It is off almost 70% as of now. If it goes down, who else will be dragged down as well???
I’m fairly sure that RBS is allowed to print money, as there is no such thing as “legal tender” in Scotland. So, would that take down the GBP, too? Meaning, of course, that the Bank of England simply would not be able to allow RBS to fail?
I would really like to know about the future of RBS in Stamford. They have a half completed monstrous building and there is wide anticipation of lots of growth when they open it. I’m very skeptical.
Joey - same - I wonder if they ever move into that thing now
I know RBS Greenwich/Stamford is hiring. I applied for a job via a recruiter just this week, but got rejected because I didn’t have enough experience. Apparently, having a master’s and working on a second one with some experience does not have value in this economy.
I wonder who ate sour grapes for lunch.
- RBS will not die as it is 70% owned by UK.gov 2. It will probably be nationalised though. 3. It will also retreat from all overseas markets (the UK govt doesn’t really want to be running an investment bank in Stamford. It tried it in Boston and suffered heavy losses) 4. RBS can print money, as can the Bank of Scotland (part of Halifax) (now both part of Lloyds). However they have to be backed 1 for 1 with Bank of England notes, so in reality it is more of a sop to Scottish vanity. 5. RBS can’t be allowed to fail as it is the largest company in the world by assets (£1.9trn). This is being rapidly reduced however by a) writeoffs on the utter shit that they lent to (russian oligarchs for instance) b) the rapid disappearance of GBP into the toilet.
Rick O’Shea Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I wonder who ate sour grapes for lunch. If that post was in reference to me, I never made any comment about what I think of RBS.
UndergradCFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’m fairly sure that RBS is allowed to print > money, as there is no such thing as “legal tender” > in Scotland. So, would that take down the GBP, > too? Meaning, of course, that the Bank of England > simply would not be able to allow RBS to fail? Not sure how it affects the GBP. GBP is 1:1 to the notes printed by the three other banks. So hypothetically speaking, if RBS fails, which I don’t think will happen for a number of reasons mentioned here, some authority will have to step in to back the RBS issued notes on a 1:1 ratio and may be pull them out of circulation. Sure GBP would be affected but not sure how adverse it would be…
Quick! start buying RBS before it’s too late!
oldmonk Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Not sure how it affects the GBP. > > GBP is 1:1 to the notes printed by the three other > banks. So hypothetically speaking, if RBS fails, > which I don’t think will happen for a number of > reasons mentioned here, some authority will have > to step in to back the RBS issued notes on a 1:1 > ratio and may be pull them out of circulation. > > Sure GBP would be affected but not sure how > adverse it would be… Given all the commemorative notes that they print, I had always thought that it was at least partly fractional, not 1:1. That makes sense, though. Though there would be some short-term affect on the pound. I would think that at least for a couple days, the Scots would be freaking out that their wallets were filled with RBS notes, driving the demand for the GBP up, and exchange rates down. (Just like I’m sure some of those JG Wentworth places made a killing when some pensioners probably freaked out when they remembered that their annuities were backed by AIG.) If RBS did go belly-up, though, it would be interesting to see if the UK would be pressured into adopting the euro. I don’t think it would ultimately happen, given how stubborn the Bank of England has been in the past (and the number of pages in the Maastricht Treaty about the UK opt-out of the eurozone), but I’m sure the issue would at least be floated in some FT op-ed or something.
^ Interesting point. I agree that an RBS failure wouldn’t do it, but when the story of the UK adopting the Euro is written, it starts with a chapter like that.
JoeyDVivre Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ^ Interesting point. I agree that an RBS failure > wouldn’t do it, but when the story of the UK > adopting the Euro is written, it starts with a > chapter like that. True. Given how the crisis has unfolded, Britain’s times of playing daddy to the rest of EU when it comes to economic issues are coming to an end too. The idea that Britain’s strength is defined by standing apart from the rest of Europe is probably no so British anymore.
JoeyDVivre Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ^ Interesting point. I agree that an RBS failure > wouldn’t do it, but when the story of the UK > adopting the Euro is written, it starts with a > chapter like that. True. Given how the crisis has unfolded, Britain’s times of playing daddy to the rest of EU when it comes to economic issues are coming to an end too. The idea that Britain’s strength is defined by standing apart from the rest of Europe is probably not so British anymore.
why would anyone want to join a currency that is holding together a disparate bunch of countries with differing needs and requirements right now? Why make Britain worse by letting it share some of Ireland’s problems?! (For Ireland, feel free to insert Portugal, Greece, Spain,…) I think the arguments for not being in the Euro are stronger than ever for the UK (and for the record, I’m not a sterling loving euro-basher, I just think now is most definitely not the time to join)