest victims, with potential exposure of about $1 billion. RBS said its potential loss could amount to some 400 million pounds, if it assumed that the value of its assets in market-making firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities were nil.

17 12 2008 Gov fund to help unemployed at some £158m. Skills Secretary John Denham said "By increasing the advice on offer and improving access to training we will ensure that more is made of the £4.5 billion the Government already spends on skills. Jobseekers will be offered help in filling in application forms, drafting CVs, obtaining references and preparing for interviews as well as confidence building, identifying their skills and how to look for jobs. This new funding is in addition to the £1.3 billion announced by the Chancellor last month and we will use it to make sure we continue to provide a first class service to everyone looking for work."

19 01 2009 RBS seen unveiling massive losses. Royal Bank of Scotland will unveil up to 25 billion pounds of losses for 2008 on Monday due to bad debts and writing off goodwill on its acquisition of ABN AMRO, a newspaper said on Monday. RBS, once Britain's second-biggest bank, was left short of capital as a result of hefty write-offs against debt-backed securities.

28 01 2009 Asda and Sky set to create new jobs. Supermarket chain Asda will create 7,000 new jobs this year, a spokesman said. Proposing to open 14 new stores and the planned expansion of 15 existing sites. The move was welcomed by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions James Purnell.

08 02 2009 £1bn bonuses plan for bank bosses. RBS propped up with public money wants to pay its staff almost £1 billion in bonuses but to stem the outrage RBS chiefs were said to be aiming to limit the cash element being paid to each employee to some £25,000. Around half of the total would be "discretionary" payments with the rest of the money RBS is "contractually" obliged to give employees of ABN Amro, the Dutch bank bought by RBS.

10 02 2009 Ex-bank chiefs grilled over errors. Four bankers blamed for taking Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS to the brink of collapse were quizzed over their errors that have caused a backlash against the sector and its lavish pay. Trade union members paraded outside the entrance of the building before the meeting started, carrying placards reading: "Remember us? You've put our jobs at risk." Goodwin waived any pay-off when he left, but still received a 2.9 million pound payout in 2007, the year he led RBS's ill-fated acquisition of ABN AMRO.

10 02 2009 no formal banking qualifications. Sir Fred Goodwin, former chief executive of RBS apologised for "all of the distress that has been caused" in a bruising encounter with MPs on the Treasury Select Committee. MPs on the cross party Commons Committee heard how Sir Fred earned £1.46 million last year and Mr Hornby was paid a salary of nearly £1 million. However, all four witnesses admitted they had no formal banking qualifications.

22 02 2009 Brown in move to end 100% mortgages. Gordon Brown has called for a return to "traditional" banking methods in Britain as he signalled new curbs on 100% mortgages.

07 03 2009 Government increases Lloyds holding. The Government is to insure £260 billion of the bank's potentially "toxic" assets, according to the Treasury. In return the taxpayer will up its ownership of the bank from 43% to 65% - or 77% including non-voting shares. The company was forced to ask for further support because of the heavy losses run up by HBOS - which it took over to prevent its collapse.

08 03 2009 Taxpayer funds another bank bailout. The Government will control two of Britain's biggest banks - Alistair Darling insisted propping up Lloyds was "vital" for the economy as it was agreed to underwrite £260 billion of the group's toxic assets. Under the deal announced the Government's stake in the bank will rise from 43% to at least 65% - It already owns a near-70% stake in rival group Royal Bank of Scotland.

01 04 2009 Tesco to open banks. Supermarket giant Tesco is planning to open 30 bank branches in its stores by the end of the year and will start offering current accounts within the next two years.

03 04 2009 RBS shareholders vent their anger. New chairman Sir Philip Hampton faced calls for the previous board, which oversaw some £24 billion of losses last year, to be jailed. Shareholder John Waterson voiced "grave reservations" about the make-up of the present board - particularly Gordon Pell and Guy Whittaker, who were both on the bank's previous board. "Far from continuing with them as members of the board - I am sure I speak for a lot of people in this audience - all of those board members should be in jail."

07 04 2009 RBS planning to axe 4,500 UK Jobs. The Royal Bank of Scotland has said it has begun consultation with unions over plans to cut up to 9,000 jobs in the next two years, of which 4,500 will be in the UK. The bank, which is now 70% owned by the Government, is cutting the roles from its backroom staff under plans to save £2.5 billion over the next three years. It racked up a UK record loss of £24.1 billion in 2008. RBS chief executive Stephen Hester said the job losses were necessary to put the bank back on its feet "as soon as practicable".

22 06 2009 supermarkets take on the banks. Tesco recently announced a record profit of some £3 billion. Tesco muscled in on the market for financial services about 12 years ago in a joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). It also recently bought out RBS to take full control of the business and has reported a "steady growth in customer accounts". Tesco is now piloting in-store bank branches in six locations across the country, with plans to open 30 in-store banks by the end of the year.

01 07 2009 Tesco 'could bid for Northern Rock'. Tesco may launch a bid for Northern Rock as the Government attempts to sell off the nationalised lender before the General Election, according to reports. A Tesco spokesman said the report was "pure speculation".

 

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07 12 2007: REVENUE Supermarkets Asda and Sainsbury's have been fined over their roles in a dairy price-fixing scandal thought to have cost consumers around £270,000,000.

21 02 2008: British Gas profits rockets to around £576,000,000 last year from £95,000,000 in 2006, according to Citigroup analysts.

13 03 2008 Morrisons profits rise by some 66%14 03 2008 Alistair Darling has warned he would have to make an £8 billion cut in spending if Labour are returned at the next General Election.

08 04 2008: Severn Trent Water faces £35,800,000 fine for deliberately providing false data to industry regulator Ofwat

15 04 2008: Tesco rings up some £2.85bn in profits

28 04 2008: Supermarkets to be investigated on allegations of price fixing

20 05 2008: Marks & Spencer's annual profits have topped some £1 billion

11 06 2008 EU to act over UK budget deficit. EU to start disciplinary proceedings against the UK for breaching its economic rules.

01 07 2008: Severn Trent Water has been fined £2,000,000 at the Old Bailey for lying about water leaks.

03 07 2008 Darling says oil price "real problem"

06 09 2008: Energy costs - netted Treasury £1bn

28 10 2008 BP oil profit -£4.4 billion EXPECTED for the July-September period, a 52% above last year's third quarter

12 11 2008: Sainsbury profit rose 13 percent to some £272,000,000 in just 28 weeks

06 10 2009 Supermarket giant Tesco said it made some £1.4 billion in profits for the first half of its financial year.

 

Banks - insurance-type "no-claims" bonus?

03 12 2007: Bank details 'sold on internet'.

06 12 2007 LOSS - Banking information. HMRC admits seven security breaches. Bank account details of every child benefit claimant in the country including names, addresses, birth dates, national insurance numbers Chancellor Alistair Darling reveals. £20,000 reward

07 12 2007 Banks could have an insurance-type "no-claims" bonus for people who successfully protect their own identity from fraudsters - a Think-tank suggests.