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British banks tight-lipped on exposure to PIGS debt

Posted by seumasach on November 24, 2010

Independent

30th April, 2010

In stark contrast to Banco Santander, Britain’s leading banks refused to detail their exposures to the debts of the troubled economies of Greece, Portugal and Spain, although they were falling over one another to play them down.

The Bank of International Settlements has estimated the collective exposures of Britain’s banks to Greece at $15bn (£10bn) Portugal at $24.2bn and Spain at an alarming $114bn, threating a fresh banking crisis if contagion from the Greek crisis spills over into other debt-ridden Eurozone economies.

Barclays and HSBC declined any comment, although privately they have been playing down their exposures as “limited” and “manageable”. Lloyds Banking Group – which is 41 per cent owned by the tax payer – yesterday said it had “no material exposure to Greece or Portugal” while claiming its exposure to Spain is “limited”.

Royal Bank of Scotland, 84 per cent owned by the state, was the most open of the UK’s “big four” putting its exposure to Greece at “less than £1bn”, with a further £1.4bn of Portuguese debt sitting on its books.

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Ideological and hostile- Commentary and weekly watch by Doug Noland

Posted by seumasach on November 23, 2010

“I find it embarrassing – to blame our trade partners and creditors for our predicament. Worse yet, it is frightening that there is obviously no plan of attack for dealing with the structural issues of the US. The Geithner/Bernanke “global rebalancing” gimmick is to have China and the “developing” economies inflate domestic demand and stimulate imports. In the meantime, we stay the course with massive deficits, monetization and near-zero interest rates. This approach has no chance of rectifying the country’s deep structural impairment nor resolving global imbalances. It does, however, increase the odds of a crisis of confidence in the US debt markets and currency.”

Doug Noland

Asia Times

23rd November, 2010

Click on above link for full bulletin

With eurozone tensions on the rise, Wednesday’s headline from the Financial Times read “Anger at Germany boils over”. “Bernanke Fires Back, Takes Aim at China,” was how the Wall Street Journal titled its analysis of the Federal Reserve chairman’s speech on Friday morning in Frankfurt. Paul Krugman also takes direct aim at Germany and China – and throws in the Republicans – with his “Axis of Depression” piece in Friday’s New York Times. In a troubled backdrop beckoning for level-headed analysis and cooperation, the mood has turned decidedly ideological and hostile.

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On housing benefit cuts, British public reveals shocking lack of empathy and compassion

Posted by seumasach on November 17, 2010

Andy Worthington

Uruknet

Such is the hostility in this country towards the poor and the unemployed — a sure sign of the distressing decline of empathy and compassion in the last 30 years — that a poll conducted by Channel 4 News this week found that 58 percent of people thought that the govermment’s proposed welfare cuts should have been more severe, or were “about right,” and 66 percent of people answered yes to the question, “Should there be a maximum limit of £400 a week on the amount of housing benefit that people can claim, even if this means people are forced to move house?”

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Ruling on behalf of Wall Street’s “super rich”: the financial end time has arrived

Posted by seumasach on November 17, 2010

Prof. Michael Hudson

Global Research

17th November,2010

Now that President Obama is almost celebrating his bipartisan willingness to renew the tax cuts for the super-rich enacted under George Bush ten years ago, it is time for Democrats to ask themselves how strongly they are willing to oppose an administration that looks like Bush-Cheney III. Is this what they expected by Mr. Obama’s promise to rise above partisan politics – by ruling on behalf of Wall Street, now that it is the major campaign backer of both parties?

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Tory MPs urge Cameron to block British money being used to bailout ailing Irish economy

Posted by seumasach on November 17, 2010

The eurosceptics are sniping away as usual being too foolish to see that it’s UK banking that is on the line:

Sources close to Chancellor George Osborne made clear that the Government views the Irish crisis as much more important for Britain than the Greek bailout earlier this year – in which only members of the eurozone were forced to contribute.

One said: ‘It’s not in our interests to see Ireland get into trouble.’

The idiocy of the semi-nationalisation of the likes of RBS without first putting it through bankruptcy now becomes clear:

Royal Bank of Scotland is also under threat since the state-owned bank has £53billion of exposure to Irish loans, more than £40billion of which are underwritten by British taxpayers.

In other words, the bailout is automatic in this case

 

Daily Mail

15th November, 2010

Tory MPs today urged David Cameron not to allow British taxpayers’ money to be used to bail out crisis-hit Ireland.

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UK economy may need more stimulus, says Bank of England’s Martin Weale

Posted by seumasach on November 16, 2010

The “UK economy” is largely a fiction, a spending bubble which is coming to an end- it is already beyond stimulus and requires total reconstruction from the base. QE will be directed at purchasing the kind of “assets” that RBS is desperately hawking at knockdown prices and UK government bonds which China will likely be minded to ditch after Cameron’s comments in Beijing. As before the money will spread around the world in search of higher interest rates and returns in a final frenzy of parasitism.

Telegraph

16th November, 2010

The “most likely” outcome at the end of 2013 is that the UK’s real gross domestic product will remain about 6pc below its pre-crisis trend, said Martin Weale, a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

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A crisis we can’t afford to ignore

Posted by seumasach on November 16, 2010

RBS owns the Ulster Bank in Ireland and Lloyds offshoot HBOS went on a mad expansion spree in Ireland at the peak of the credit boom in 2005.

Now we can see why Cameron is so keen on an EU bailout of Ireland- with £143 bullion invested in Ireland, much of it directly into Ireland’s collapsing property market, it would be to a large extent a bailout of Britain’s banks. This is in any case inevitable given the collapse of our own economy and property market, but it would be a coup for the City if they could get the EU to cough up for a large chunk of it. The EU has yet to deal with the “British question”- the fact that they have left their western flank exposed to city of London financial operations. This could be an opportunity to do so. Interesting that after the rebuff of the Obama/Cameron offensive in Seoul, the focus turns immediately to the euro rather than to the infinitely more vulnerable pound and dollar.

Alex Brummer

Daily Mail

16th November, 2010

No one in Britain can look at the rapidly unfolding Irish financial crisis with any kind of calm because the UK and Irish banking systems – and the countries’ wider economies – are inextricably bound together.

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Spain holiday villas to escape ‘bankrupt Britain’

Posted by smeddum on November 15, 2010

Spain holiday villas to escape ‘bankrupt Britain’
azureholidays

Young people considering moving to holiday villas in Spain are part of a growing trend that is seeing Brits escaping the UK.

Shelter Offshore has said people are becoming more aware that it is possible to escape from “broken and bankrupt Britain” abroad, where they can build a better life for themselves.

Meanwhile, research from Glotel published this week shows that more than half (55 per cent) of the UK’s working population are thinking about a move abroad.

One in five (21 per cent) reckons that moving overseas will help speed up their career progression.

Shelter Offshore director Rhiannon Davies explained it is important to ensure qualifications can be transferred to another country.

“It’s easier if you can find work before you relocate – it will make the entire move abroad much easier and take away one of the greatest concerns, namely affording expatriation,” she added.

Ms Davies went on to say that learning the local language is a must.

Posted by Megan Willis

Posted in Financial crisis | 1 Comment »

RBS Falls on $68 Billion Ireland Loans, Analyst Says

Posted by seumasach on November 14, 2010

RBS’s Ulster Bank unit had 37.8 billion pounds of loans in Ireland, including 21.4 billion pounds of mortgages at the end of the third quarter, the bank said last week

Business Week

11th November, 2010

Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) — Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain’s biggest government-owned lender, dropped in London trading because of investor concern about 42.2 billion pounds ($68 billion) of loans to Ireland, according to MFGlobal Securities Ltd. analyst Shailesh Raikundlia.

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Banks set to demand fresh bail-out in 2011, warns think-tank

Posted by seumasach on November 13, 2010

New Economics

4th October, 2010

Banks borrowing requirement set to double next year to £25 billion a month to plug funding gap.

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Ugly euro fallout for banks

Posted by seumasach on November 13, 2010

Alex Brummer

This Is Money

12th November, 2010

The bravado of the British banks takes some beating.

On the plane to China our top bankers, including Peter Sands of Standard Chartered and Sir Philip Hampton ofRoyal Bank of Scotland, grabbed some headlines by moaning to political correspondents – normally off their radar – about onerous taxes and regulation.

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