‘I’ve lost my faith in banking in Guernsey’
Wednesday 4th February 2009, 1:30PM GMT.
LANDSBANKI Guernsey Depositors Action Group representative Neil Dickens (pictured) yesterday told the Treasury Select Committee that he had lost faith in banking in Guernsey.
‘I am now thinking about leaving Guernsey and moving back to the UK. I am frightened about the 30% of my money I did get back. I don’t see where I can place it now. There are still questions regarding Guernsey’s new depositor compensation scheme.’
He told the committee that there was no question islanders would have been better off investing their money somewhere with a depositor compensation scheme, such as the Isle of Man.
The committee asked him what he would like to see changed to amend the situation. He said people like him should be allowed to open a bank account in the UK.
‘If you have a British passport you should have a right to open a bank account in the UK. The only thing stopping us is not having a UK address,’ he said.
‘So allow British passport holders the opportunity to open an account in the UK.’
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Neil Dickens, I don’t know if you read this but there is a greater case for exiling british passport holders that don’t have a UK address. There are many UK passport holders that hold dearly the benefits of being ‘British’ but don’t wish to contribute with taxes for the privilege.
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He has a point my answer is force the banks to have insurance.
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Off you go then, back to the UK with you!
Whilst I have sympathy for his predicament I hardly think that Mr Dickens losing faith in banking in Guernsey will impact the decision process of people who have millions invested via our finance industry….
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Pete Local
Mr Dickens is not the only one who’s lost faith in the Guernsey banking industry.
There are 2,000 other stricken LG savers together with their families, friends, acquaintances, business colleagues, contacts etc.
The wealth warning is spreading far and wide: ‘investing or depositing in Guernsey can seriously damage your wealth’.
The news will continue to spread, until the States takes the necessary and inevitable decisive action it has so far avoided – but which the UK and Isle of Man have honourably taken.
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I have not just lost my faith in banking in Guernsey – I have lost 70% of my life savings.
I have a Parental Guarantee from Landsbanki stating that my savings are safe in Guernsey.
What is the Guernsey Government doing to make sure that this guarantee is honoured?
The Governments of the UK, The Isle of Man, Holland, Ireland, Norway etc… have bailed out depositors. I have paid Tax on my savings to Guernsey and yet the Government says it is up to the Administrator to sort the mess out!
No support from the Government = No faith.
I cannot tell enough people that as soon as I get my remaining 70% it will NEVER go near Guernsey.
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I for one have lost all my money, but one thing is for sure, unless iget it all back, I will be posting the theft on every blog internationally so that corporations and individuals know that Guernsey is not an honourable place to business with.
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Frankly Mr Dickens deserves a medal for his efforts.
I will put my views in on Friday; get your crash helmets out!
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Lost faith in Guernsey: Everyone who has an ounce of sense has lost faith in Banking and the Financial Industry based in Guernsey. I also had £475,000 in a fund based in Guernsey, which I have been trying to get out for over 12 months. But because of the courts of Guernsey, they have allowed this company, Glanmore, to change its rules and up its loan to equity ratio from 50% to 75% and, in so doing, these directors are still being paid millions along with their co-conspirators 1% trail commissions, costing those individuals who have invested in Glanmore, millions from lost dividends and an inability to payout from the fund.
Guernsey Financial Services Commission should be taking a closure and more detailed look at many of its financial products and see that soon they won’t have many left. So the old tomato that retail depositors only provide Guernsey with 7% of its total deposits is a smokescreen. I consider myself retail, although I hold along with others £1bn in Guernsey but not for much longer. As soon as we are able, our money will be out of there and into a jurisdiction that has some standing. Not an Island that cannot support such a tiny bank in trouble the like of Landsbanki. You Mr Trott recently said:-
Trott: “We do not intend to use tax payers money to bail out Landsbanki Depositors”. Clearly the UK Treasury think they should, and have said as much have they not, as over the years Guernsey has benefitted substantially from depositors money and should do what other countries have done and support their retail depositors.
But it’s okay for the UK tax payer to support Guernsey, with its defence forces is it. Or does Guernsey actually pay the UK for this. Or, under the constitution is it, that the UK will defend Guernsey from foreign forces should it be necessary. I think it is the latter and, that whilst its okay for the UK tax payers to support Guernsey, its not okay for Guernsey to support, albeit minimalistic, their own depositors. Hang your head in shame Mr Trott and Parkinson
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You would loose you faith in Guernsey for less than this, would’nt you. You deposit money in a high street, regulated, bank and it disappears overnight in a black hole and that’s considered to be perfectly normal. Oh, and this is the only place on earth where this is the case.
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Until Guernsey failed to protect our bank deposits as it might have done, we took little real interest in the place. Landsbanki victims all over the world now have their eyes on you and your ‘government’. This websight and others will be read in many foreign countries and your government criticised for being the only place on earth that has done nothing to aid victims of its failed regulation.
What a proud claim to go down in history !!
I think we have every right to have lost all confidence in Guernsey as a properly controlled
banking centre, and to pass on the message.
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Continued from Thursday.
As I said Mr Dickens deserves a medal for the work he has put in. This man has left his business 5,500 miles away, his Dad his poorly and he is working for no remuneration what so ever. He is representing not only himself but the many people who it seems are too afraid to come forward.
Many of you will know me by now, I have made at least 12 live radio appearances together with a number of news paper articles. A few weeks ago I posted the email address and phone number of BBC Radio Guernsey onto the LGDAG website, this was to prompt savers into a more proactive and verbal approach, I did not get to listen to all of the Sunday morning phone-in but it appears that only one person an EX Pat took the time out to contact the programme and question the Politicians that they had on.
I am sorry but we can all make comments on web sites but it is now quite clear this is not working and I suggest a more verbal approach may be needed at this stage of the proceedings. There are many local radio stations here in the Islands, the UK and around the world that have chat shows phone-ins etc so please, please come out of your comfort zones and make a call, it is now a question of sink or swim I am afraid.
There are many forms of contact that can be made to enhance the campaign so I will leave it up to every individual to think long and hard as to the actions they wish to take.
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The transcript of the Treasury Committee is now available on line.
Most oif the evidence seemed to be of the “it’s his fault, not mine” approach or I relied on someone else, who failed to alert me of what I should have known, and am paid to know.
One extract from the evidence conerned Guernsey and was stated by Peter Neville.
“The FSA knew of our concerns in respect of the fact that we did not want there to be any Icelandic risk in respect of the UK bank, with which 25% of the Landsbanki Guernsey assets were placed, and we did not want there to be any dependence on the parent for liquidity, and we got the assurance from the FSA that there was only limited Icelandic risk.
We believed we could rely on the FSA because they had greater information and greater influence and, therefore, we were very surprised when Landsbanki Guernsey failed, partly because it could not recover from the UK bank the money deposited with it”
With the track record of the FSA and the mass of other evidence that Icelandic banks were shaky, it does make one wonder about the credibility of such a statement.
Instead it seems to have been relying on the FSA, and ignoring the wide range of well publicised fears expressed about the Icelandic banks.
Playing the fiddled whilst Rome burns.
Only serves to strengthen the moral case for something to be done for depositors
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If GFSC were entitled in any way to rely on FSA on a B2B matter then surely the everyone else was entitled to rely on GFSC on the retail side?
Makes you wonder what value “regulation” has, and why it costs so much.
In the modern world, it astounds me that the likes of Madoff can get away with millions and millions simply because no one dare ask the obvious question. It isn’t just GFSC and FSA, it is and has been endemic throughout the regulatory system for years.
Old boy network, old boy!
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I take exception to part of John Calpe’s whinge; in particular about the UK forces defending Guernsey through the generosity of the UK taxpayer.
In my day, in uniform, I, in,company with lots of other Guernseymen, did my full stint of ‘guarding the outposts of Empire’, as I/we laughingly called it. And we did it voluntarily, we weren’t dragged in as conscripts, and, taking into account the difference of population, there was more of us than there was English born. And one place we didn’t guard was Guernsey, ah but yes,eh?
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Sorry no moderation from me! We Guernseymen stood in harm’s way, not just for Guernsey, and we always have. So don’t start doing us down.
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Bob
There is a reference in the Foot review of the GFSC regulation of LG to the question of the issues with FSA.
It seems that Mr Foot did not side with GFSC as he simply says the issue is something for the GFSC to take up with FSA.
Or is Mr Foot being a smart management consultant and not offending prospective clients?
It does seem an imoportant issue for a reviewer to mention, but not review>
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LG savers will get nowhere unless they have the full backing of the Guernsey States, but be realistic, they still have to fill the black hole and continue to run around like chickens without a head.
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Thank you! Thank you!
My, (& I beleive it is safe to dsay many, many others) heartfelt thanks go out to LANDSBANKI Guernsey Depositors Action Group representative Neil Dickens.
Continue to fight for a proper outcome Neil; and whilst doing so, rest assured that those of us who are watching from the side lines applaud your efforts and salute you.
Sometimes, miracles do occur.
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** Move your money out of Guernsey NOW **
Having offerd up my support and encouragement, (comment above) to Neil, I would like to add a personal comment.
I deposited funds with Landsbanki rather than other banks located in other duristictions simply because I beleived that funds depsoited in a bank operating legally and under the supervision of the GFSC on UK soil would be safe.
The collapse of Landsbanki last year and the subsequent efforts made by the GSFC to distance themselves from any responsibility as well as their efforts to avoid having to provide appropriate compensation to each and every depositor in that financial institution the regulation and supervision of which they were responsible for has proven that I was wrong to trust in the safety of Guernsey.
Shame on you Guernsey!
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