The Royal Bank of Scotland just announced a staggering £28 billion loss.
While we’ve seen a number of banks declare billions in losses over the past year, and the process still continues, the RBS loss is going down as the biggest corporate loss in UK history.
It’s unbelievable what’s happened to the banks, and what’s even more unfair is that it’s the tax payer who is paying for all the mistakes of the banks.
We’re not just paying in terms of government funding and asset swaps with the Treasury, but also as customers. Interest rates on savings accounts are dead, but mortgage and loan interest rates remain a lot higher than the Bank of England’s base rate.
Which means the banks are doing what they can to widen profit margins to recapitalise themselves, meaning that we’re ending up paying twice to save them from their own greed.
I currently have a Nationwide bank account which is paying less than 1% interest. On the one hand, at least I know Nationwide is one of the stronger financial institutions and isn’t under any threat of being part-nationalised like RBS and Lloyds, and doesn’t look likely to be nationalised any time soon.
Even still, as I’m saving for a deposit on a house, I don’t like the fact that my savings are no longer working as hard as they used to.
Hopefully the banking crisis will soon be over, and perhaps for the sake of the financial system, banks need to widen profit margins in order to bring this to an end sooner, rather than later.
But just don’t expect me to enjoy being part of the bail-out, when all I can see is the cost from it all, rather than the benefits.
Comments
Very good post. I know what you mean about not receiving a very strong return on your money. I remember in the 80's, when I was a kid, receiving over 10% on my savings. Naturally this wasn't good for those with mortgages.
Are there any banks that haven't put themselves in vulnerable positions and are doing well? Is nationwide bank one of these?
Some banks use a process called paid on available and a pending debit card transaction will hold the "available" balance before the transaction even posts to the account.
This can cause other items to overdraw the "available" balance, causing an overdraft, plus when the actual transaction goes through, it will charge an additional overdraft if still negative. Basically, a pending debit card transaction can cause 2 overdraft fees using this method.
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I totally agree with what you said and this is the true reason why I never wanted to work with banks. This is the reason I started to create some Clickbooth affiliate programs designed to help people make money and more important, learn how to make investments. I'm really proud of that and I hope that all of us will stop donating money to banks if I may say it this way.