Island will not adopt Euro payout draft law
Tuesday 27th July 2010, 2:29PM BST.
PLANS to protect savers’ deposits of up to 100,000 euros across Europe will not lead to Guernsey boosting its compensation levels from £50,000, it has emerged.
Jarrod Cowley - Grimmond, director of financial sector development at Commerce and Employment. (0467620)
Draft laws from the European Commission, published earlier this month, would see minimum compensation levels in member states, currently set at 50,000 euros, doubled to approximately £84,000 and look to ensure that people who bank with a collapsed lender get their money back within a week.
But with Guernsey not part of the European Union and not obliged to implement EU directives, Jarrod Cowley-Grimmond, director of financial sector development at Commerce and Employment, ruled out Guernsey increasing the £50,000 that the island’s deposit compensation scheme would pay out.
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Why is it no suprise that depostitors would not be well looked after in Guernsey? The amount on offer to depositors is not £50,000 but is conditional and may well be much less! If you need to find out what happens to people who entrust their deposits to Guernsey regulated banks ask any of the 1600 Landsbanki depositors. they will be able to give a first hand account of how this well regulated crown dependency deals with it’s problems!!
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Its a marvel that Guernsey banks take significant deposits when their interest rates are rarely competitive and the compensation scheme which was slow to organise will now lag the market. The Isle of Man is usually far more responsive to market demands as far as I can see, I wonder if they will adopt the €100k guarantee?
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You miss the point. Guernsey do not WANT deposits from individuals, it seems to me. Didn’t some States members say almost as much. The banks prefer to have large corporate deposits, without the inconvenience of having to protect ordinary (local!) savers, in my view.
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Spot on Strategist. Cowley-Grimmond’s comments at the end of the print article make it clear that C&E don’t give a hoot about local depositors. The normal “low-net worth individuals” that live here don’t even get a mention.
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This is just further evidence of the incompetence with which Guernsey handles its economy. If the finance sector is one of the major industries on the island, surely it needs to look attractive to outside investors. The confidence of people to invest on the Island has been severely dented by the huge lack of care shown towards the Landsbanki savers, and the whitewash of an investigation afterwards. The refusal to adopt this pan-European scheme will only strengthen the feeling that Guernsey is not a safe place to invest.
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Well thank you very much Mr Cowley-Grimmond, you have now confirmed just what the Landsbanki Guernsey depositors have been saying for some 20 months now, we just do not want retail bank depositors in Guernsey, your more trouble than your worth.
Quite clearly we all have a responsibility to ensure the message is spread to all retail bank depositors in the Bailiwick and beyond that they must give serious consideration to moving their money away from Guernsey and getting a better deal elsewhere.
Time will only tell as to how advantagious this decision by the Guernsey government is and to what extent in will effect the rest of the finance industry over the coming years.
Please, someone, ensure that the elderly and less informed bank depositors are aware of this decision and what their alternative options are.
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I do find it amazing how Guernsey kowtows to every pathetic EU directive when it has the power but not the guts to say ‘no, this is nonsense’. Then along comes something which could be of value to the ordinary Guernsey resident and it is promptly rejected out of hand. Pity they didn’t act so fast when every other jurisdiction implemented deposit guarantees, maybe so many investors would not have jumped ship.
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We as a family have lost our savings, not all, but enough to be totally fed-up with the Guernsey banking world. We are not well-off, just trying to look after ourselves without having to rely on States hand-outs in our old age. The Sates have NOT looked after our interests, appalling behaviour.
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Strategist -
You are absolutely right. In a conversation with Lyndon Trott some time ago he admitted to me that he would be perfectly happy to see all retail deposits disappear from Guernsey.
The States are not interested in protecting small consumers – this crops up throughout Guernsey Law. Remember that they did not help Woolworths employees when the company went into liquidation – both Jersey and the UK did.
There are so many deficiencies in Guernsey Consumer Law.
As long as the States continue to attract the big money from non-retail deposits , then they will not care about the ‘small fry’.
I can only hope that this will not come back to haunt them in the future , but with the recent figures showing a sharp drop in Guernsey Banking Deposits, it could be that everybody ( non retail customers included) is realising the true colours of the people in control here.
Come on Guernsey – look a bit further than the end of your noses – think how this will look on the world stage – you say you’re trying to be the model of transparency and best practice – do me a favour!
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Jarrod Cowley-Grimmond, director of financial sector development at Commerce and Employment, has confirmed the shameful view, shared by the States, GFSC and GuernseyFinance that retail depositors, traditionally the bedrock of Guernsey’s finance centre are dispensable. That’s why the administration has, unlike the Isle of Man, steadfastly refused to either bail out savers or hold an independent public inquiry along the lines of those held in the Isle of Man, the UK and even Iceland. Truly shameful.
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Where are all the smug savers who called us investors now. Their silence, diatribe and pathetic arguments is deafening. I cannot wait to laugh at them when Skipton, Clysdale, RBS – soon to be Santander; the worst bank in the world – go belly up and they loose their savings. If you have any money in a Guernsey Branch of any bank, you are no longer savers or even investors; you are gamblers. Gambling on one or more of the institutions not going bust because you will never even see up to £50,000 with the scheme capped at £100 million in any 5 year period.
But you will deserve it. By deriding the Landsbanki savers you did the GFSC and the excuse for political leadership’s work for them!
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One should also bear in mind if depositing in Guernsey that the Guernsey Depositor protection scheme is limited. Although the headline figure you will receive back is up to £50,000, the relevant words are ” up to” . The scheme is capped at £100 million in any five year period, so if a Guernsey registered bank or building society has retail deposits of over £100million, you may not get your £50,000. If a second bank should go down within a five year period ? Well no one is answering that question however unlikely it may be.
With better rates being achieved in the UK and with a guarantee of a £50,000 return of your money (£100,000 for joint accounts) you are far better off placing your money there.
The EC is currently intending increasing the protection of depositors to 100,000 Euros (200,000 for joint holders) by the end of 2010,so it says, payable within seven days. This will in all probability increase the movement of depositors from offshore to onshore.
So UK Government, start making it easier for expats. and for that matter Offshore residents who would rather have their money in the UK than in poorly protected places like Guernsey.
The Landsbanki Guernsey depositors are perfect examples of a failure by an offshore jurisdiction to adequately protect their depositors, where 1600 depositors lost £117 million in October 2008 and there was no scheme in place and a failure by the Guernsey financial Services Commission,during 2008, contributed to Landsbanki Guernsey’s failure,although to read their 2009 report you would think they were its saviours.
Today the Chief Minister was shooting his usual line in the States, ” The Promontory Report”,in answer to questions from other Deputies regarding the GFSC,i hope those will be expanded on in the press tomorrow.
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Tim,
“In a conversation with Lyndon Trott some time ago he admitted to me that he would be perfectly happy to see all retail deposits disappear from Guernsey.”
And did he happen to say where he thought Guerns should do their local banking? Anywhere but locally? Or is it that he just didn’t care?
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Guernsey’s politicians and financial supervisors have shown themselves in their true colours.
It does not make a pretty picture. It is not difficult to predict Guernsey’s decline as a banking centre but it is difficult to imagine how such men can think of themselves as honest, upright citizens and responsible curators of other people’s money.
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I assume that Mr Trott will one day get his cum-uppance, when he gets thrown out of office by the people who elected him. Just maybe he will also lose his own savings or investments. This man doesn’t seem to wish to try to help those whom he serves. In what sort of society does he think he lives.
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Come on Lyndon. When are you going to do what is right? What are you waiting for? Can’t you see how much harm this is doing to your finance centre’s reputation? It’s clear that you wish all retail depositors would disappear but this isn’t going to happen so you need to act now before the reputational damage becomes irreparable.
You should be actively lobbying all Deputies to support a fully-independent public inquiry into the Landsbanki Guernsey fiasco – not just asking them once a year whether they have the “appetite” for one.
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It’s pretty obvious Guernsey doesn’t want the “hassle” of retail deposits. Mark A is hugely incorrect when he states “traditionally the bedrock of Guernsey’s finance centre”, but he’s not a local so I guess we can forgive him!
As for locals, it would make more sense to keep substantial savings outside of the local banking system (which is pretty easy to do, with gilts perhaps being the easiest and safest option). It is a shame that local people can’t be given the same protection as they would receieve if they lived in the UK, but it would be unrealistic to expect the same treatment.
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Seems like cash under the mattress is the best way to keep your money safe!
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To all the Landsbanki depositors who keep on arguing the same points, over and over again, do you not understand.
” There was no protection scheme in place at the time therefore you cannot claim compensation”.
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JohnT
You’re right, there wasn’t. But there was a GFSC-authorised Parental Guarantee, which was widely advertised because it was deemed to offer greater coverage than a DCS.
Was wondering why ‘LG Depositor Detractor-in Chief’ Greg hadn’t yet jumped into the ring. But he has now – and has put his foot in it as usual.
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John T
You are correct, there was no DCS in place when Landsbanki Guernsey collapsed, but within 30 days of the bank going bust and in unprecedented haste, the Guernsey DCS was introduced.
Questions have subsequently been asked of the GFSC, The Guernsey Association of Bankers and The Depositors Compensation Scheme Board regarding various anomilies within the Scheme, all of them remain unanswered.
The Landsbanki Guernsey depositors care very much about the return of their hard earned savings, but are also determined to fight for the right of all Guernsey based bank depositors to have a ‘transparent’ retail banking system that will give you the full facts about your various accounts and to where you stand regarding the Guernsey DCS.
Sadly, by the time we know just how much of our money will be returned, the likelehood is that the Guernsey retail banking sector will be reduced to a minimum as there appears to be no political support for its future.
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Mark A, care to to expand on your comment?
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Yet again the militant savers aren’t satisfied.
Surely keeping our compensation scheme at £50,000 makes a lot of sense. Even though 100,000€ level is currently attractive the Euro’s days could very well be numbered. In any case if our compensation scheme was tied to the £/€ exchange rate it is possible to imagine any number of scenarios where even if it survives the Euro became so devalued against Sterling that savers would be crying out for the compensation level to be £50,000 again.
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Greg – I think that Mark A assumes that you “put your foot in it” by setting out the bare truths that the Guernsey finance industry does not rely on bank deposits and that local savers can, and possibly should, diversify their savings. That all seems to be good advice to me, and certainly not “putting a foot in it”.
As to whether Guernsey should increase the coverage of the DPS – I say, no. The scheme gives a decent level of cover now (and more than was the case a few years ago in the UK). To increase the cover would jeopardise the viability of the local banks through the added cost, plus would make depositors more complacent. We as depositors all have a responsibility to consider where our savings are put and should not just assume that someone else will bail us out. If you cannot spread your savings around in £50k lumps, then you really are being lazy and are relying on the taxpayer or other depositors to pay for your laziness.
Eric Graham – I imagine that the unanswered questions to which you refer relate to how the cap works. The existence of the cap is also a pre-requisite for the scheme to work in this small island. We, and our local banks, cannot afford an uncapped scheme. It is well publicised and if people don’t like the sound of it then they are at liberty to split their savings elsewhere to cover the risk.
Mark A – whether the guarantee was a guarantee or not is a moot point, as the parent went bust.
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TL
Moving your deposits around the Guernsey based banks to a maximum of £50,000 would not resolve the problem of the interpretation of the Guernsey Deposit Compensation Scheme.
The Guernsey Scheme provides compensation up to a maximum of £50,000 – the EC proposal is the equivalent of 100,000 (£83,254) euros.
The Guernsey Scheme aims to pay out within three months of a bank failure – the EC proposal will reimburse bank account holders within 7 days.
The amount of compensation paid to depositors in the Guernsey Scheme would be reduced so that the maximum total compensation in the period did not exceed £100 million – there is no limit on the EC proposal.
The Guernsey Scheme is a Banking Deposit Compensation Scheme – the EC Scheme is a Deposit Guarantee Scheme.
The Guernsey Scheme may be well publicised, but is ambiguous and depositors need a much clearer understanding of the interpretation. When banks go belly up, it is a difficult pill to swallow when banks and financial watchdogs smugly say it was there in the small print for you all to read.
Although Guernsey bank depositors do have a choice as to where and how much of their money they wish to deposit, what has changed is their own ability to ensure they get the best deal for their money, irrespective of whether it is here in Guernsey or within the EC.
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Eric – the Guernsey DPS is £50k, per person, PER BANK. If you have two accounts of £50k with different Guernsey banks, your deposits of £100k are covered by the scheme. That is clearly explained on the SoG website.
Of course there are differences between the Guernsey scheme and the EU proposals. The point is that Guernsey (and its banks) cannot afford to provide an uncapped scheme. To expect an uncapped scheme is unreasonable and would create an unrealistic burden on the local banks, such that there would be no local banks – and how does that help depositors?
I don’t see the scheme as that ambiguous. Its limitations are well publicised and are plain to see. In my view, those limitations are reasonable in the circumstances.
The only ambiguity that I see is how the cap would be applied in practice – eg bank 1 goes bust and its depositors are compensated, then bank 2 goes bust within 5 years which causes the cap to be exceeded – is there a clawback from the depositors of bank 2?
But such practical details are unlikely to affect the decisions of depositors, as the potential downside is still the same.
The point to remember is that banks have never been guaranteed institutions.
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Eric
Anyone who deposits more than £50k without reading ‘the small print’ deserves everything they ( don’t) get …..
And as for the ever present Landsbanki Depositor’s Whingers Group …… The bank folded in circumstances not covered by any compensation scheme. Get over it ….. And congratulations on having finally eroded away any sympathy I might have for you ….
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Toby
What an insensitive and un-christian post. I hope that people who have lost their money do not take your comments seriously.
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J,
Here’s a concept for you to study. “Moral Hazard”.
Here’s another. “Personal Responsibility”.
Each individual is responsible for their own life, and the fallout from their own decisions. Why should I be taxed to pay for someone else’s poor judgement, poor investment decisions or ignorance? Why should people be insulated from their stupidity (or greed) and not bear the consequences?
Caveat Emptor.
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@ Adrian,
Not quite. Fiat currencies (of which Sterling is one) are continually devalued – cash under the mattress is only any good in a deflationary environment. Look to traditional stores of value if you want to protect your savings (i.e actual physical Au, Ag, Pt, Pd) – only the price changes, not the value ;)
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TL, the bank went bust, but the Icelandic Government took it over and with that, all that went with it, including the original guarantee. That’s being argued out in Iceland at present.
TL £50,000 per bank as long as it has no relationship with another. Skipton and Scarborough, you would only be paid up to £50,000 in one of them , even if you had £50,000 in both and there are many banks that are associated with others. Taking those two banks they have a retail capitol of around £ 400 million. How much would you get back? I don’t know because i don’t know how thst £400 million is made up.
Your right, Guernsey can’t afford it and that’s why Guernsey retail banks will slowly move away from the Island as Europe improves its compensation to depositors. No sensible depositor will keep his money in Guernsey if overseas schemes continue to improve.
If you heard the States debate on the GFSC 2009 report on Wednesday that very point was brought out by deputy John Gollop.
Toby, your unconstructive comments are what makes some of these forums a waste of space. You obviously have no idea of the full backgroung of the Landsbanki Guernsey situation and your comment is the only unconstructive one in this forum.
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Gary I am well aware what went on thank you very much.
A lot of people, for whatever reason, chose to deposit their money in Guernsey – which at the time had no depositor protection scheme in the event of the failure of a bank.
I appreciate that some of those did not choose to deposit with Landsbanki … But whilst it is not their fault that they were caught up in the Icelandic crisis neither was it the Guernsey taxpayer’s.
There was a ‘parental guarantee’ – by which the parent company promised to cover the obligations of Landsbanki Guernsey should it fail.
The global financial crisis brought the banking industry to its knees – that was not the fault of Guernsey.
The Icelandic stepped in overnight to take over Landsbanki and it’s subsidiaries ….. which led to the UK Government to freeze all their assets in the UK. That was not the fault of Guernsey either.
And that is what caused Lansbanki Guernsey to fail – a bank with more liquidity than just about any of the supposedly well run and regulated high street banks.
The ‘parental guarantee’ was designed to protect depositors from the consequences of a bottom up collapse ….. When the collapse came from the top down it became worthless. It’s as though you bought a house , knowingly took out only flood insurance, and then lost it in a fire …. And you are now blaming anybody and everybody because you are not covered …
Yes it is unfortunate that people lost money in this mess, but if you want to get angry with anyone I would rather you directed your anger at those who are responsible.Yes I have sympathy , but it is the constant blaming of everyone but those really responsible has genuinely eroded that sympathy for me. It may well only be the actions of a vocal minority that have led to this, but vocal minorities can be very persuasive in Guernsey.
If Guernsey is such a badly regulated banking centre why has only one bank failed ( and then only because of external events ) ? Wheras scores of banks have failed elsewhere ( or would have if their governments bankrupted themselves bailing them out ? )
People ( Landsbanki depositors included ) were more than happy to use Guernsey when there was no guarantee …. I don’t see why they should all suddenly run for the hills because we now offer ‘only’ £50k rather than €100k
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Toby and Fary B
The so called parental guarantee you talk about was worthless. Even the GFSC had to admit that, although their understanding of the uselessness of the parental guarantee was only relaised a few months before Landsbanki failed.
The point is the guarntee would heve ben worthless even if Landsbanki had survived.
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Toby
You’re wrong, I’m afraid, when you say that “it is the constant blaming of everyone but those really responsible has genuinely eroded that sympathy for me”.
Not at all. The blame is being laid fair and square on the GFSC for their clear regulatory failure in relying on unsubstantiated assurances from a third party (the FSA), rather than carrying out their own due diligence.
Had they done so they would have clearly seen that Heritable could not possibly be ring-fenced from Iceland risk when both it and LG shared the same Icelandic parent, Landsbanki hf.
And they would not have permitted LG to place a disproportionately large amount of LG’s assets in Heritable. Rather, they would have issued a regulatory notice requiring LG to spread the risk.
That is why there is an urgent need for an independent public inquiry such as has been carried out in the Isle of Man, the UK and even in Iceland.
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I wonder when the States people will do the right thing and support the start supporting LG depositors?
Unlike the poor efforts so far.
Ian
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This clearly demonstrates the Government of Guernsey’s complete and utter disregard for savers. As if their dispicable handling of the Landsbanki failure wasn’t proof enough, this latest insult should be a clear warning to depositors, private or corporate that it is simply not safe to bank in Guernsey !
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Cynic
Your comment re tax. You are taxed every day as a consequence of the poor governance of this island.I think the problem that Landsbanki depositors have is the lack of support that they have recieved from their island leaders. If it were not for the help from the action group, many people would have lost hope. People fail to recognise that many have been helped by others as the British government have bailed out many other banking establishments who would also have gone under.
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I agree wholeheartedly with President Obama in his wish to see ALL tax havens abolished. If everyone paid PROPER taxes and the wealthy stopped screwing the less wealthy then we wouldn’t have the same global financial crises.
From reading the posts on this thread it would seem that Lyndon Trott has made his feelings about the ‘little people’ quite clear. He doesn’t want ‘ordinary folk’ banking on the island; just huge wealthy corporations some of whom [like BP] make their money by short cutting on costs, often to others’ detriment [as the BP scandal has clearly demonstrated]. That is worse than feudal thinking.
At least the Isle of Man has some notion of democracy. When will Guernsey get out of its medieval mindset and join the 21st century.
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This is a non event, really. Who still cares about depositing money in Guernsey when you can do so securely anywhere else?? Guernsey has convincingly demonstrated that it is unable and uninterested in looking after retail deposits.
The only fight left is for islanders and UK expatriates to be able to bank in the UK. Once it is the case, depositing in places like Guernsey will be a thing of the past.
Note that it is possible to bank in most EU countries, even if you are non resident. The only potential problem is that you may only get attractive savings rates in €, not £. Language should not be an issue; try banking in Belgium, for example, where bankers are multi-lingual.
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How many of you head the States debate on the 2009 annual report for the GFSC, there appears that some deputies now think there should be an independent inquiry into the Landsbanki Guernsey affair and the GFSC’s dealings with the FSA.
There is a transcript of the debate and comments on:
http://www.landsbankiguernseyfiasco.net
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From F. Erker; “Note that it is possible to bank in most EU countries, even if you are non resident. The only potential problem is that you may only get attractive savings rates in €, not £. “- With such banking facilities available not just in the EU but globally, it always surprised me how many non-resident Landbanki depositors ended up banking in Guernsey.
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Hi F.Erker and Greg darhlings!
Great stuff so to avoid risk you want to bank in different currencies now?
“Note that it is possible to bank in most EU countries, even if you are non resident. The only potential problem is that you may only get attractive savings rates in €, not £.”
Wow! So tell me where have you found a savings rate that makes up for the circa 10% devaluation of the Euro against Sterling in the last 6 months?
Doesn’t sound risk free to me!
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Coyote – Perhaps Mr Obama could start with Delaware ??
Stephen John – if Landsbanki Guernsey had survived, the guarantee wouldn’t have been needed!! I would argue that the guarantee was fine as far as it went ( a collapse of LB Guernsey in isolation ) – the problem is, with hindsight, it didn’t go far enough to cover what actually happened ( but then I fail to see how it could ) …
MJA – If the UK couldn’t get it right what hope did Guernsey have ? Or do you seriously expect the GFSC to be more knowledgeable than the UK Treausury and the Bank of England ?
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Toby
Why don’t you look at what GFSC said, circa August 2008, about the parental guarantee and its legal enforceability.
A business does not have to fail in order to be able to call upon a legally enforceable parental guarantee.
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MrsP, I’ve always thought that if one wants to make a life for oneself outside of the “mother country” then one has to accept that banking arrangements might have to be in the currency of the new residence.
Of course if one really wants to retain some GBP in their portfolio, gilts do a pretty good risk-free job.
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Mrs P
On introduction of the Euro the Pound Sterling was worth Euro 1.70.The pound made a small recovery and is now worth about Euro 1.19,and declining again.I would say the Euro is a good bet if one wishes to invest.And I have no connections to any Bank!!!!
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Hey Greg!
If you are an ex-pat living in the Eurozone then I agree that currency fluctuations are irrelevant!
But Gilts?
Risk free?
Errrr no, NOTHING is risk free, haven’t we learned anything from this banking farce?.
Governments DO default on their debt. Quite often actually and the UK in particular is on shaky ground here, in May this year S+P issued guidance that the UK was close to loosing it’s “AAA” rating.
Don, lovely stuff there baby, but like they say “past performance is no guarantee of future returns”
As I type the Pound buys you 1.2057€, so since your comment we’re already approx 1% adrift, with the low, low ,low interest rates currently on offer that’s a years interest gone in one afternoon!
As with all things financial hindsight is a wonderful thing so I’ll give you one of my free tips. GET OUT OF EUROS! By my reckoning we’ll be @ approx 1.3€ to the pound within 6 months. That will hurt if anyone takes your advice and moves their savings across now!
My last tip a year ago was to buy Rhodium, if you followed my advice and bought when it was $1,500 an Oz. you would currently be sat on a $670 per Oz profit (currently trading at a bid of $2170)
For the sake of transparency my Rhodium tip lives here:- http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2009/08/07/landsbanki-savers-set-to-get-further-25-of-money-back/
We’re now almost entirely out of Rhodium and onto other opportunities.
What I’m objecting to here is the advice that savers should flee Guernsey for being ‘unsafe’ but take on board all manner of risk elsewhere, exchange rate fluctuations, Governments defaulting etc.
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Mrs P, i’m sure you’ll agree that the “risk free rate” as defined in investment terms is generally the yield on government debt (especially in Western countries).
Annd my main point was that if you choose to live outside of the UK, then you should have to face FX movements.
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Reading all these threads I guess it might be a relief that Guernsey will have nothing to do with cahoot, the internet banking side of the former Abbey National and now owned by the Bank of Santander.
Cahoot paying in slips are bog standard bank giro paying in slips in a paying-in book with counterfoils. NONE of the banks on Guernsey will accept them. The Post Office on Guernsey, which should accept them, refuses to do so for ‘technical reasons’
Cahoot themselves have questioned this non acceptance and have, basically, been told to get lost. The only option for a cahoot account holder in Guernsey is to post payments to London!
Of course maybe cahoot accounts are simply not large enough to warrant the notice of the mighty Guernsey financial system and perhaps this peasant should just crawl back under its stone and fester suitably.
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coyote – if I managed to open an account with Westpac, would I expect to be able to make over the counter deposits here? No.
I am intrigued as to why you say that the Guernsey Post Office “should” accept such deposits.
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Mrs P,
The day the pound gains a little and makes it to Euro 1.30 is the day I’ll buy you a pint,it gained a bit today – but watch the rest of the week!
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TL
Cahoot believe that the post office should accept such deposits.
What is the point of having any account if you can’t make deposits?
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coyote – but it is not an account with the GPO is it?
Cahoot probably mistakenly assume that the GPO is an off-shoot of the UK Post Office, and should therefore do whatever the UK Post Office does. They would be wrong.
Did you open an account with an organisation that has no agreement in place to provide deposit taking facilities in the island? Looks like you’ll have to just use that account for electronic transactions.
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Coyote,
It sounds like the mistake was cahoot letting you open (or keep) an account in the first place.
“2.1 To be eligible for a cahoot account you must be aged 18 or over and permanently reside (for at least three years on a continuous basis
while holding the account) in the UK (excluding Channel Islands and Isle of Man).”
http://www.cahoot.com/terms/pdf/terms.pdf
And their website says its online services aren’t available to non-UK residents either. See http://www.cahoot.com/legal/legal.html
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Toby
You said: “MJA – If the UK couldn’t get it right what hope did Guernsey have ? Or do you seriously expect the GFSC to be more knowledgeable than the UK Treausury and the Bank of England ?”
There’s a huge difference here. The UK also failed but acted very honourably in recompensing, not just up to DCS limits but IN FULL.
Not only did Guernsey, unlike the comparable Isle of Man, refuse to bail out savers but, also unlike IoM, it has refused to hold an independent public inquiry into the clear regulatory failure on the part of the GFSC.
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Susie
I was residing in the UK when I opened the account. Stupidly I believed that I would at least be able to pay in when I returned to Guernsey. Must have failed to read the small print. No matter. I’ll just deposit my millions elsewhere.
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Coyote,
Fair enough, although I’m a little surprised they let you keep the account. I know quite a few people who’ve lived in the UK and, on returning here and giving their UK bank their change of address, were told they could no longer keep the account. Maybe cahoot just haven’t twigged (or you’ve still got a UK address?)
Of course you’ll want to open another a/c so you can do your day to day banking locally, but if I were you I’d hang onto the cahoot one too, if you can. The number of UK banks that’ll let us open a mainland a/c is all but zero; very few indeed.
It gets back to what I asked earlier: if Lyndon Trott would be happy to see all retail deposits disappear from Guernsey, where does he think we should do our banking? I’m not even talking about savings, just the day-to-day stuff.
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Smile, the Cooperative Bank’s internet arm, allow people living in Guernsey to open accounts with them.
I live in Guernsey and have used them for years for my current account. The internet banking website is excellent and very easy to use, and if you need to speak to someone they answer the phones quickly and deal with your enquiry promptly. Any physical banking like paying in cheques can be done at the local Co-Op bank.
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