Why is it that those who have got this country and the world in the mess it is today continue to do the same by creating false rumours that the bank will be nationalised. Does the government not have enough on its hands already with Northern Rock. What the government has proposed today may not work but atleast it is better than doing nothing, the collapse of these banks will effect every indiviual whether rich or poor!
It is time these indivuiduals who create this false sense of in security and doom be ignored!

Morning fellas RBS to finish today.

At over 70% owned by us the british public I would suggest that is virtually nationalised anyway.

tazmaniandevil786 - I don't think it is the people who got us into this mess.
FWIW I believe they are:-
1), GB as Chancellor he spent what we couldn't afford and hadn't earned.
2), as PM he continued to paper-over the cracks, instead of telling us this is his way ( ie deflecting some Blame to Tony).
3)Bank Execs who oversaw their Managers , Branches and employees put Bonuses above prudence. These Execs were well-paid and didn't need "popularity", yet still they carried on without any sign of slowing-down.
4)Nouveau Banks ( that's NRK), who appeared to need control by an Uncle to stop their stupidity they obscured from shareholders.
5) way down the line, house-agents that continued to expand housing to the point where there seems to be an oversupply of single-execs flatlets, often with little kitchen facility.
6) Our Regulators who irritate small-players and miss the Big Picture.

Sorry if that's too long.

. However, anyone knocking the stocks of Banks is onto a good thing as Folk sell-out, hoping they've done the right thing and thinking that even if their Bank doesn't get Nationalised, then they sure won't be handing out decent dividends.
To make profits, banks need to lend at good marginal rates, and suffer near-zero losses....normally this isn't difficult if you're supported by Savers . . . but it turns out most UK-Banks are admiting to lending overseas - and much (I suspect!) is wrapped-up in fancy derrivative instruments - but resting upon a pile of dodgy sub-prime. To support this they borrowed overseas and amongst themselves where the money-source was far from clear.
All these figures were real enough ( and intermediaries got paid bonuses), but their worth is "probably" 1c in the dollar as it spiralled out of control.
In any "Book" you can tolerate maybe 2% of write-offs - but if this approaches 5% there will be NO profit (after all the Back-office is paid). However, Banks do not know (so they say) and many shareholders suspect it will be a minimum of 10% and more-likey above 50% - after all if the customer accepts the "credit-rating" (ie without looking), why would you put-in some good stuff?

Do "Dodgy-Burgers" contain 50% good meat? - Of course not.

Compare this Financial fiasco with Tesco...as you tin of beans is swiped at the till, someone, far away is order its replacement, orgaising the packing, transport and the space needed on a shelf maybe a short-distance from where you picked it.
-Beep and supermarket-Execs know what's what - and how many Banks can match this?

5) looks totally inaccurate, nonsensical and irrelevant in any case

Thanks to the Banksters particularly Sir Fred the UK is now doomed.

It's not looking rosy I must admit, but some companies are still trading very well, look at the last weeks trading updates from igg, sdl, asc,mtc amec,jd, dom,and dnlm all very positive indeed. There are plenty of downbeat trading updates and results around, but not all sectors are in dire straights.

especially asc spitfire, agree

companies with wide international exposure are much better insulated - e.g. in our experience south am, m/e, india and parts of f/e continue with little slowdown ..... on the other hand, usa where we have little exposure, is a disaster

many companies are feeling the effects of a weak pound now, and the ones that have earning in dollars and euros will see a significant positive impact this year.

agree with asc tomasz, I nearly brought some monday morning, very good update but a nagging worry about margin erosion stopped me.

don't confuse currency games (we decided to account in $ some time ago) with volume and t/o and profitability

having said that some companies will still benefit from a positive impact of exchange rate movements which will become more evident this year.

spitfire,margin erosion asc will cost just about 3% of final income CEO Nick said.no reason for worrys

Interesting looking chart, beginning to look like a New York skyline!

lol.

What is the problem shorters?

This cannot bankrupt as the government started to support it similar to the way it supported British Energy at the time it was just 4p a share.
NOW CHECK THE PRICE of BGY.

Issue at 37p a share may look too cheap by September. This will be more interesting if shorters leave their position open.
Some of them gain over 1000% if close at these prices.

UP 3% TO 25.8p

Sell RBS and Barclays, says UBS


UBS cuts recommendations on RBS and Barclays to sell from neutral.

Broker suggests the market 'has yet to fully appreciate the substantial dilution in UK banks'.