BoyBach,
Don't forget the mantra - global, do nothing, global, do nothing ...
For a 30% share of the UK mortgage market. It'll still come good for Lloyds if they get rid of the HBOS staff.
You do the sums yourself, 14 million mortgages at an average £100,000, with an average 2% mark-up over the rate the money was borrowed. There's £28bn revenue each year for doing nothing more than collecting the mortgage payments. If customers want any sort of communication with the bank over their mortgage, or to make endorsements (changes) there's an additional fee, like it is now.
So now ask, just how can HBOS lose so much money ?
Well, I used to contract to RBS and HBOS since then. Never did I see stupidity, laziness and office politics in a management hierarchy. HBOS worse than RBS, rife with out-dated working practices and tiers of management that did (absolutely) nothing to justify any salary, let alone their comfortable salaries and bonuses. 70,000 work for HBOS, starting at the board and coming down through management, Lloyds could make 50,000 redundant and not notice the difference.
Unfortunately, I'm cursed being a contract IT specialist in financial services based in Edinburgh. I may have to go back to London.
RBS faces probe over 'threats' to directors
The scandal engulfing the Royal Bank of Scotland reaches new heights today with serious allegations from a senior Labour politician that at least three of its former non-executive directors may have been intimidated and threatened with the sack for asking searching questions about its financial affairs.
The Observer can reveal that a former government minister, Lord Foulkes of Cumnock, who has been extensively briefed by former bank insiders, has written to the Financial Services Authority, the City watchdog, asking it to pursue the claims which, if true, could trigger a criminal investigation.
The intervention by Foulkes, who is also a member of the Scottish parliament and sits on the Commons security and intelligence committee, comes amid fears that the bank will be exposed as the UK's equivalent of Enron - the US trader that collapsed amid systemic fraud.
Last night Foulkes said there was "widespread public anger among the public and Parliament that bankers in the midst of this financial crisis appear to be profiting and no action is being taken in relation to action which could constitute criminal offences".
In relation to claims of intimidation, Foulkes said: "If it were to transpire that executives were pressured in such a way, then that is a most serious matter indeed that needs urgent action."
He is also understood to have been disturbed by claims that the bank misled investors over its exposure to bad debts. Yesterday it was reported that more than £30bn of "toxic" sub-prime mortgages were bought for RBS by traders in 2007 without the board being informed - a claim denied by the bank.
Foulkes's letter to the FSA chairman, Lord Turner, states: "You will be aware that there is widespread disquiet that, unlike in the USA, there appears to be no action being taken against any of the UK bankers who may have been culpable of one or more offences in their dealings."
He asks Turner to address "whether any knowingly false statements were made or prospectuses issued that could have led potential investors or depositors to believe the position was more favourable than the board knew it to be and whether there was any intimidation of non-executive directors who had been asking probing questions which led them to believe they would not be reappointed if they continued to pursue such searching questions". Matthew Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman in the Lords, said: "I have never come across such damaging claims of megalomania, cover-up and intimidation ... Never mind Northern Rock. I am really afraid that RBS will turn out to have been another Enron."
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Revealed King Freds taste for the high life
EXTRAORDINARY new details of the extravagance of Sir Fred Goodwins reign at the Royal Bank of Scotland have been revealed by a whistleblower.
An RBS insider claims the disgraced former chief executive squandered vast sums empire-building and indulging his personal tastes as the bank ran up huge losses.
The well-placed source has told how the bank allegedly:
- Redecorated the lobby outside Goodwins office with wallpaper costing £1,000 a roll because someone had made a tiny stain on one surface.
- Spent £5.3m lavishly refurbishing a grade A listed building styled Sir Freds Pleasure Dome by staff that was barely used.
- Paid out £100,000 a month on part-time chauffeurs.
- Flew fruit in daily from Paris and upbraided staff about rogue biscuits when pink wafers were included with other boardroom snacks.
- Twice changed £100-a-square yard carpeting in two vast boardrooms because Goodwin didnt like the shade of amber.
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Minister in charge of offshore clampdown ran tax haven firm
THE government minister in charge of stamping out corporate tax avoidance has himself set up a business in the tax haven of Bermuda. Lord Myners, already under fire for approving Sir Fred Goodwins massive pension from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), was part-time chairman of an offshore company which avoided more than £100m a year in taxes.
Details of Mynerss involvement in Aspen Insurance Holdings (AIH) have emerged as Gordon Brown seeks to win the backing of heads of government to prise open tax havens at a meeting of the G20 in London on April 2.
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we are all selfish no matter what we say - it is all about self preservation.