Gordon Brown steps into bank overdraft saga
Whether Gordon Brown is just looking to prompt the endgame to what has become a long-running saga or looking to curry favour with UK investors is open to debate, but his statement that UK banks need to negotiate a solution to the overdraft charge court case has been welcomed across the board. This is the first time that Gordon Brown has actually commented on the issue and his suggestion that the issue should be sorted "without further delay" should hopefully bring a swift conclusion to the matter.
However, the very fact that Gordon Brown has now stepped in, a number of years down the line, begs the question as to why he did not step in at an earlier stage to save time, money and grief for UK bank customers. In principle the UK government has no legal right to order banks to pay back bank charges and compensation, but there are many ways in which the UK authorities can "turn the screw" if their demands are not met. Is it just a coincidence that we are approaching the next general election?
The problem that any UK government has is the fact that by becoming involved in such issues at a late stage they do open themselves up to criticism on a number of fronts.
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