If Lloyds Bank is taken over by the government who will be next?
Of all the banks in the UK, Lloyds bank was seen by many as the most conservative establishment of them all. While the company did get its fingers burned back in the 1980s, with exposure to Third World debt, it has been very cautious over the last 20 years or so. The revelation of a potential £10 billion write-down on the HBOS acquisition from day one would appear to be a worst case scenario and a complete nightmare for the Lloyds bank directors.
However, with Lloyds bank apparently in serious trouble many analysts believe it is only a matter of time before the remaining group of leading UK banks are also taken under government control. This would be a complete nightmare and leave the authorities with a substantial capital requirement to keep all of these companies afloat and try to inject some confidence into the money markets.
The government then has the added responsibility of managing the top tier of the UK banking system and the various competition and regulatory issues this could bring. While many people had assumed the banking sector would not recover in the short term, very few had expected HBOS to deliver such a damning set of figures after the Lloyds bank takeover.
Share this..
Related stories
Will the recession impact upon UK education?
While the ongoing construction of new schools across the UK continues unabated, there is serious concern about both college and university education in the short to medium term. Not only is the government running short of significant funds but many parents, who have historically paid for their children to go on to further education, are now finding the extra funding very difficult to come by. Whil...
Read MoreFixed Rate Mortgages Increased Yet Again
As the doom and gloom in the property sector continues to build up it has been announced that the cost of fixed rate mortgages has risen yet again. While it is something which the big banks have managed to keep out of the popular press, Chase De Vere has released a research note which shows that at least 14 mortgage providers have increased the cost of their fixed rate mortgages over the last two...
Read MoreG7 gives way to G20
While the G7, i.e. the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada, have always led the way with regards to worldwide economic strategies, rescue packages and financial intervention, those countries involved have agreed that they will no longer meet on a formal basis and will instead focus upon the G20. While this is not to say that the so-called G7 will not remain the powerho...
Read MoreComputer systems fail at Nationwide
Nationwide has become the latest financial organisation to suffer a system failure, which has meant customers are unable to access online banking as well as account details in branches. The building society has apologised to customers who have been affected and said it will look to sort the problem out as quickly as possible. This is not the first time that customers of Nationwide have had...
Read MoreMillions switch energy supplier
As many as 2.8 million households changed their electricity or gas supplier in the first seven months of 2007 alone, the energy regulator Ofgem has reported.Now, around half of all households in the UK are thought to have switched their gas or electricity supplier at some point since 1998, with four million switching in 2006 alone Ofgem said that the figures were evidence of the success of the de...
Read More