Tuesday, Nov 24, 2009
Bank of England tells of secret £62bn loan to save RBS and HBOS
Who knew about this?: The Telegraph
In a shock announcement, the Bank disclosed that it had been forced to use its lender of last resort facility last October to "buy time" for RBS and HBOS, which were "effectively... bust". It managed to keep the loans - the equivalent of almost £3,000 for every household in the UK - a complete secret to all but a handful in the City for well over a year.
Posted by devo @ 10:08 PM (1462 views) Add Comment
10 Comments
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1. devo said...
Did Alistair Darling know?
Did George Osborne know?
Did Vince Cable know?
Who else knew?
What else aren't we being told?
So many questions; so few answers.
2. tenyearstogetmymoneyback said...
Labour MP from the Treasury Select Committee just said on Newsnight that he didn't know !
3. devo said...
The remit of the Treasury Committee, as determined by the House of Commons, is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of ... Bank of England.
The Chairman of the Committee is Mr John McFall MP. Did he know about this £62 billion loan?
4. devo said...
Mervyn King's admission of the secret loan seemed to be offered voluntarily (in the admittedly short clip I saw on Sky News).
Why would he choose to divulge this information now? Surely a secret kept for over a year could be maintained for longer?
5. cat and canary said...
yet another example of the collaborative shocking distortion of democracy made by this government and the top financiers.
6. devo said...
Aha!
A question answered...
The banks and the authorities decided to keep the Bank’s operation secret. Alistair Darling, chancellor, said he had shared the Bank’s assessment that disclosing details of the lending to the two banks “would seriously jeopardise the financial stability of the system as a whole”
Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b657a26c-d8e8-11de-99ce-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss&nclick_check=1
7. devo said...
Someone who didn't know...
Michael Fallon, a Conservative committee member, was “outraged” by the delay in disclosure. While accepting a need for secrecy “for a few days”, he said there was no reason to keep the loans secret for a year.
8. devo said...
Darling: do I have to tell you everything?
A line I have used many times, I must admit.
9. paul said...
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 specifically states that there is an 'overriding public interest' (meaning that it trumps everything) when public money is given to private enterprise.
A textbook example of the government breaking its own rules.
10. mark wadsworth said...
Lots of people must have known about it, that's why there was all that short selling going on last year.