Not sure if this thread will catch on, because no-one here seems to have much to say about individual british banks, but thought i would add this header to see if we could discuss dividend yields, exposure to sup-prime, good ones, bad ones, take-over targets, when the crisis will end? do you think they have learnt their lesson? I, for one, as a property developer have seen first hand how much stricter they have become with lending habits, struggling to get decent rates for re-mortgaging, basically they appear scared to lend to anyone.

market collapsing. RBS 216p and HBOS at rights price!

would suggest this is a good time to hold cash and be in a position to buy cheap(er) banking shares like RBS. They have already had their rights issue (RI) and raised cash so hopefully despite their weak trading statement they will recover without any further dilution in the short term.

If HBOS go below rights issue SP will they have to re think RI price?
I mean those that hold wont take up their holding as they can top for less if that is there wish.

I hold a very small number of HBOS and LLOY and am not about to increase my holdings in them any time soon. RBS is on my watch list

I think HBOS will have to reduce it and heads will roll.

If RBS gets less than rights price heads should also roll.

it is always difficult to decide when to invest, I had 355 as my next purchase for lloy, but with fear gripping the market, why buy now. if RBS falls below the ri price I would be tempted to take a nibble, they are in a much improved position having got the ri away first.

If there were ever a time for banks to issue quarterly results as in the US now is that time as the market needs hard numbers rather than vague noises of reassurance.

rbs gave a trading update today.....they have tried to be as honest as they can in last few months.
rbs looks good to buy now i think......dont think there much bad news left and i think they have over calculated their losses to be on safe side.

aye, hbos.....as i said on hbos thread, hornby should be sacked.....as he wont resign....he acts like a politician.....has he ever been to scotland yet? sounds like the damn prime minister.
never attended agm! speaks volumes that does.....he aint a banker with no experience.....he's just a wee boy in big financial world....and his silence is deafening. he's also raided BoS pension funds and union bank pensions funds.....totally SHAMEFUL.....AND WAY BANK PENSIONERS ARE TREATED IS DREADFUL TOO.

THE MARKET BOYS dont know their ar?e from their elbow anyway.....why should they when they get bonuses of half a miliuon........after a couple of years pis?ing about, they can sod off to australia, europe or wherever the prats come from

banks have little money.....houses to go down at least another 20% over next 18 months......houses gone down 13k already on averahge so i reckon peole will lose About another 40k....haha, more than 50k in just 2 years lost on each house.

but companies r struggling with funding....and banks wont fund unless its a ceretainty.....mortgages r very hard to get unless u r wealthy, so why need them.

mervyn king said house prices even after reduction will be STAGNANT EVEN IN 4 YEARS TIME. lol

seems that capitalism is not just stuggling but collapsing before our eyes.

is it not about time that uk started a communist government where the state look after us? food bills r enormous, gas / oil rocketing.....cars will be dead as petrol is extortionate.....everyone i know is struggling in life

Scot.

I agree with you!!!

Marxism is not dead. The way my shares have performed today, they are!

seriously, tell me, in your humble opinion, where is RBS sp going?

I'm tempted to sell my paid rights. Some analysts are making +ve noises, others are still slagging the company off after the trading statement.

i'm pretty sure medium and long term, rbs will go up.....i reckon to 4.50 to 5 in 2 or so years......it will take time to unravel amro integration savings.....and they will have made handsome profits from angel train, bank of china etc......remember institutions stopped fred goodwin from putting too much into china!!

how many people in media say that.....china has tripled rbs value already.

short term who knows.....and in current dreadful crappy uk, even more hazardous to guess.....all u need is for gordon to go on tv and say stability and market collapses, lol. i'm embarassed that brown, darling and browne are scottish.....mind you, not many scots left in scotland these days....suppose its same with english in england.

i thought rbs right issue had gone through.....for what its worth, i'd have taken them up.....if it does hit 2 or go less, it wont last too long

in less than 6 months, i'm sure most major will have turned the corner at least.
as i say, buy and check them in 2010.....u will get good divi too.....and i reckon double digit increase in sp.....better than putting cash in bank!! lol

these analysts sit in some fancy office in usa with some dodgy american investment bank!!

or some other stupid office in london!

if u want to know about banking, come to scotland....jes, we have been showing the world for centuries now.
actually british linen bank confounded marx theory about banking crisis as they were ist bank to have a branch system.....they were scottish even though "british" in name.

i have spoken to 2 fairly senior people in investments in rbs and they assure me next year onwards that rbs will be shown to be a good investment.

Cheers scot

Not many scots left in Scotland because they have all gone to England to run the country (into the ground), arent they making a good job of it!!

you are making yourself look like a total idiot halifax today with your bitter messages.

most scots have gone to oz, canada, nz etc actually if you care to look at facts!

yes, FACTS, SOMETHING THAT YOU DONT SEEM TO DO.

now go and sort that crap building society out that u have.
why u on share website, i'd imagine yorkshire folk would cry if they spent even a penny!!!! tighter than a crabs arse and thats water tight.

Well, well wee jock having insulted us yorkshiremen you had better hurry and find that big stick before we find you!

Couple of interesting items of note from the last week or so............
Fitch ratings now believe that banks have written down around 80% of their total losses from sub prime lending. This is an average, so many banks will now be 100% written down.......no more to come, but some have a fair bit to go.
Abbey report that the tranches of money they have for direct fixed lending are lasting much longer than the tranches they have for broker fixed lending, so people are still using brokers to source the best deals.
Barclays are reporting much the same, but an unofficial and small voice within tells me they are making massive amounts of money available over the next few months as they expect to have to reduce rates and loosen criteria to compete then and wish to make hay while the sun shines at the moment!!!
New mortgages are down 40%(ish) but remortgages are much more resilient in May.
Finally, Paragon and Bank of Ireland are reporting good signs in the buy to let arena as demand for rented accomodation forces rents up and property prices reduce a little.
A mixed bag, but it is an improvement on all the news being doom and gloom.

Interesting article below from todays Telegraph, this is what I wanted to see with Lloyds.

See below.........

Lloyds TSB is considering launching a takeover bid for one of Germany's largest retail banks, underlining the British lender's relative immunity to the writedowns that have scarred the balance sheets of its international rivals.

Lloyds TSB is in the early stages of considering a move for Deutsche Postbank, valued by the German stock market at about 10bn (8bn), which has been earmarked for disposal.

If it decides to proceed with an offer, on which it would be advised by Lehman Brothers, Lloyds TSB would be embarking upon a significant change in strategy.

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The bank's focus has been on the domestic British retail and commercial banking sectors, but its limited exposure to the sub-prime mortgage and credit crises has, in the view of Lloyds TSB executives, given it a mandate to seek out international acquisitions.

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Deutsche Postbank, which is majority-owned by the logistics group Deutsche Post, has a wholly or partially owned network of nearly 11,000 branches. Other groups, including Germany's Allianz and Commerzbank, and Spain's Grupo Santander, which owns Abbey in Britain, are also examining offers.

Lloyds TSB declined to comment on its interest in Deutsche Postbank, but people close to the British group said Sir Victor Blank, its chairman, and Eric Daniels, its chief executive, are keen to look at a series of merger and takeover opportunities in continental Europe.

Bidders are also circling Citigroup's German retail banking operations, valued at about 5bn. Barclays is understood to have come close to lodging an offer for the division, but decided against this before initial bids were submitted, said sources close to the bank.

RBS issues global stock and credit crash alert
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
Last Updated: 7:40am BST 18/06/2008

The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months as inflation paralyses the major central banks.

"A very nasty period is soon to be upon us - be prepared," said Bob Janjuah, the bank's credit strategist.

A report by the bank's research team warns that the S&P 500 index of Wall Street equities is likely to fall by more than 300 points to around 1050 by September as "all the chickens come home to roost" from the excesses of the global boom, with contagion spreading across Europe and emerging markets.

Such a slide on world bourses would amount to one of the worst bear markets over the last century.

"Cash is the key safe haven. This is about not losing your money, and not losing your job," said Mr Janjuah, who became a City star after his grim warnings last year about the credit crisis proved all too accurate.

RBS expects Wall Street to rally a little further into early July before short-lived momentum from America's fiscal boost begins to fizzle out, and the delayed effects of the oil spike inflict their damage.

"Globalisation was always going to risk putting G7 bankers into a dangerous corner at some point. We have got to that point," he said.

US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank both face a Hobson's choice as workers start to lose their jobs in earnest and lenders cut off credit.

The authorities cannot respond with easy money because oil and food costs continue to push headline inflation to levels that are unsettling the markets. "The ugly spoiler is that we may need to see much lower global growth in order to get lower inflation," he said.

"The Fed is in panic mode. The massive credibility chasms down which the Fed and maybe even the ECB will plummet when they fail to hike rates in the face of higher inflation will combine to give us a big sell-off in risky assets," he said.

Well Bob's a real bundle of fun, pity he couldnt predict the disaster RBS was getting itself into by buying ABN/AMRO!

The banks are likely going to face a sharp drop from here...


Morgan Stanley profits drop more than 50pc

Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest US securities firm, said profit dropped by more than 50pc on declines in trading, asset management and investment banking.

The bank's earnings from continuing operations fell to $1.03bn in the second
quarter from $2.36bn, the Wall Street firm said.

Earnings from continuing operations fell to $1.03bn in the second quarter from $2.36bn, the Wall Street firm said. The news from Morgan Stanley came as John Paulson, founder of hedge fund Paulson & Co and one of the world's richest financiers, warned that global writedowns and losses from the credit crisis may reach $1.3 trillion.

"We're only about a third of the way through the writedowns," 52-year old Paulson told the GAIM International hedge fund conference in Monaco today. "There are a lot of problems out there and it will continue to be felt through the year. We don't see any signs of stabilizing."

Morgan Stanley, led by chief executive John Mack, reported its first loss as a public company in December after $9.4bn of writedowns on mortgage-related investments. Mr Mack last month announced plans last month to reduce its headcount by as much as 5pc on top of the 3,000 jobs eliminated since October.

"We're expecting continued weakness across all their business units," William Fitzpatrick, an equity analyst at Optique Capital Management Inc. in Racine, Wisconsin, which manages $1.6bn. "It's going to take some time for these markets to really improve."