BEWARE! THE BANKS ARE OUT TO GET YOU!

[Tizer]

The news of the car finance scandal by lenders and car dealers came out in early January. Now Lloyds announces pre-tax profits jumped to £7.5bn last year (higher than expected and up 57% from the year before) but also gives us an idea of the scale of the mischief by setting aside £450,000,000 to cover the potential cost of an investigation by the UK's financial regulator....
`Lloyds sets aside £450m for car finance probe' LINK

[Stanley]

I heard that report Peter. Do you ever get the feeling that banks have very flexible moral attitudes when it comes to making money?

[Tizer]

The banks aren't content with having all our real money they want our unreal money too!
`As banks buy up bitcoins, who else are the 'Bitcoin whales'?' BBC

[Stanley]

The phrase that grabbed me was "But 1.1 million of those dormant coins are likely to belong to the anonymous creator of Bitcoin".
Does that mean that there is someone out there who wakens up laughing every morning?

[PanBiker]

Banking hub opens tomorrow. I will test it's services when I bank the weeks takings for the shop. That is unless Andrew 4 Andrew is in the way with his photo opportunity. I am likely to have a lot of coinage as we have had a clearance sale this last week at the shop where all items were reduced. We cant be the only trading organisation in the town to have the problem. About to shove it all through our coin counter shortly.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until I have tested them.

[Big Kev]

Banking hub opens tomorrow. I will test it's services when I bank the weeks takings for the shop. That is unless Andrew 4 Andrew is in the way with his photo opportunity. I am likely to have a lot of coinage as we have had a clearance sale this last week at the shop where all items were reduced. We cant be the only trading organisation in the town to have the problem. About to shove it all through our coin counter shortly.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until I have tested them.

Be worth going in with bags of coinage if the press are there. I'm sure there would be a good story if they limited what they would actually take from you and any reaction from 'Andrew 4 Andrew'

[Tripps]

if the press are there.

What is this "press" of which you speak?

The best way to get a response is to video it yourself, and get it on social media I'd suggest.

PS - Can you use a card at the shop? Almost no one uses cash where I mainly shop (Tesco and Aldi). The only cash I've used in the last few years is at the Barber's and the Chinese takeaway.

[Stanley]

I always use cash in the local shops.

[Tizer]

The only cash I've used in the last few years is at the Barber's and the Chinese takeaway.

I can't remember when I last used cash - but I did hand over one of my old notes a few days ago to Mrs Tiz when she forgot to carry her purse. The others I still have, together with a few coins, have probably passed their `use by' date!

[Stanley]

We have at least one business, Amanda at Barlic Bites, who won't entertain cards. They are cash only because that way the banks can't take a cut out of their business. I can understand and respect that.

[PanBiker]

Pleased to report that my visit to the bank yesterday on opening day was excellent. I purposely took 7 bags of coins which were accepted without question along with my cash deposit. While I was in I also asked if they would accept old currency such as pound coins and the odd paper bank note that we find in our collection tubs. No problem they said as long as they were presented separately and not included as part of the current coinage bags. That is just the same procedure as at a real bank. So the hub meets all the requirements for Bosom Friends. There is a Barclay's rep in once a week if we need to consult on anything.

There was an added bonus in that Andrew4Andrew wasn't anywhere to be seen. I am fairly certain that he will claim the brownie points later probably in a double whammy with the less than adequate Yorkshire Bank Clinic.

[Stanley]

Good news Ian but most of all I am pleased for you as it takes a burden off your shoulders.
Glad you avoided Moonface....

[PanBiker]

Glad you avoided Moonface....

To be fair he should be representing all our interests in Parliament but that's another fairy story as he is about as useless as an MP can be. Still waiting for a reply to a letter I sent him three years ago.

[Whyperion]

Banking hub opens tomorrow. I will test it's services when I bank the weeks takings for the shop. That is unless Andrew 4 Andrew is in the way with his photo opportunity. I am likely to have a lot of coinage as we have had a clearance sale this last week at the shop where all items were reduced. We cant be the only trading organisation in the town to have the problem. About to shove it all through our coin counter shortly.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until I have tested them.

Do you check the coins for the special years or commemorative "higher value" mintings ?, sometimes just worth selling some of the £2 for £2.50 in the shop - dont know how many collectors there are in Barnoldswick

[PanBiker]

Yes I do.

[Tizer]

Last week it was Barclays taking over Tesco Bank. This week...
`Nationwide strikes deal to buy Virgin Money for £2.9bn' LINK
I hope swallowing Virgin Money doesn't poison Nationwide!

[Stanley]

I heard that report Peter and noted that eventually the title 'Virgin Money' would be extinguished....

[PanBiker]

Virgin don't refer to their banking operations as banks, apparently they are stores! Says it all really.

[Stanley]

Why have I never trusted anything trademarked 'Virgin'? Could it be the association with Branson? As far as I am concerned, his association is toxic. And yes I know he no longer owns Virgin Money but the association is still there for me.

[Tizer]

`Trump campaign gets $50m boost from single donor' LINK
Donald Trump's presidential campaign has received $50m (£39.5m) boost from the conservative billionaire Timothy Mellon, a federal filing showed on Thursday. The Super-Pac fund called "MAGA Inc" disclosed to the Federal Election Commission that it took in more than $68m from donors last month. Reuters reported that Mr Mellon, an heir of the Pittsburgh-based Mellon banking family, gave $50m. Another $10m came from billionaires Liz and Dick Uihlein. US media reported that Mr Mellon sent the donation the day after Trump was convicted on 34 charges of falsifying business records in his New York hush-money trial....

[Stanley]

My only comment is that this report demonstrates more clearly than anything else could, the gap between the rich and the poor in the US. It also signals that the most important topic in US politics (As it is here!) is wealth creation.
I can remember a time when politicians campaigned on principles and core values. These matters are not mentioned these days!

[Tizer]

`Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers: Campaign on YouTube to boost Instagram’s appeal to young people skirted search group’s rules for marketing to under-18s' FT
Google and Meta made a secret deal to target advertisements for Instagram to teenagers on YouTube, skirting the search company’s own rules for how minors are treated online. According to documents seen by the Financial Times and people familiar with the matter, Google worked on a marketing project for Meta that was designed to target 13- to 17-year-old YouTube users with adverts that promoted its rival’s photo and video app. The Instagram campaign deliberately targeted a group of users labelled as “unknown” in its advertising system, which Google knew skewed towards under-18s, these people said. Meanwhile, documents seen by the FT suggest steps were taken to ensure the true intent of the campaign was disguised. The project disregarded Google’s rules that prohibit personalising and targeting ads to under-18s, including serving ads based on demographics. It also has policies against the circumvention of its own guidelines, or “proxy targeting”. ...

[Stanley]

In my June post I was complaining about the dearth of core principles and values in politicians. Your report Peter demonstrates the same lack of ethics in pursuing profit from young people.
Am I just a grumpy old man or could it be that there is a general lowering of standards and principles. For many years I have been saying that deterioration in these core standards in public life would lead to the same problems in society. Is that one of the factors behind the unrest we see today?
I saw the report about the Dartford Councillor advocating 'cutting the throats' of far-right protesters.....

[Tizer]

`Archegos boss sentenced to prison over massive fraud' LINK
Former Wall Street investor, Sung Kook "Bill" Hwang, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in a massive fraud case that cost banks billions of dollars....Hwang's lawyers had called for him not to be punished, citing his Christian faith and his donations to charity. They also said his wealth, which at one point was valued at an estimated $30bn (£23.7bn), had fallen to an estimated $55m. The judge called the requests for leniency "utterly ridiculous" due to the money involved and compared Hwang to the disgraced founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, who received a 25-year sentence for fraud last year, according to Bloomberg...

[PanBiker]

Captain Tom Moore's daughter has been slapped on the wrist by the Charity Commission for maladministration of charity funds. Why isn't she in court for embezzlement?