If most Britons had not previously heard of Dexia, don’t worry: most Belgians had not heard of Northern Rock until the run four years ago. But both collapses mark the start of major phases in the financial crisis.
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The public-sector job cuts have started.
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For a UK company to launch a record £13bn rights issue on the eve of a finely-balanced general election in its home country and a Greek debt crisis that is circling the globe looked a risky strategy.
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Are these overgeared pyramids really the people to be buying Britain’s banks?
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In the United States the miscreant Northern Rock executives would gave received jail sentences longer than their life expectancy. In China they might have been executed. But even a £500,000 fine is exceptional in Britain, which is only just taking financial collapse seriously.
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President Obama’s call to make banks shed risky trading – effectively a new Glass-Steagall Act – is not off the UK agenda, despite being dismissed by government ministers. The architect of the plan, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, is coming to the House of Commons to outline his plan.
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Nevermind that the Bank of England kept secret for a year its massive loan to HBoS and RBS (LON:RBS), why on earth did it choose to break its silence on the day Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) announces its record rights issue?
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The government’s promise of three new banks looks attractive for an industry that has retreated to a Big Four offering little competition. But one of the three newcomers isn’t new and the other two are tiddlers.
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If banks shouldn’t be “too big to fail” how small must they be before we allow them to collapse? It’s the question the Bank of England’s governor must answer.
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Dare one ask, amid all the comment to mark the year since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, were the financial regulators wrong in refusing to rescue the bank?
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