A torrid affair
So the affair is out, Mervyn King caught in bed with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and HBOS and we would not have known about it if it was not for his confession.
The Bank of England (BoE) governor Mervyn King has revealed today that the bank bailed out RBS and HBOS with a secretive emergency loan of £61.6bn last autumn, apparently to prevent loss of confidence with the financial system.
I can understand why this was done, one only has to remind ourselves of what happened to Northern Rock, but I expect a few shareholders that were buying into the banks are not happy that a bit of skulduggery was going on behind the scenes. I have often said that I believe we the consumer will never really know what went on with the banking crash and I wonder if we will ever know ALL the facts.
My only concern now is what else has been hidden and covered up, who else has slipped into Meryvn's bed that we don't know about. It goes without saying, you just cannot trust the banks anymore, spin, more spin and spin, I see that blasted spinning top again!
Debt Management Industry takes a step nearer to being regulated.
I was at the Debt Resolution Forum in Manchester last week along with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), Insolvency Service and Ministry of Justice (MoJ). I also had the opportunity to get a one-to-one with two of the speakers the Deputy Director of the OFT, Nigel Cates, plus Phil Kelly from the Insolvency Service. There will be some positive developments for consumers next year and maybe not such good news for debt collectors.
The forum was opened by Greg Hands, shadow Treasury Minister and attended by 180 delegates, mainly from the debt management industry, some banks and other associations but no representatives from the CCCS, Citizens Advice Bureau or National Debtline, I often felt I was the only one shouting for the consumer.
Not one speaker mentioned that the debt management industry is to be regulated, but you have to read between the lines and capture the mood, even though the DRF received much praise from the Deputy Director of the OFT, Nigel Cates, for their work which he described as "hugely positive", the general public as well as government bodies deep down will demand regulation.
If regulation is the chosen way forward then DRF will be in an excellent position because they are already proving to be a professional and respected body for self-regulation and therefore they should not find the step up to full regulation daunting.
More in depth article on this coming later.
