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Listed below are comments made by pensionsaver between Friday, 26th September 2008 and Sunday, 9th November 2008.

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Will HBOS stay independent? 4:43pm on 09 Nov 2008 Re. 72

I agree with you - LTSB has delivered sustainable profits rather than the smoke and mirrors seen elsewhere in the banking sector.

I also note that Burt and Mathewson seem seduced by the supposed superior profitability of HBOS even when the figures suggest otherwise. They say in their letter:

"HBOS is larger than Lloyds (£681bn of total assets against £368bn of total assets), has more equity capital than Lloyds (£21.1bn against £11.1bn), historically has been much more profitable than Lloyds (in 2007 HBOS earned £5.47bn before tax against Lloyds' £4.0bn)."

You do not need to be an 'experienced banker' to see that on these figures Lloyds had by far the better return on equity.

What banking does not need at the moment is more 'cult of the personality' - particularly when the personalities seem to show little understanding of the figures they put forward.
The deleveraging vortex 11:06am on 09 Oct 2008 Further to 10 and 51: I agree that the question of local authorities with money in Icelandic banks deserves Robert's attention.

As well as BCCI, UK local authorities lost money on deposits with a number of small banks that collapsed in the early 1990s - such as Chancery Bank.

There was an outcry at the time, and local rate payers were horrified that local services had to be cut because of lax financial controls in some local authorities.

I understood at the time that local authorities would in future set up proper lists of 'approved' counterparties for regular review and approval by councillors - a simple and basic form of financial control that was sadly lacking.

While we should of course ask why some local authorities did not learn from the experiences of the 1990s, I suggest that it is also important to ask whether the authorities with deposits in Icelandic banks had proper approval by elected councillors to deposit with these banks?

It is one thing to lose money because a properly considered decision proved to be wrong - but quite another to lose money because of a lack of elementary financial controls.

If the authorities cannot show a proper process of consideration and approval of limits for these banks, then officer heads should roll.
Banks ask chancellor for capital 2:32pm on 07 Oct 2008 Can anyone remember when Gordon Brown last spoke about the financial crisis?

One message from the US TARP debacle is that delay makes everything worse, and measures that might have been received well by the markets then flop becasue thery are seen as too little too late. Any novice knows this!

We are in desperate need of leadership to sort out with the banks what is needed to stop the rot - and to do it today. If all that is on offer is meeting after meeting and the empty grins of Mandelson et al, then we are truly at the mercy of a novice.
Why our banks are vulnerable 09:33am on 30 Sep 2008 Robert

You are 100% right. We need Brown and Darling to take the initiative rather than being seen as reacting to events.

Last night's Newsnight showed just how ineffective the FSA has been at anticipating developments over the last 12 months, so savers have little or no confidence in the tripartite arrangements.

In this vacuum, the only effective stabilisation would be a simple statment of a 100% guarantee in all UK banks.

The hugely volatile movments in UK bank share prices yesterday and today - even with the shorting ban in place - just underlines how important this is.
Central banks to the rescue 08:43am on 26 Sep 2008 What is even more terrifying than the American muddle is the total inaction on the part of Brown and Darling. I share the concerns expressed by Robert Peston that Gordon Brown has sounded much less than well informed on the detail of what is happening in recent interviews. He now seems to think that sound bites will solve the problem and the Americans will sort it all out.

Meanwhile even the Bank of England seems to be slow and reactive in its money market activities

Given that we are heading into the weekend with little prospect of 'septic bank' getting off the ground, we ought to be hearing something positive from Brown and Darling about how the UK intends to halp its own banking system. Failure to do this will demonstrate that there no understanding in governement circles of just how worrying this is for everyone in the UK.

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