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.

More interesting mumblings from the big banks.............

Quote; "We are not frightened of lending money, but until the balance sheet is confirmed in the light of writedowns, we need to control exactly how much we lend. The easy way to do this is to try and price our way out of the market."

This was in response to questioning on dual pricing - the same product being cheaper in branch than through intermediaries or on-line application.
Its all about control. The banks do not want to write loans and mortgages in branch - it is too expensive. They want business from the intermediary network, which is cheaper for them, but if the product is market leading, they get too many applications they must honour.

The other comments were an expectation that as much as 50% of brokerages will go to the wall, and when better times roll, fewer players will be sharing a slightly smaller cake, but those left will be fitter and more diversified.
When this is coupled with the immense difficulty in starting any new brokerage (The FSA ban all forms of prospecting for clients) one can see a consolidation in the industry, leading to a few big players.
Now BNH are taken over by Towergate, I am struggling to see who is left.
Of the big networks, Charcol are reportedly struggling and most of the rest are privately or mutually owned (such as Pink - owned by Skipton B Soc).
One or two have been aimed at going public for some time (such as Mortgage Times) and these are the ones I will be keeping an eye on.
As a footnote, at least 2 sub prime lenders have diversified to the point where they no longer lend, but take deposits instead!!
1 is offering rates as high as 9% on instant access deposit accounts!
The brokers who use these routes and offer extras such as insurance and debt consolidation are the ones who will weather the storm.

Bradford and Bingley may go to sub 55p next week (see BB. thread)

do we have an epic for trading HBOS nil paid rights?

RBS sub 200p today maybe..?

stock market wont improve until banks have turned a corner....and country wont improve either as an economy

About time Fred went.

Just as I predicted, BB. is 50p today.

My prediction on the 17th March.

20p eventually.

Interesting news from Northern Rock today.
They are enhancing the commission fees payable to intermediaries for introducing loan / mortgage business to them.
This is odd as they have spent much time and money convincing existing clients that they would be better moving their mortgage elsewhere.
My feeling is that the recovery plan is either ahead of expectations and they are priming to re-enter the market properly, or it is way behind expectations and they need to generate application fees to meet their repayment promises.
I tend to the latter, but it is a very strange move in the current climate.

I think UK is already in recession now. FTSE in bear territory, so expect the banks to be mauled by the bears even further.

there aint much left to maul, hyleo......many banks are 2 to 3....rbs is only 182p and they r 5th biggest bank in world. if they go under, uk is finished

uk needs conservative gov immediately as economy is screwed totally.....it will take a decade for country to improve at least, maybe even a generation. i dont know anyone that doesnt complain about state of the country.

what bottom targets do u have for barc, hbos, rbs, lloy......as i'm looking to buy in.......maybe 6-12 months time

this will finish labour gov off too........just announced tonight in scotland that snp are now number 1 party in polls in scotland.....labour has lost 11% in poll and is 2nd....even conservatives here aint that far behind them which shows the discontent here. if labour have lost votes in scotland, then it wull be meltdown in england......i think lib dems might even get 2nd place ahead of labour in next uk election

DREAM ON BABY//

If you think it's bad here check out stateside
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

america is about to be disposed as number 1 superpower by china....and $ will soon go down the pan......usa is corrupt....and remember how they treated our british bankers in chains etc when all the evidence and witnesses were in uk......its about time we broke our links with usa.....they tried to bankrupt uk anyway after ww11 with a financial dunkirk on loans

in short, they r bullying, corrupt thugs

Have you met the Chinese? Some of the cruellest people on earth both to animals and humans. God help us if they ever become No.1..

The USA, especially under Bush may not be perfect but it's the best we've got..

My insider at MAN tells me they are taking RBS down to 176p - sadly for me as I bought at 5, 2,80 and 2.34 :o(

brianboru, I'm not clear what you mean, are MAN taking RBS down actively, or talking them down as a opinion. I would hope it's the later.

Sovereign wealth funds were kind enough to bail out our banks and are now sitting on huge losses, unfortunately they probably won't want to catch another falling knife and bail them out some more. The Shanghai stock exchange has dropped 60% since October, they have 20% wage inflation, slowing demand from West, spent billions on Olympics have been devastated by flooding and earthquakes. The oil shock is devastating to China as it is built on cheap transport.Mercantilist policy of holding down yuan to boost exports has hit buffers. Expect pendulum to swing back from China to America according to Daily telegraph

Good post Falcothou, and haven't seen the telegraph article but will try and read it online. I have thought for some month's that China will keep growing at all costs upto the Olmpics, then after I would expect to see the bubble burst big time. America for all it's problems is still the main driving force of world economics, they have led us into recession and they will lead us out again. After all the USA and Europe account for a very large percentage of chinese exports, imports most be shrinking now, so China will feel the slowdown soon.