Thursday, Feb 21, 2008
Toxic Mortgage Hangover for A&L
Guardian: A&L to reel in mortgages after 30% drop in profits
Acting chief executive Chris Rhodes issued a stark warning to consumers that the cost of mortgages is going to rise – regardless of any official cuts to the Bank of England base rate – and that they needed to keep a clean credit record if they wanted to be granted a loan in 2008.
Posted by quiet guy @ 12:55 AM (610 views) Add Comment
4 Comments
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1. quiet guy said...
These paragraphs near the end are quite interesting:
'Richard Banks, head of the commercial bank, admitted that he "regretted" having bought some of the exotic financial instruments – bought as long ago as 1999 – which have now caused the writedowns.
Rhodes also made it clear that it the bank had not needed to use the Bank of England's emergency funding windows. "It wasn't an option to take funding from the Bank of England because of the stigma that is attached to it," he said'
At least Mr Banks has the honesty to admit a mistake - unlike Applegarth at Northern Rock. I was surprised by the 'stigma' comment: a pretty good indication of the fear factor that the banks have to deal with now.
2. Jwk said...
So, do you think that Mr Banks et al have enough regret to return any bonuses they received as a result of their "business" activities...?
3. wiltshire said...
No need to worry Mr Rhodes, here comes Fairy Godfather Alistair Darling with his Cloak Of Invisibility to make sure the poor little banks are kept safe from the big bad public and their needless interest in knowing whether a bank is well run or not.
4. hpwatcher said...
I will expect some highly competitive rates for savers coming from the A&L soon.....