Genesis

Hello, in the light of the current fiscal meltdown world wide one can't help but worry about what little cash one has left. Having 'done' a load in NZ on the finance co. meltdown I am wondering what people's thoughts are on having your money in the bank.

In NZ the federal reserve bank would apparently never allow a kiwi bank to go to the wall..they would bail them out. Sorted (apparently nought to worry about), alas these days I owe them!!!

Am I right in understanding that the Bank of England will bailout any UK bank (like they did N Rock) thus those with savings are worry free??

I know share holders (where applicable) stand to loose the lot/large tranche of it as my FiL did with his N Rock shares.

We have a little left in the Nationwide B Soc.. I undertsand that they are rather large with assets of around £190 billion having just taken over 2 more UK societies.

Is it time to keep our money under the matress or is it safe in the big high street names?

Waddya reckon??

cally49

Hi there Genesis, Very interesting point that you make here and one i have been worrying about since the collapse of the financial houses in NZ (i know you were stung badly)

My own predicament is that i have a fair bit invested with ASB here in NZ and am wondering if it is safe & if the bank did go to the wall am i protected. Any banking people out there with the general feeling of how the banks are faring???
Funily enough i did email my bank officer when the finance ouses started falling and asked about this very thing and never got a reply which made me feel slightly nervous mind you they are probably not allowed to speculate on behalf of the bank anyhow...Think i may resend that email again today will let you know if i hear any gem of info back..

I have enough trouble sleeping now without doing the princess and the pea-re run lol..
.
Look foward to hearing back on this one.

Have a great week (did you manage to get anything at all back from your investment)
Cheers
Cally

Woodlea

Palladin (remember him, a regular poster a while back and a bit of a financial whiz....) said BUY GOLD, perhaps he didn't so that may be why we haven't heard from him for a while. Or perhaps he did may be that's why we haven't heard from him.

Can Governments (tax payers) continuously bail out banks etc? When are the 'master's of the universe' (Bonfire of the Vanities) gonna pay back their massive bonuses? Let the bastards squirm say I. I'd start a vege plot and make some space in the garage for a cow and become self sufficient before I paid a bean to those w**kers on Wall St!

Now back to the alchemy project...............

chocolate cake

Well as there is only one main NZ bank and it's govt owned (Kiwi Bank) it's not saying much about not letting them to the wall, the others being OZ owned.

I think your money's pretty safe with UK banks, the guarantee of first 30/35k (forget what exact figure is) is a stone walled guarantee. If you want more security than that, then spread it out or go with the Northern Rock as they are actually owned by the govt and wouldn't be allowed to go bust.

FWIW I don't believe the NZ or OZ govts offer similar guarantees to savers. Generally though the OZ banks do seem to have been less effected than most by American situation.

All the bank's that have been in danger in UK have been those former building socs. that converted to banks and changed their business plans. The directors have profited fortunes and the only people who seem to have lost out have been the shareholders - the savers having been guaranteed as much as possible and borrowers were not going to have the mortgages cancelled even if the bank's had gone bust!

IMHO..that's all it is, no more no less..
Money under the mattress is bad idea, and gold's not a long term option either if you'd invested in gold long term you would be well down compared to everything else.

I've some share ISAs which have certainly fallen in the last year but they're still up overall, and I don't think nows the time to get out.

UK banks are as safe as any, likewise the UK Building Societys have much more restrictive financing restrictions than the converted banks and are safe unless there's a catosphrostic hit on the value of houses.

M-Squared

Have to correct the above poster. Although all bar Kiwibank are Aus-owned, all banks report first and foremost to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. They must all have cash deposited in reserve with the RBNZ. Some, like BNZ, have more than legally required. Risk management tends to be taken far more seriously here, and sub-prime mortgages haven't really happened here. :nice1

Interestingly, the crunch hasn't affected France too much either. There, it's very hard to get credit. Without a very large downpayment, good luck in getting a mortgage. Also, credit cards are difficult to get. Most rely on debit cards there. ie. they don't spend what they don't have. :nice1

Genesis

Have a great week (did you manage to get anything at all back from your investment)
Cheers
Cally[/QUOTE]

Hi, thanks for the interest re the hanover thing. Well it seems to be more uptempo now. In my mind I will never see a cent of what I invested..think the worst and if any better comes....that's nice aye??

Both the owners and others with inside knowledge (and no interest in Hanover Finance..those fiscal commentators) seem quietly confident that one day..maybe 1800 days (or more!!!!) will see our money back..and all of it. So the prognosis is hopeful. I will believe it when I see it!!!!

I just hope the money we have in the Nationwide remains unravaged!!!!!

chocolate cake

Hi there, I'm not quite sure what you're correcting above. Indeed all bar the Kiwi bank are OZ owned. I wasn't aware of the exact circumstances regarding amounts deposited with NZ Reserve Bank, but it doesn't make their failure impossible.

Not sure about French banks being any safer, didn't the Societe Generale suffer some pretty nasty losses through a rogue trader late last year?

Indeed the French govt have recently supported French/Belgium bank Dexia in combination with Belgium and Luxembourg govts:-
http://ukpress.google.com/article/AL...1a9y4rXNiRGgIg

luvwelly

My policy is eggs in lots of different baskets with surplus transferred back to UK from time to time...UK Government is much better placed to bail out Banks....don't think the NZ Government has sufficient assets or clout to behave similarly. At least there is depositor protection legislation in UK...unheard of here.

cally49

Hi just had a call from my brother in the UK & he said money in the bank is only guaranteed to something like 35k dont know if thats right or not, hes thinking of moving his stash to Ireland apparently things in much better shape there. Thing is what will bring the banks to their knees i guess is people removing a lot of money quickly.

He said hes never known so many people panicking over there about how they will pay thier mortgages and how property is very fragile at the min he said theres also an amazing amount of to let signs on houses which is something hes never seen before...So what to do aye. He was told by another company that there are so many businesses going to hit the wall in the UK shortly so it sounds like everything is going to get much worse and hes extremely worried about his own business which is paint spraying as people now are tending to not bother getting a small problem resprayed nowadays and hes just managing to pay his bills and thats all.
Not wonderful reading im afraid....
Cheers
Cally

Scouse Dave

If I remember correctly, in the aftermath of Northern Rock, the UK Government eventually announced that they would underwrite 100% of saver money. That was a one-off though, and as it stands now, regulations guarantee only up to £35k. Gordy is under pressure to make a similar announcement to the Belgians though and guarantee 100% across the board to prevent another "run on the bank".

In reality, this goes deeper than bailing out fat-cats. If the banks start to fall, all credit will cease and the economies will crash. So as much as we may hate the idea of it, the governments have no choice. The House of Representatives knows this damned well - but there's an election coming, so those with an eye on re-election won't support it just in case it fails. So bad timing all round.

On a personal level, we've taken the precaution of spreading our cash across various investments in the UK, and I certainly wouldn't recommend leaving more than £35k in any one bank there. Over here, we're not quite keeping cash under the mattresses yet, but as always with investments, we spread the risks and keep a survival fund on deposit.

PS Buy Lloyds TSB - but only with money you can afford to lose eh?

Batty

This is one of the few times in my life when I'm glad I don't have any money to lose

The difference (from my understanding of it) between NZ and, say, US banks is that the main banks here haven't done the lending to developments and other risky ventures that the US banks have. Their customers are mainly YOU and ME and we're considered a better risk

The British Government is under pressure to implement a guarantee in the same way that the Irish Government has but there's no movement yet. The Irish Government has guaranteed 2 years of deposits - costing ....... $400bn - I'm sure this must be a misprint (but I've read it in a couple of places) because if it's only another $300bn in the States what the hell are they moaning about?

Is Britain governed by ECB interest rates? They're predicted to fall and probably a couple of times up to the New Year BUT there will be higher bank charges on credit cards, overdrafts etc. to cover the higher cost of borrowing for the banks and also to ensure they've got more capital on hand.

Yotty

In the UK at present £35k is protected. This Tuesday 7th Oct the limit rises to £50k. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/25915358-9...nclick_check=1 oh yes and an interest rate cut is on the cards too. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a640c212-9...0779fd18c.html