OneGuyFromBarlick

The charge for converting my US$ cheque was £12......

Have a look at THIS and reflect on the fact that no bank is above suspicion... Who do we trust now?

I suppose it’s further evidence, if indeed it is needed, that much of British corporate life is increasingly a fetid swamp of borderline criminality, its senior figures little more than a cabal of organised gangsters.

Still, they all earn a lot of money and so are automatically good people, better than us.

Richard Broughton

Cynical Richard but undoubtedly true. Worth is measured today by the ability to consume and is at the root of 'celebrity culture'. Do you ever have a wry smile when you see the explanation 'It's comparable to what is paid in other countries' whenever high corporate remuneration is discussed? I'll bet they use us as an example too.... The root is that all the posts so described are ones which carry power in the profession. Pity we can't all have a tame 'Independent' Remuneration Committee. The market at its finest.

I do indeed raise a wry smile, as I do when we have the old trope trotted out that we have to pay a lot of them this or else they’d traipse off somewhere else. I don’t see much evidence of Corporations worldwide falling over themselves to recruit the cream of British boardrooms. Indeed, I remember one of the few high-profile leader’s hapless performance sometime back, step forward Dr Tony Hayward CEO of BP at the time of Deepwater. So inept, an American Professor of Marine Geology openly wondered in a live Radio 4 interview whether he was a ‘Sir’ this or a ‘Lord’ something or other. Being of course, in the eyes of this foreign observer, the usual means by which one gains advancement in this realm (I use that last word pointedly).

Richard Broughton

"..we have to pay a lot of them this or else they’d traipse off somewhere else."
The same argument was trotted out in support of high pay for university bosses a few days ago, too. I loved your comment Richard, that: "..much of British corporate life is increasingly a fetid swamp of borderline criminality, its senior figures little more than a cabal of organised gangsters." In the case of former Co-op chairman Paul Flowers we could add: ".. while deputy head of Social Services at Rochdale Council, Flowers had known about the activities of paedophiles at a residential boys' school, but had neither informed parents nor taken measures to close the school, was responsible for rejecting allegations of child sex abuse by the late Cyril Smith, and that, in 2011, while working at Bradford Council, "Inappropriate but not illegal adult content was found on a council computer handed in by Councillor Flowers for servicing." (Wikipedia)

My response to the 'traipse off elsewhere' canard is always the same; "For God's sake yes! " The Empire would not crumble (as we used to say....).

Pensions.... It would appear that the penny is starting to drop about the possibility for sharp practice when people take advantage of the slackening of the rules on withdrawing capital from the pension pot. Some MPs are calling for a special regulator. (LINK to Guardian article)
Martin Lewis was detailing some horror stories that are already occurring on Saturday. This is going to get worse if the prior record of pension providers and advisers is taken into account. Are we seeing the genesis of another massive mistake?

The funniest aspect is that the head of the DWP has already been phoned by scammers wanting to part him from his pension! But otherwise, it won't be funny at all. Many people will make the wrong decision about whether or not to cash in the pension instead of taking an annuity and even worse, a lot will end up losing much of the money to phone scamsters and dodgy online `advice' sites. All this at a time when many of us don't understand how expensive life in old age is becoming as care costs rise rapidly and inexorably.

I've said it before I know but I was so lucky in 2000 when I simply converted my pot to an annuity with Pearl, the company who had my money. As it turned out it was probably the best decision available.... 3% increment each year. If I live long enough I will be a wealthy man!
I can't see anything but grief coming out of the new arrangement. Some people need protecting against themselves, never mind the sharks!

See THIS for a report about the latest attempt to improve security on transactions by using the client's heart beat as verification. We've come a long way since the days when you just put your hand in your pocket and paid money direct! However, this will do nothing to curb the activities of rogue bank employees. This is a hidden quantity but many believe that it is a serious matter.

Stanley wrote:by using the client's heart beat as verification

If my heart beat is anything to go by this project will be a total failure. Parting with money always results in a kind of chaotic overdrive. Must have spent too much time working in Yorkshire.

Stanley wrote:I've said it before I know but I was so lucky in 2000 when I simply converted my pot to an annuity with Pearl, the company who had my money. As it turned out it was probably the best decision available.... 3% increment each year. If I live long enough I will be a wealthy man!
I can't see anything but grief coming out of the new arrangement. Some people need protecting against themselves, never mind the sharks!

It is said that next week's budget will take steps towards allowing annuities to cashed in. Logical I suppose, but will surely lead to a new misselling industry.

They are talking now about extending the cash in option to existing annuities like mine! Before you ask, no way!
I am reminded of something I was once told about confidence tricks, in order for them to succeed the trickster has to find a gullible or greedy target.

...just as counterfeiters still thrive because there are still people who willingly buy counterfeit goods. Most counterfeit goods are bought by people who know that's what they are buying.

See THIS disturbing report on the seemingly inexorable rise in household's reliance on debt. No surprises really when you consider the way the public has been brainwashed into consumption over the years, what Oldies like me see as fripperies are now essential needs. Add to this the tide of pronouncements from the Coalition that the economy is healthy and wages are rising and we seem to have a resurgence of confidence and people are gambling on a political uncertainty and continuing low interest rates.
I have been warning against this for years but our economy is mow based on debt and instead of trying to reign it back the government is tacitly encouraging it. This is the worst type of false dawn. The correct course is to tailor consumption to income after sensible debt reduction measures. But what the hell do I know about it.....
Is this the birth of the next major crisis?

I plead not guilty your honour. Haven't had a credit card or taken out a loan in many years. I doubt anyone would notice if I vanished into the ether tomorrow.....

Then you are one of a select band. I'm in the same club and it makes me wonder that if £10,000 is the average how much do some people owe?

Some people collect new credit cards just to amass the extra credit. As one lady was overheard saying, "I've got another credit card - I'm going shopping, I've got a thousand pounds to spend!"

It's all a far cry from the days when Hire Purchase was the only credit available to ordinary people. (Apart from the 'shop book' at the grocer's.)

Reuters, LONDON Wed Mar 25, 2015
`Bank of England payment outage showed crisis management failures, report concludes'
"A major outage last year in the Bank of England's interbank payments system showed the central bank was not fully equipped to handle crises affecting Britain's banks, a report published by the BoE showed on Wednesday. The BoE suspended nearly 300 billion pounds ($447 billion) of payments for several hours on Oct. 20 after problems with its Real Time Gross Settlement system. The system underpins financial market trades in the City of London, the world's main centre for foreign exchange dealing, as well as the transfer of funds for house purchases.

The outage was embarrassing for the BoE which has warned British banks to guard against technical failures that could lead to financial instability. The central bank said it would strengthen its crisis management procedures in response to the report, which was drawn up by accountants Deloitte. The report said the BoE should acknowledge that "in certain circumstances the Bank itself may be the cause of a wider financial services 'crisis'." While all cash transfers were eventually completed on the same working day, almost a third of house purchases did not take place until the following day or later, according to the report. "In the absence of ... robust crisis management arrangements within the Bank, there were insufficient resources in place to co-ordinate and communicate response activities," it said.

The report said BoE Chief Operating Officer Charlotte Hogg, Deputy Governor Minouche Shafik and executive director for markets Chris Salmon all failed to see an initial email alerting them to the problem, as they were on business trips abroad...."
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/03/2 ... D920150325

No big surprise there then Tiz! Rather like the supermarkets and their control of bacteria, the banks are in the business of operating 'efficiently' and this entails the tailoring of functions like compliance and security with the associated provision of adequate back-up systems and staff to what is regarded as a 'safe level'. My daughter Janet was involved in this work for a major bank and she has told me that decisions were made at high management level as to which warnings were heeded. Too often the over-riding consideration was 'is this making profit?' or 'How does this affect the bottom line'. Their criteria were different than their compliance unit. If a system buckles under the strain of 'unusually high levels of trading' it simply means that not enough resources have been invested and doubtless includes ignoring warnings from specialists. In other words, the Market System at its best! All this compounded by the fact that many of the ultimate decision makers did not understand their own systems or the implications.

`PayPal in £5.1m payout for allowing illegal payments'
26 March 2015, BBC
"PayPal has agreed to pay $7.7m (£5.1m) to the US government following claims it allowed payments that violated sanctions against Iran, Cuba and Sudan. The US Treasury Department said the payment firm had failed to adequately screen and prevent transactions. They included a $7,000 transaction from someone listed by the US government as being involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction..."
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32067151

I presume they got their commission?

Talking of commission...
We buy our heating oil through a local syndicate which was started to serve the village by our neighbour but now has many 100s of members in villages across Somerset. We get oil a lot cheaper through the syndicate but the oil delivery companies don't like it of course. We order the oil from the syndicate by email or phone and the companies have our phone numbers so that they can give warning of delivery. They are now putting pressure on the man who runs the syndicate to let them have our email addresses too. He gave them some `test' email addresses but soon found that the companies were using them to promote their companies and trying to get people signed up to their services. They'll probably sell the addresses too, if they get more. So he refused to let them have the email address list. Now they are making a fuss and saying they need the addresses because `our new computer system needs it' or `we need it to process your order' or `we need it to contact customers about their delivery', all plucked out of thin air of course. He contacted a friend who works for one of the companies and was told that the employees get £2 for each email address they hand over to the company.