FSA warns banks, but will the Irish Regulator follow suit?

The FSA (Financial Services Authority) has warned specialist lenders that it has extreme reservations over how they are handling some arrears cases which may ultimately end in repossession. They felt that many lenders were overly ready to take court action against borrowers irrespective of their individual circumstances and that they focused purely on regaining the arrears.

From a lenders perspective this is a concern, if the FSA starts to come out in support of people who don’t repay their loans it can spell disaster for the financial institutions who lent out the money in good faith, if there is a prevailing belief that ‘you dont’ have to repay because the government is behind you’ it will send out the wrong message and creating an ‘unwillingness’ to repay debts and that won’t stop with banks, it can permeate into many aspects of the economy, right down to companies not paying eachother. Thankfully, the FSA stopped short of saying that they would get behind people in arrears and instead tried to keep …

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All animals are created equal, but some are more ‘equal’ than others

The title of todays post is of course from George Orwell’s book ‘Animal Farm’ and in it the Pigs used this rationale to place themselves above the rest of society, the Pigs wanted one set of rules for themselves and another set for everybody else. And in the end the Pigs reigned supreme, the behavior of the Pigs was amiable in the early days, but it wasn’t long before there true colours came out.

Finance of course is a separate matter but I think that George Orwell struck on a common chord in his view of Socialism because when we see any sector of business society start to treat others less ‘equally’ it is reminiscent of how the Pigs fared, and the fact that although in the short term the Pigs might have the upper hand, that ultimately they end up on the table as pork chops.

I have the misfortune of seeing imbalance starting to creep into brokerage, in the UK it has started already, Halifax, Nationwide, and Cheltenham & …

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All animals are created equal, but some are more 'equal' than others

The title of todays post is of course from George Orwell’s book ‘Animal Farm’ and in it the Pigs used this rationale to place themselves above the rest of society, the Pigs wanted one set of rules for themselves and another set for everybody else. And in the end the Pigs reigned supreme, the behavior of the Pigs was amiable in the early days, but it wasn’t long before there true colours came out.

Finance of course is a separate matter but I think that George Orwell struck on a common chord in his view of Socialism because when we see any sector of business society start to treat others less ‘equally’ it is reminiscent of how the Pigs fared, and the fact that although in the short term the Pigs might have the upper hand, that ultimately they end up on the table as pork chops.

I have the misfortune of seeing imbalance starting to creep into brokerage, in the UK it has started already, Halifax, Nationwide, and Cheltenham & …

Read More →