Lynn R

I watched a good programme on C4 last night (well, I thought it was!) called Bank of Dave : fighting the fat cats. A review of it here


http://metro.co.uk/2013/03/01/bank-o...cream-3520603/

It was a follow-up one year on from the original programme "Bank of Dave", which I missed. A local businessman in Burnley, Dave Fishwick, set up this initiative after hearing from numerous small business owners that they had been refused credit by high street banks, and savers getting very low returns. Essentially it is a peer to peer lending operation, offering a 5% pa return to savers. Dave Fishwick personally guarantees the safety of people's investments in the event of anyone defaulting on their loan.

Local people were literally queuing to deposit money with them, until the FSA stepped in and prevented them from taking any more funds in. Last night's programme was about Dave's campaign against this, which he eventually won. He wants to see this kind of initiative rolled out all over the country, and I say good luck to him. He visited Germany, where apparently these kind of "community banks" have been commonplace for years.

I would love to see them succeed, what do you think?

Dick Dasterdly

Quite agree, best of luck to the guy and others who hopefully may follow him and show the big boys up for what a bunch of scumbags they really are,.... though I think most of us already know.

Pocaloca

Isn't that what building societies used to be? Before they were all turned into banks?

I wonder if all those members who sold their rights for cash windfalls ever realised what the implications would be?

Anyway, good for Dave, I hope he wins.

Pulaski

Sounds like a form of credit union, which do exist in the UK, but are much bigger in the US.

Dick Dasterdly

Good point.
Unfortunately most of the small ones were gobbled up by the bigger ones which in turn were mostly gobbled up by the banks.
There are still a few around, but how long before they are also swallowed up once the banks get back into their big fat profit zone again ?

Apart from causing the big banks some embarrassment, Dave did likewise by sticking to his guns and pressurising the FSA who were obviously hoping he'd just quietly give up and go away.

bobd22

Do you think the cared ? They just took the free money

Fredbargate

Not only Building Societies but also how banks were born.

Pocaloca

Yes I remember my parents had a big row when they had to vote on it. Dad said it was wrong but mum won and we got a new sofa.

notacontrathinker

Dear Daily Mail,

How did we miss it ? The signs were all THERE. Was it the ‘Jimmy Savile Factor’ that blinded us i.e. ‘It’s to do with television so it must be kosher’ ?

How could we have missed it ? Was George Osbourne and the Bank of England sleeping whilst all this was going on ? When and how much did David Cameron know ?

I clown walks into Burnley high street (of all places), opens a shop, declares it a “Bank”, and, without any banking experience whatsoever starts taking money off people who queue up for a mouth-watering 5 % interest, which none of the major banks can match. These deposits were “personally guaranteed” by the bloke.

All this against the warnings of the financial institutions and the half-hearted attempts by the FSA to shut him down, but were incompetent in doing so.

I suppose it will be the British tax-payer who will have to compensate all the hard-working people, pensioners who fought for their country, one-armed single mothers and Lesbian Green Whales charities who queued up to put their money in this catastrophe ?

Did the government learn nothing from the Iceland debacle ?

Disgusted,
Cheltenam

Lynn R

Who has lost any money they have invested with this "bank" to date? Some politicians at least appear to be taking him seriously as he was invited to give evidence to an All Party Parliamentary Committee.

rugbymatt

Do you like where you live? I don't mean the actual location I'm more on about the place you live in your head. Is it lonely up there?

notacontrathinker

Yes. You see there's only one of me, where as your location identifier in the left margin says "Pray for the people inside your head...".

You seem to be confused about numbers (43159?).

Perhaps one of you should pop down the doctors and ask about "skit-so-freen-yah".

You'll feel better.

I did.




I consider my discussion with you closed.

Dick Dasterdly

I take it that Santander UK didn't quite match up to your requirements either.


"The Santander logo, a pile of steaming ***t, is the most appropriate one I have ever seen."

notacontrathinker

Certainly not.

This week a charming young lady from the Caixa Laietana (now Bankia) bank helped me pay a sterling cheque in to my Spanish euro account. I didn't know if it was possible, and nor did the woman serving me or the rest of the bank staff.

Strangely they had never done this before, and they had never seen a British cheque before either. Politely, they got the job done despite the lengthening queue.

Now, I know I will be able to get that money back whenever I want, cos the Spanish Government and the European Union says so, not a second hand minibus salesman from Burnley.

That's my kind of bank.

I'm all for the little man in business, but not when you're messing about with people's savings.

Fredbargate

I doubt that the minibus salesman from Burnley will cost us individually or collectively ( Government ) as much as your kind of banks.