Eight Banks Fined For Rate Rigging

As per the BBC, the European Commission has fined eight banks a total of 1.7bn euros for forming illegal cartels to rig interest rates.

The Dangers of Contactless Cards

There has been some controversy over the security of "contactless" payment cards (which don't require Pin numbers, merely contact with a reader for payments of up to £20).

All well and good, so long as the right card makes the payment and the wrong one doesn't make a payment when it merely passes by a reader (primed to deduct a payment) because it is in someone's pocket/wallet.

The banking industry have denied there is such a problem.

However, First Direct has written to its customers, as per the Telegraph:

"We have made changes to clarify that if you have a contactless debit card you must remove it from your wallet or purse before using it to make a contactless payment."

A spokeswoman said:

"If you don't remove cards from your wallet there is a danger the payment may be taken from the wrong card. It could be a bit of a nightmare if it came from a card where there wasn't enough money."

In other words there is a potential problem with these cards, not least the possibility that a suitably well positioned felon (ie standing near a person who has a contactless card) with technical knowledge could electronically pick your pocket!

Barclays Bank Error In Your Favour - Collect £100M

I see that Barclays is fond of playing Monopoly, and has managed to create a bank error (for once in its customers' favour) that will entail a refund to affected customers (estimated at being around 300,000) of around £100M.

Barclays customers are to receive compensation because it miscalculated the interest owed on personal loans, the errors date back to October 2008.

Other divisions (Barclaycard, Barclays Wealth and Barclays Corporate) are now undertaking a review to see if customers were short-changed by the errors ("technical documentary errors").

Barclays will write to customers in the coming weeks. Barclays is quoted by the Telegraph saying that said it had "identified certain issues with the information contained in historic statements and arrears notices relating to consumer loan accounts. It is therefore implementing a plan to return interest incorrectly charged to customers".

A spokesman for the bank said:

"Barclays has proactively reviewed information it has historically sent to its customers relating to interest charges, where we have found technical documentary errors. As a result Barclays has identified certain issues with the information contained in some statements and arrears notices relating to consumer loan accounts. 

Due to these notification errors, interest was not due on certain accounts during the period that Barclays made this mistake, and whilst no one has been mis-sold to, customers are entitled to have their interest payments returned. No customer will pay more than they were ever contractually expected to. 

Barclays has notified the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which is responsible for consumer credit issues, and is implementing a plan to return interest payments to customers as swiftly and efficiently as possible. Barclays is undertaking a review of all its businesses where similar issues could arise to assess any related issues. 

Any affected customer will be contacted by Barclays and customers do not need to take any action."

To add to Barclays shame, campaign group Move Your Money said that Barclays was the lowest scoring financial institution out of 70 assessed, scoring four out of 100 possible points for honesty and customer service.

Well done Barclays!

Wheatley Lambasts Outrageous PPI Mis-selling

Martin Wheatley, the CEO of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is currently appearing before the Treasury Select Committee. He is less than impressed with the fallout from the PPI mis-selling scandal and the way that the banks are handling complaints.

Currently the FOS is upholding 90% of PPI mis-selling cases referred to it after they had been rejected by the banks.

Wheatley says it is "absolutely not acceptable" and that it is "outrageous" that the number upheld by the FOS is so high. He stated that the FCA has been looking into how banks handle complaints, as per the Telegraph:

"We have taken action and we will take more action and we will continue to look at how banks handle complaints. 

We've got two large investigations underway and have two cases where we have issued strong fines."

Sadly PPI mis-selling is but one of many areas where Britain's financial services industry mired itself in its own shit.

TSB Website Crashes

The newly launched TSB bank (split for Lloyds) has had a less than stellar first day, as its website has crashed.

Hardly a good augury for the future!

Fred The Shred and The Round Topped Filing Cabinets

The Telegraph reports that Fred Goodwin, erstwhile CEO of RBS, was so obsessed with tidiness and so irritated with piles of paper on filing cabinets that he ordered thousands of custom-made round-topped storage units to be rolled out across the bank.

A senior manager told Iain Martin, the author of Making it Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the Men Who Blew Up the British Economy being published next week.

“Somewhere in a warehouse are thousands of old flat-top RBS filing cabinets that were not Fred-compliant.” 

In pre RBS days as chief executive of Clydesdale Bank, Goodwin apparently interrupted a meeting to take a call from his mother who had seen a cigarette butt left on the steps of the bank’s headquarters in Glasgow. Goodwin immediately arranged to have the butt removed.

Sadly this obsessive attention to detail didn't manifest itself in the more "mundane" activities of the bank such as credit, risk and how much is lent and to whom.

Banks Embroiled In Another Mis-selling Scandal

As loyal readers know, I have on numerous occasions noted that the financial services industry in the UK has tarnished its image because of its greed and corruption, and seems intent on bringing about its own self destruction.

Today we see yet another example wherein its greed has been exposed because of yet another mis-selling scandal.

This time the mis-selling relates to card protection and identity theft insurance products by CPP Group. The BBC reports that UK banks have agreed to set up a £1.3BN fund to compensate the victims.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that customers had been "given misleading and unclear information about the policies".

CPP Group and 13 banks and credit card firms will pay for the compensation.

Some seven million customers could now expect to receive letters from CPP from 29 August 2013, explaining how to claim compensation. Victims will receive 8% interest on the amounts being reimbursed.

During the period of mis-selling between January 2005 and March 2011, CPP sold 4.4 million policies and generated £354M in gross profit. A further 18.7 million policies were renewed during the same period, generating an income of £656M.

Many customers were put in contact with CPP when they rang a number on their new bank card in order to activate it. Many thought they were talking to their bank, but they were in fact being put in touch with a salesperson from CPP.

CPP then used the opportunity of the call to offer card protection insurance. If the customer bought the product, the bank got a commission.

CPP Group sold a card protection product costing about £30 a year, that was designed to cover losses if a card was lost or stolen. It said customers would benefit from up to £100,000 of insurance cover, but customers were already covered by their banks. Generally, cardholders are not liable for unauthorised card payments on lost or stolen credit and debit cards; ie the product was unnecessary.

Needless to say we can expect to see the "ambulance chasing" financial compensation firms jumping on this bandwagon and offering to reclaim victims' money back in exchange for a percentage; which of course is completely unnecessary,as the victims can reclaim the money themselves.

Banks Play The Old Switcheroo

Banks and building societies are begrudgingly upping one very modest aspect of their customer "service"; namely that of guaranteeing to switch customers' bank accounts and direct debits (if requested) within seven working days as from September 16.

The Telegraph reports that 33 banks and building societies have signed up to the agreement, which will cut the length of time it takes to move accounts from up to 30 working days to seven working days.

Customers will be refunded interest and charges if anything goes wrong.

Whilst banks are offering cash incentives to people to switch their accounts (usually £100-£125) there is of course a sting in the tail; customers have to shut down their old current account if they choose to avail themselves of this guarantee (customers are entitled to opt out of it and manually change their accounts and payments).

As to whether this new guarantee improves the level of customer service wrt bank charges, products, rates etc remains to be seen; given that the banks operate in their own interests, rather than in the interests of their customers, any dramatic improvements in customer service are unlikely to see for quite some time if at all.

Local Lending Data For 10,000 Postcodes

The government have announced that the UK’s biggest lenders will reveal how much they lend at a local level across 10,000 postcodes.

The new data, published for the first time by the end of this year, will allow businesses and the public to see how the banking and building society sectors are serving the wider economy, and in what areas of the UK there less lending.

The data will be published by the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) and the Council of Mortgage Lenders on a quarterly basis and show the outstanding stock of lending that has been committed to customers across three categories:

• loans and overdrafts to SMEs
• mortgages
• unsecured personal loans (excluding credit cards)

Each postcode will be broken down by category to show the exact lending being made to each.

All very well maybe, but why delay it until the end of the year?

Careless Talk Costs Dollars

The Australian Dollar plunged to a three year low following a "light hearted slip of the tongue" by Glenn Stevens the Governor of Australia's Reserve Bank.

His crime?

In a "Ratner" moment Mr Stevens said in a speech on Wednesday that the bank’s board “deliberated for a very long time” before leaving the cash rate steady at its monthly meeting on Tuesday.

This comment caused the dollar to drop to US90.37 cent, and prompted some bank economists to change their forecasts and predict an interest rate cut in August.

In a damage limitation exercise the Reserve Bank insisted that the comment was “light-hearted”, this in turn lifted the dollar and prompted banks to withdraw their revised forecasts.

The bank’s deputy governor, Philip Lowe, was quoted by the Telegraph saying that the financial markets and the media had “misinterpreted” the comments, which were not supposed to be taken seriously.

"They were meant to be a light-hearted remark after what, he [Mr Stevens] reports to me, was a very light-hearted introduction.

I can confirm for you that the board did deliberate for a very long time. I can also confirm for you that it always deliberates for a very long time.”

Professionals such as Mr Steven should know that financial markets do not posses a sense of humour, especially in the current febrile atmosphere!

A Nice Little Earner For Barclays

Barclays has decided to start selling on data from its customers to other companies.

The Telegraph reports that Barclays has told savers that it intends to package together "information about the transactions on your account" with data on groups of other customers to compile reports on spending trends across Britain. This could then be passed on other companies or Government departments.

In addition to these changes, which will take effect in the autumn, Barclays will also start tracking customers through their mobile phones or other "devices" allegedly to help protect them from fraud. If a payment is made in a certain country, Barclays will "ping" the customer's mobile number to check if the phone is in that country.

Barclays claims that any customer data it sells would never be sold on in such a way that an individual customers was "identifiable".

Everyone happy with this?

If not, aside from closing your account, there's not much you can do about it; as Barclays is only allowing you to opt out of having your mobile tracked.

Banks Retry Debits

Banks, as we all know, love to make money out of their customers' financial cock ups. Therefore it should come as no surprise to learn that banks make around £200M per annum from penalty fees on unpaid items.

Step forward, in the manner of a knight on a plodding donkey, the FCA which has done what the FSA should have done years ago; namely force banks to take full account of the money customers pay into their accounts each day, even if it arrives after direct debits and standing orders have been paid out.

The FCA has decided, quite correctly, that because direct debits tend to be taken from accounts first thing in the morning (before receipts are credited) the banks had stacked the rules of the house in their favour.

Simon Gompertz reports that the UK's seven largest banks, including Barclays, HSBC and RBS, have agreed to operate a retry system in the afternoon, probably between 3pm and 4pm, which takes accounts of new credits, salary payments and cheques which have cleared during the day.

Lloyds Banking Group has also signed up, but is being tardy and claims that it is as yet unable to retry all payments in the afternoon. However, any Lloyds customer who incurs a late payment charge because money hasn't been properly credited will be able to claim a refund (if they remember to).

Cable Calls For Decision on Fred Goodwin

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, is less than pleased that action has yet to be taken by Scottish prosecutors against Fred "the shred" Goodwin (the former CEO of RBS) and other senior directors of RBS for their role in its demise.

The Telegraph reports that Cable has written to Lord Wallace, the Government’s chief legal adviser in Scotland, demanding to know when a decision will be made on whether to ban the former bankers from sitting on company boards.

Cable first asked Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to consider prosecutions in January 2012.

The irony being of course, despite Cable's desire for speed, if a decision to prosecute was taken the trial would be lengthy and extremely complex. Any successful prosecution would then be appealed, and the resulting quagmire of appeals and counter appeals/hearings would take years to resolve, not to mention cost a small fortune.

The question that Cable needs to ask himself is will such a lengthy prosecution really serve the public interest?

A cynic might argue that Cable is playing to the gallery.

Cyprus To Maintain Capital Controls

In a remarkably unsurprising development, Cyprus has decided to maintain capital controls during the summer.

The Eurozone finance ministers and ECB will of course be delighted, as this will enable them to continue to crow that there there has been no bank run in Cyprus.

My sympathies to the people of Cyprus, it will be a long hot summer!

Banks Delay PPI Claims

In March I noted that the financial ombudsman service (FOS) was taking on 2,000 new PPI complaint cases a day, with numbers rising at "unprecedented" rates.

I went on to note that it was clear that the banks were trying to delay payouts:

"Needless to say, as the number of referrals to the FOS rises, so does the length of time it takes for the ombudsman to make a determination. It seems that the delays are also increasing because some companies are causing unnecessary delays.

Natalie Ceeney, chief financial ombudsman, is quoted by the BBC:

"As the complaint levels show no sign of slowing, consumers are increasingly having to wait longer to get their complaints sorted - with many businesses still continuing to cause unnecessary delays.

Where businesses have shown a real commitment to better customer service and diligent complaints handling - including actively engaging with the ombudsman - cases are resolved more quickly and easily, to the benefit of everyone."

None of this is surprising, those who were sold PPI will see this as an opportunity to try to obtain a refund (irrespective of whether they were mis-sold PPI or not) and the banks will do everything they can to try to reduce the costs of the claims.

That being said, had the banks not incentivised their staff to sell policies that were in many cases clearly inappropriate to people who didn't need them/couldn't claim on them when they needed to, then this entire mess could have been avoided.

The greed of the banks is now being repaid by the perspective that the banks' customers have that there is "free" money to be made.
As the old saying goes, "what goes around, comes around".

A claims management company, Emcas, has now also said that banks are rejecting around a third of claims from customers. Ironically, as per the Telegraph, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which deals with complaints rejected by the banks, is upholding the majority of PPI claims.

Why such an anomaly?

A cynic would argue that the banks are trying to slow things down in the hope that those claiming simply give up.

Needless to say the British Bankers' Association denies that banks were deliberately turning down legitimate claims in the hope that they would avoid having to pay up.

Make of that what you will.

Irrespective of what obstacles (real and imaginary) are put in your way by the banks, do not give up; if rejected by the bank make a claim direct to the FOS, do not use a claims management company (which will charge you a percentage of any compensation that you receive).

Banks In Cyprus Reopen

The banks in Cyprus reopened this morning at 10:00GMT.

There has been no panic or a shambolic dash by people to withdraw all their cash.

For why?

The capital controls limiting daily manual withdrawals (to what you can take from cash machines), the banning of cheques etc are ensuring that there cannot be a mass withdrawal of cash by those who were not tipped off before the crisis occurred.

However, the litmus test will be when/if the capital controls are removed in seven days time.

The 80% Cyprus Haircut

As capital controls are about to be put in place, and Cyprus is ring fenced from the rest of the world, it now emerges that the 40% haircut will in fact be around 80%.

This will end badly!

Question For The Bank of Cyprus

If the Bank of Cyprus is meant to be the good bank, and the one that is meant to survive, why has the Chairman of the Bank of Cyprus (Andreas Artemis) resigned?

The Hand of Diesel-Boom Detected In The Market

Jeroen Dijsselbloem has been busy again, today saying that there were no signs of a bank run in periphery countries or deposits moved from periphery to core.

That's nice.

Except that the banks in Cyprus are closed, and are likely to remain closed until after Easter.

Once they re open there will most certainly be bank runs and deposit moves.

Meanwhile maybe someone should tell Dijsselbloem that the banks are shut and, more pertinently, that he should shut his mouth!

German Banks After Russian Money

It seems that, having more or less destroyed the Cypriot banking sector, Germany (in the spirit of Eurozone "fraternity") is seeking to get its hands on all the Russian money that will take flight from Cyprus.

Faisal Islam has tweeted:

"German banks in Cyprus are offering bonuses to accountants with Russian clients to divert savings to Germany, a Cypriot businessman tells me."

So much for the Eurozone being a "band of brothers" who support each other when times are hard!