Increase in depositor protection levels

Lord Moonie (Labour)

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to direct the Financial Services Authority to implement the European Union-wide deposit protection limit of €100,000 under the Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive (94/19/EC, as amended by Directive 2009/14/EC).

• Hansard source (Citation: HL Deb, 21 June 2010, c141W)

Lord Sassoon (Commercial Secretary, HM Treasury; Conservative)

The amended Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive (Directive 2009/14/EC, amending Directive 94/19/EC) increases the coverage limit for deposit guarantee schemes to €100,000 from 31 December 2010. The coverage limit for deposits under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme will therefore be increased from this date. The Financial Services Authority plans to issue a consultation in October 2010 on increasing the coverage limit to the equivalent of €100,000.

Increase in depositor protection levels

Lord Moonie (Labour)

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to direct the Financial Services Authority to implement the European Union-wide deposit protection limit of €100,000 under the Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive (94/19/EC, as amended by Directive 2009/14/EC).

• Hansard source (Citation: HL Deb, 21 June 2010, c141W)

Lord Sassoon (Commercial Secretary, HM Treasury; Conservative)

The amended Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive (Directive 2009/14/EC, amending Directive 94/19/EC) increases the coverage limit for deposit guarantee schemes to €100,000 from 31 December 2010. The coverage limit for deposits under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme will therefore be increased from this date. The Financial Services Authority plans to issue a consultation in October 2010 on increasing the coverage limit to the equivalent of €100,000.

Taxpayer liabilities for Northern Rock down again

The Government has quietly announced that after 2 November 2010, it is removing the guarantee of the wholesale deposits liabilities of Northern Rock plc (excluding certain fixed term deposits existing as at 1 January 2010)

This will reduce what's called the "contingent liability" - the theoretical amount that the Government would have to pay out if the company went bust - from £60 million to £16 million, and as products mature this will decrease - to zero by the end of 2012.

Another sign of the return to health of our stolen business.

"Remorse" of ex Northern Rock Chairman

See front page of today's Journal.

But doesn't reveal what he could and should have done differently.

He is quoted as saying;

"I enormously regret what happened at Northern Rock. It's an incredibly painful memory for me and it's something that I will live with for the rest of my life. I have nothing but remorse for my role in what happened. I've apologised and explained as much as I can what happened before the Treasury Select Committee.

"We were all taken by surprise by that. there was almost nobody who saw it coming. Those who did were not in the right place to warn everyone else. Northern Rock ended up suffering a fate no different from any other mortgage bank. They all disappeared as a result of the crisis, and I learnt a lot from that."

Apparently he says he now knows that "the only thing I'm good at is writing."

Editor's notes ;
1. Mr Ridley is currently promoting a book.
2. Robert Peston was warning about potential problems at Northern Rock even before he went to the BBC.
3. Mr Ridley was all but invisible to the investors and the general public during the whole crisis. The chairman of a public company is generally expected to be its public face.
4. Building Societies who built their businesses on prudent mortgage lending and not on fancy financial instruments weathered the storm.
5. Mr Ridley was paid £300,000 per annum to know better than the rest of us.

Newcastle Building Society "vulnerable"

Societies' losses in commercial arena should be limited
Mortgage Strategy, Monday 23 August 2010
http://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/latest-news/societies-losses-in-commercial-arena-should-be-limited/1017299.article
Fitch Ratings says improved management means building societies are less likely to face commercial real estate losses in 2010 compared with 2009. It says societies with a stable outlook are not expected to see their ratings affected by commercial ex-posure. Mutuals with a negative out-look such as Nationwide Building Society, Newcastle Building Society and West Bromwich Building Society, which are heavily reliant on commercial loans, are vulnerable.