BEWARE! THE BANKS ARE OUT TO GET YOU!

[Tizer]

BBC News, 25 September 2013
Libor: ICAP fined $87m and three traders charged with fraud
"The UK broker ICAP has been fined $87m (£54m) for its part in the long-running Libor interest rate fixing scandal. In addition, three of its former traders were charged in New York with several counts of wire fraud. They face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison for each count if convicted....The US Department of Justice said in a statement: "In exchange for bigger bonus checks, the three defendants undermined financial markets around the world by compromising the integrity of globally used interest rate benchmarks."
"Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime at the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, said Libor-fixing "cast a shadow over the financial services industry" and the findings showed individuals having "a cavalier disregard" for regulation and the interests of markets. She said ICAP's failings in "culture and controls" allowed the misconduct to flourish."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24250750

[Stanley]

I can't remember where but I heard extracts of emails brokers were exchanging openly discussing fixing the rates and exchanging gifts and favours. "Do this and I'll buy you a Ferrari"..... Useless leeches on society and we don't even bother to cuff them. Legitimised criminality allowed by law makers who are in thrall to the financial industry. We must be mad to allow it.

[Tizer]

Lower down that BBC news story there are some extracts:
"Email exchanges - some with the subject heading "Suggested Libors" - between the three men were disclosed in court filings to support claims the men orchestrated attempts to fix the rate. Mr Goodman, referred to in emails as Lord Libor, allegedly writes of needing to fix the three-month and six-month Libor rates. One email says: "Morning Lad. On the scrounge again, if possible keep 3m [three months] the same and get 6mos [six months] as high as you can. "My guy has an enormous fix on Wednesday in 6mos and will want it as high as possible. Waiting for my credit card to get returned to me from a drunken night out bowling, but will be supplying you with copious amounts of curry on it's imminent return. Cheers". Meanwhile, Mr Read was said to have told a trader that Mr Goodman was "ok with an annual champagne shipment, a few p*** ups... and a small bonus every now and then". In another email, Mr Read told Mr Wilkinson: "Dan this is getting serious [UBS trader] is not happy with the way things are progressing... Can you please get hold of Colin and get him to send out 6mos libor at 0.865 and to get his banks setting it high. This is very important because [UBS trader] is questioning my (our) worth...If you drop 6m dramatically on the 11th mate, it will look v fishy... I'd be v careful how you play it... might get people questioning you.”

[Stanley]

When a sportsman does this they get banned..... Steven Lee? So sport is better regulated than banks?

[Tizer]

Paul Lewis has exposed more arrogance from the banks - they are cancelling customers' accounts and refusing to tell them why. They use the incredible argument that they can't tell the customer due to Data Protection laws. It all revolves around the banks trying to prevent money laundering, especially because some of them have been caught out particularly in the USA and got into serious trouble. So if you receive money from abroad or have a lot of bank accounts or make a large number of high-value transactions, and especially if you have a foreign name or have come from a foreign country, you're liable to get your account cancelled with no explanation. They are now being accused of discriminating against people on the basis of their surname.

[Stanley]

I heard the report as well. Sounds as though they are using profiling..... Easy way out and totally wrong.

[Tizer]

Same sort of computer profiling as for credit card transactions...the wonderful magic algorithms again, which leads to what people now call the `Computer says No' response.

[Stanley]

Restrictions on pay-day lenders are announced today. Good, they are leeches but will any regulations go far enough? If anyone had told me I would see rates of 1500% advertised openly I would never have believed them. A cynical and exploitative trade which may temporarily relieve a short term problem but can often lead to long term misery.

[Stanley]

Five years ago today the crap hit the fan..... Let's not forget what caused it.

[hartley353]

This morning I caught a TV programme discussing the large number of £1.00 coins in circulation which are counterfeit, and the fact that banks are taking no action to remove them from circulation. The problem has probably reached a similar size as America has endured where to take the false currency out of circulation would have left the populace without money. It is a strange thing that any one in the world can reproduce a nations currency and it only becomes a crime when it is used in the nation from which it has been copied.

[Whyperion]

I think that programme was a repeat , one of the fairly endless voice-over type programmes that the BBC occasionally irritate me on , but then as a over 85 the telly in the corner is at no direct charge, so one gets what on pays for.

Given coins in circulation anyway , they are almost tokens anyway , when many transactions in bulk are electronic / cashless anyway and with the likes of the launderette ( where coins are rarely banked as kept for change for the machines anyway from notes ) , parking meters & railway ticket machines seem like fair game and self-serve tills have to take a risk ( anyway the RMint changed the metal composition in pounds a while back giving false rejections in many supermarket machines on both weight and density checks and I think some 'real' coins wear quite badly too. Any odd coins I think dont look right go in the pocket for change giving at the boot sale mostly to people who beat me down in price too much anyway. (No I don't mint my own)

[Stanley]

(Site Administration message)
Just for the legal record. This site does not endorse the passing of any type of forged or even suspicious currency as it is illegal. The correct procedure is to take any suspect coins to the bank for verification.

[Whyperion]

Most of the pounds I get come from the post office in change (other than in / out at the boot sales ) when I buy my postage. ( As most of my customers tend to be of pension age I can only guess that it where theirs are coming from too ). One does not even think to check what one gets from what is part of the government services.
It doesn't help that the Royal Mint are continually changing the patterns on the 50p and above coins so one cannot tell easily what any are supposed to be.
London's buses are consulting on going fully cashless sometime next year ( some duties have been known to pay in less than £5 these days anyway with pre-paid tickets, Over 60s Free Passes and U16 Free Travel being a large make up of use), in part through the wave pay debit cards that are coming into vogue now.

[hartley353]

(Site Administration message)
Just for the legal record. This site does not endorse the passing of any type of forged or even suspicious currency as it is illegal. The correct procedure is to take any suspect coins to the bank for verification.

The programme I alluded to showed the researchers order and collect £200 in pound coins from four different banks, from the samples the highest recorded percentage was more than 40% counterfeit coins, and all samples had a large percentage of counterfeit coins. Returning to the bank appears to be just recycling.

[Whyperion]

It should not be impossible to trace where the coinage is coming from - given a proper analysis of the metals , and a more detailed study as I would think the tokens are put into circulation in limited locations ( probably through betting shops , smaller retailers , petrol stations , maybe through 'business' fronts in coinage into banks - whom tend to check bags by weight ) Its probably quite difficult to spend the amounts of coins needed to make an illegal operation profitable (I suppose it could be risked paying energy bills and credit card bills etc at a bank in such manner)

I think the legal limit on coins as tender is £20 anyway from memory, above which a vendor is entitled to reject that form of payment anyway ( though its going to be an extremely confident business that is going to turn away potential trade ).

I also get a few euros passed as £1 coins from time to time. ( + Gibralter 50p's etc , nearly as bad as when the irish and UK coins were the same size shape and values )

[David Whipp]

A good number of years ago, I had two complaints about an itinerant trader at one of our events in the town who had passed fake £1 coins in change. I reported to this to the police. The police force in the town where the trader originated from investigated and the trader was prosecuted. The guy was passing large amounts of fake coin until he was caught.

[hartley353]

The programme showed the police raiding farm buildings. The sheet metal they found was exactly right for pound coins. The stamping machine produced exact size and weight, and finally the dies would defy anytype of examination and would require hours by an expert to determine their veracity. Their are a number of well known historic fakes and to collectors can be more valuable than originals due to their rarity. The pound coin will never reach this standard. In my personal collection I have a number of wartime notes when the colour was changed in case Germany flooded our country with fakes, now our own governments flood our currency with notes and call it Quantitive easing, the damage is the same.

[David Whipp]

I have a number of wartime notes when the colour was changed in case Germany flooded our country with fakes, now our own governments flood our currency with notes and call it Quantitive easing,

I can agree with that, Hartley.

[Stanley]

Watching the financial industry hoovering up the RM shares. Say what you like, it was priced to go and at the moment the taxpayer has lost out to the tune of £650million. Only reason I can see for the sale is that either Ossie is desperate for £2billion or it's simply Tory Dogma. Either way it's a tragedy. They'll be flogging the Houses of Parliament to Dubai next and leasing it back on PFI..... Healthy economy?
Later, after hearing the news that under the Coalition, despite the Cameron promise to crack down on tax evasion it is still rising and is estimated to be £35billion per annum. Am I alone in wondering just who the tax system is administered for? How come the electorate allows this state of affairs to continue/ For that matter, why doesn't the government do something effective about it? Is this Tory Dogma at work again, or is the system simply out of control. Or am I simply an ignorant old fart who doesn't understand the modern world....

[Tardis]

The bank Bliar works for is suffering under huge regulatory fines imposed after it took over Bear Stearns at US Treasury suggestion on the understanding that it wouldn't be prosecuted for the issues of the bank it was buying.

Maybe Darling's refusal to allow Barclays to take over Lehman's before it was declared bust cleared the decks? Who knows, Barclays still bought the bit that they wanted but got it from the administrator.

[Stanley]

I watched the Panorama programme on mis-selling of interest rate swaps last night. The banks have set billions aside to pay compensation but the general view is that it's going to be bigger than they think. The new regulators appear to have made a mess of this. They have given administration of the repyments and complaint handling to the banks that made the deals. All told yet another sorry story of a complete lack of morals in the pursuit of naked profit with no though at all for the affects on the customers who, the banks said, 'should have known better'. Unbelievable.... By the way, some of the banks that we bailed out are taking businesses into administration, making sure they get their fees and advising the customers to renege on payments to HMRC. You couldn't make it up! Talk about biting the hand that fed you......

[Tizer]

I missed all the posts about counterfeit coins because I was on holiday in Cornwall...but funnily enough I took more notice during that week while having to handle £1 coins more often and I was surprised by how dodgy some of them looked. I don't think it's the Cornish up to mischief!

[Stanley]

See this LINK for the latest price of RM shares.
Osborne is explaining how the RBS shareholding is going to be managed. In broad terms the bad debts are going to be cut out and held in a 'Bad Bank' by the government. I wonder if the RBS shares will also be 'priced to go'.
Interest rate swaps in the news again and it begins to look like the next enormous payout by the banks.

[Tardis]

The Co-op may have lost it's fight to retain control over it's banking arm after several creditors refused to accept the rescue plan.

[Tardis]

Lots of speculation about the Co-op Bank's funding of the Labour Party too, which still proudly professes that Ed Balls helped it merge with Britannia, which is what did it in apparently and was once openly boasting.

Beginning to wonder how the Co-op group can actually extricate itself from being ultimately responsible for fully funding the bank shortfalls; and if it can't, how it will subsequently escape from being fully liquidated? So the creditors might get the value out of the whole co-op group and another brand may disappear from the high street.

It will be interesting to see if it can be run as a commercial bank and if so, how many of those customers who are part of it's ethical stance remain afterwards. Also would be nice to know if the 'creditors' were once donors to Tony Blair.