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.

Wouldnt mind but less than 3% of HBOS market cap was being shorted when the ban came into place. Not only that but banks have been shorting the ass off of each other over the last few months. How ironic.

There becoming a protected specis on incentive pay and selling to gullible types just to line there own pockets.

OK for Barclays traders and other bank traders to short eg, housing stocks but not vise versa. This ban will backfire badly.

Wheres the regulation from within?????????, hardly a jot mentioned from the banks over the last week or so.

Maybe the can get no win no fee deal from their legal teams

Ive seen it all now.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/article.html?in_article_id=452405&in_page_id=3

Beggars belief.

Goldfinger, d'you know what - it no longer surprises me when I read things like that! Sign of the times eh?!

A day of rest

Kim, certainly is.

Just look how the DOW closed tonight.

I am of the belief we will have a sell-off of banks mid October before things can improve.

I'm of the belief that we need 2 or 3 Max. Superbanks to get things back to normality - so come on guys snap up the piddly little players and get your fingers out !! Dont like these markets like this.

Hot News.

I cannot name the institutions involved, unfortunately, but..........

A particular investment vehicle had bought a lot of sub prime mortgages with the intention of keeping some, but selling the bulk on in smaller lots. They have been unable to do this.
Their answer has been to start mailing their client bank offering to reduce the mortgage debt by 15% and waive all exit fees and redemption penalties if they move their mortgage to another lender in the next couple of months.

This sounds a little desperate, but in truth they would sell their book at a discount anyway, so it might actually be a stroke of genius.

Looks like tomorrow could be another bad day for financials, but you can never tell in these markets. With bank shares seeing such violent movements, I'm trying to find some good trading ranges, which isn't easy. I had a RBS range of 180p to 240p planned , but last Thursday I managed a buy at 153p, so will wait for another opportunity.

Just looked at Bradford and Bingley after hearing reports that a buyer is being actively looked for, the sp was down to below 24p today which = 408m market cap. The question is at what price would BB. be worth taking a small position with, in the hope of a white knight riding to it's rescue on a fine Arab charger.

The DOW futures reversed yesterdays fall of 160 point's, they liked the news that Warren Buffett to take a 10% stake in Goldman Sachs for $10Billion, after they changed status to a holding bank.

I remember Warren Buffett saying that he doesn't invest in companies he thinks are too complicated to understand, meaning Banks. The last time he invested in a bank was in 1987 (Saloman Bros) so something has changed his mind.

This I believe is a significant move for financials in America.

I think you will find that he has a significant stake in Wells Fargo which he has had for many years.

Wells Fargo are the American equivalent to lloy before last weeks deal with hbos, so I can see what attracted him to them.

I'm in two minds with this takeover, on one hand I think it will be good long term for lloy, but on the other hand it will cause alot of short term uncertainty. And I was more than happy with lloy before, good dividend, safe boring company, just like a bank should be.

Yes I expect most of the banks wished they had been boring over the past few years. Alot of this has to be taken on trust but, I would think that longer term the market will look on the HBOS deal favourably . However, I think they may rebase the dividend. The Buffet move in the states with Goldman Sachs is a good indication of longer term value. I bet there will be a good shake up there though.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aBtJbUvMKdXM


An interesting read

Agreed an interesting read, it's a case of trying to look past all the short term gloom and doom. It might not feel like a great opportunity, but historically it is times like these that favours the brave.

The question is, which horse or horses to back ?

The Black One.
2517

Could make a few quid in the next few days with the UK banks I feel the USA $700 billion loan will be approved with a few amendments in the next few days poss Monday.

HSBC has taken the axe to its workforce, sacking 1,100 investment banking staff including 500 in Britain.

Britain's biggest bank said the cuts were necessary because of the difficult market conditions and the poor economic outlook for 2009.

The bank had attempted to make the cull without any public statement, but word quickly got out as hundreds of employees in the bank's Canary Wharf headquarters in London's Docklands were told the grim news.

The sacked staff are thought to include high-paid investment bankers as well as more junior back-office and administrative staff in London. Europe and the US took the rest of the cuts.

The cull is in the global banking and markets division, which serves large global companies and investment clients. There is no effect on its high street operations.

Britain's financial services industry is dramatically rethinking its employment needs in the face of the financial crisis. Bradford & Bingley axed 370 jobs yesterday and tens of thousands more will go as a result of the takeover of HBOS by Lloyds TSB. Thousands of Lehman Brothers staff in the UK are still not sure about their future, although the takeover of some of its operations by Nomura is expected to save some jobs.

"It's regrettable and difficult for our people, but an exercise to reduce headcount [in the global banking and markets division] by 4 per cent is not a big story," an HSBC spokesman said, confirming the job losses and explaining the decision not to go public at first.

Redundancy terms vary, but length of service is a major determinant of compensation packages.

HSBC was one of the first banks to be clobbered by the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States and has booked writedowns or losses of $18.7 billion since the start of 2007.

A deal designed to rescue the banking system and save the world economy from catastrophe - but costing each American taxpayer $5,300 - dissolved into chaos last night after Republicans refused to endorse a $700 billion dollar package.

Talks are due to reopen later today after political high drama in Washington when talks broke into a verbal brawl in the Cabinet Room of the White House amid urgent warnings from the president and pleas from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who reportedly knelt before the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and appealed for her support.

I didnt know you were Catholic, Ms Pelosi said, a wry reference to Mr Paulsons kneeling, The New York Times reported. She went on: Its not me blowing this up, its the Republicans.

She was referring to the surprise announcement from the House Republican leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio, who told those gathered at the White House that his caucus could not support the plan. He pressed an alternative that involved a smaller role for the Government.

Some senior Democratic figures suspect opposition is being choreographed so that John McCain could be seen to deliver an eleventh-hour solution today. Others suggest that with fewer than a hundred House Republicans prepared to vote for the measure, Democrats may be left carrying the can for a deeply unpopular and high-risk deal.

Stock markets had breathed a sigh of relief when Congressional leaders heralded what would be the biggest bailout in history before a weekend deadline set by President Bush.

But within hours a series of senior Republicans had lined up to insist there was no agreement while a White House meeting between Barack Obama and Mr McCain, as well as key figures from Congress, broke up with all sides accepting more work was needed.

Both presidential candidates sat at opposite ends of a long conference table, with Mr Bush and Congressional leaders in between. Mr Obama was more vocal in his questioning of Mr Paulson that Mr McCain, who said little, according to US media reports.

Before the meeting broke up, Mr Bush issued a warning about the dire consequences if the Bill did not pass. "If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down," the President said, according to one report.

Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, was first to emerge from the White House summit to announce "the agreement is obviously no agreement".