Miscellaneous News

Miragedriver

Brigadier
Savers hit as Bank cuts protection on deposits to £75,000 for first time since financial crisis

EU rules mean the guarantee is cut back when the euro falls against the pound - a position Andrew Tyrie MP calls "absurd"

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Cash in bank accounts will only be guaranteed up to a limit of £75,000 from January 1, 2016, the Bank of England has said, down from the current limit of £85,000, because of the euro's weakness against the pound.

Senior Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie called the decision "absurd" and urged the Chancellor George Osborne to push for the EU's rules to be changed to allow the guarantee to be raised back up to £85,000.

The level of protection is
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- if any bank goes bust across the Union, depositors' money is still safe up to a limit of €100,000. When the level was agreed in 2010, that figure translated to £85,000. But because the euro has fallen against the pound, it is being chopped back to £75,000.

“It is absurd that the 16pc depreciation of the euro largely brought about by the crisis in the eurozone in general, and the
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, should be forcing a reduction in the level of protection available to UK depositors," said Mr Tyrie, the chairman of the Treasury Select Committee.

“In this respect, the EU Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive is defective. It has been designed without adequate consideration for the requirements of those, like the UK, in the EU but outside the eurozone."

Mr Tyrie said he would write to the Chancellor to ask him to raise this issue in Europe, and demand more flexibility on the level of the deposit guarantee.

"He may need to be robust – this won’t matter a scrap to the eurozone. Something will clearly have to be done," Mr Tyrie said.

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The guarantee is used by savers when a bank or building society collapses. The level of deposits covered by the scheme was increased in several stages through the financial crisis to reassure savers their money was safe, in a bid to avoid bank runs. This is the first time the level of protection has been cut since the credit crunch.

The Treasury-backed but industry-funded Financial Services Compensation Scheme refunds those who lose money, and the cash is later recouped from the rest of the banking industry. Savers called on the protection when Bradford & Bingley failed, and when the Icelandic banks crashed.

"HM Treasury has today put in place legislation to maintain the existing limit of £85,000 until 31 December 2015 for depositors who were previously protected by the FSCS and continue to be protected (including individuals and small companies)," the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority said.

"This transitional measure helps to ensure that depositors have suitable time to plan for and adjust to the change and will protect most depositors from experiencing a sudden change in the amount of compensation available in the event of the failure of a bank, building society or credit union."

Couples with joint accounts receive the protection of the guarantee for each individual named on the account - that is, if the bank goes bust, they will receive up to £75,000 each, totaling £150,000.

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The protection applies to each bank, so savers with more than £75,000 in cash can split their funds across multiple banks to ensure the whole sum is covered by the guarantee.

Before 2007, only the first £2,000 was completely protected, as well as 90pc of the next £30,000.

But as customers of
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at the start of the financial crisis, the government introduced a complete guarantee on deposits of up to £35,000 to stem the run on the bank.

The guarantee was then raised to £50,000 in 2008 and to £85,000 in 2010, along with the €100,000 guarantee across the European Union.

Temporary protection
Bank or building society customers who come into a large sum of money are also given an extra degree of temporary protection.

"Depositors with temporary high balances will be
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for six months from the date on which the money is transferred into their account, or the date on which the depositor becomes entitled to the amount, whichever is later," the Bank of England said.

"This is to ensure that depositors are protected when they deposit funds over the limit as a result of specified events, including following a house sale or funds received from a ‘life event’ such as a divorce settlement or inheritance, for a period of time until they have had sufficient time to spread the risk between institutions to appropriately protect these funds."

Consumer campaigners said it was important that customers were made aware of the change in the limit.

"A reduction in the compensation scheme limit means people could unwittingly leave thousands of pounds at risk if they're not made aware of the new rules," said Richard Lloyd from Which?.

"We've consistently found bank staff have an extremely poor knowledge of the scheme so, with people's savings soon to have less protection, we expect all banks to ensure staff are properly trained and proactively communicate these new rules to customers."

The change in the threshold comes after the FSCS ran a major advertising campaign to increase awareness of the guarantee, comparing the scheme to other safety equipment such as a seatbelt or padlock.



Lowering the protection of deposits to £75,000 level is a smart move. This is supposed to be a capitalist economy. The whole level of protection should be removed and the banks could also start competing for customers by putting up savings rates. People can then decide whether they are worthy or a safe haven for deposits. In the current economic environment with an outside chance of a credit crunch again then it would be a wise move for people to diversify in any case. This is a wake up call for people to do something more inventive with their assets and wealth and put it somewhere or invest in an asset they cannot touch or tax. In harder times they are going to take savers to the cleaners and hold your cash in any case whether it is protected or not. It is no good to you if the bank doors are shut and there are capital controls in place even if it is "protected".



Back to bottling my Grenache
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
UPDATED: Authorities Give All Clear at Navy Yard, ‘All Personnel OK’

By: Sam LaGrone and Megan Eckstein
July 2, 2015 8:45 AM • Updated: July 2, 2015 12:47 PM


This breaking news post will be updated as new information becomes available.

There is no evidence there were shots fired at the Washington Navy Yard, and the FBI, the Washington Metropolitan Police Department and the Navy have given the all clear for the facility, according to the service.

At 7:29 a.m., a female employee at the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters building called 911 to report she heard possible gunshots, but after a thorough investigation police determined there is “no evidence of gun shots, there is no evidence of a shooter and there is no evidence of any victims today,” Washington mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters Thursday morning.

Vice Adm. Dixon Smith, commander of Navy Installations Command, said during the press conference that Building 197, now named the Joshua Humphreys Building, was still in lockdown until a final walkthrough could be completed shortly. Though police had already gone through the building office by office and floor by floor, they wanted to ensure all spaces had been cleared before allowing employees back in, he said.


Metropolitan Police Department chief Kathy Lanier said she was confident after speaking to the woman who placed the emergency call that the incident was not a hoax. Rather, the employee called when she “heard what she thought may have been gunshots…which is what employees here are trained to do.” Lanier declined to say whether that employee had been in Building 197 during the September 2013 mass shooting.

Lanier added that the incident proved that law enforcement and Navy organizations had properly implemented lessons learned from the 2013 attack. Police officers were able to enter the yard’s access gates easily and had sufficient radio communication access once inside the building, which was not the case in 2013 and delayed officers’ ability to access the building and find the shooter. Lanier said she was in communication with NAVSEA commander Vice Adm. William Hilarides, as well as officials from the FBI, NCIS and more within 20 minutes of the emergency call.

Dixon said Navy Yard has conducted extensive training for active shooter scenarios since 2013, and he was pleased the employees followed that training this morning by sheltering in place and barricading their doors.

At one point, as police presence was winding down by the Washington Navy Yard gates, some officers moved down M Street to an office building occupied by several defense contractors, including Huntington Ingalls Industries and Lockheed Martin. USNI News understands that building was temporarily on lockdown as well.



Washington Navy Yard is home to NAVSEA, Naval Reactors and senior Navy and Marine Corps leadership. Employees tricked out of the NAVSEA headquarters as police cleared portions of the building, and it was unclear for most of the morning what threat, if any, there was in the building. A NAVSEA spokesman told USNI News there was an “unconfirmed incident” and no further details were available. The D.C. fire department eventually reported no injuries related to the incident, reported WUSA 9 News in 8:45 a.m. EST.


Images on social media showed the M Street entrance for crowded with Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Capitol Police and U.S. Park Police vehicles.

On Sept. 16, 2013 Navy contractor Aaron Alexis entered Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters in Building 197 at the Washington Navy Yard and began shooting. He killed 12 and wounded four, including two police officers, during the shooting spree.

Building 197 – recently renamed the Joshua Humphreys Building in honor of the Navy’s first naval architect – underwent a 16-month renovation to repair the damage, make the building’s layout safer and to incorporate a memorial area on the first deck. Investigations afterwards made several safety recommendations, such as including police documents during personnel background checks and revisiting accountability on personnel fitness reports.
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Nothing to see here Move along.
 

delft

Brigadier
As the Economist Intelligence Unit predicted at the end of last month (!) about 60% of the Greek voters support the government in the "discussions" with the Troika. The only reasonable way is now for Brussels to think again. But are they bright enough to do so?
 

Equation

Lieutenant General
As the Economist Intelligence Unit predicted at the end of last month (!) about 60% of the Greek voters support the government in the "discussions" with the Troika. The only reasonable way is now for Brussels to think again. But are they bright enough to do so?
Greeks are smart people, they will be fine. I think too many political pundits are using this opportunity to provoke emotion for the up coming US presidential election.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Mon Jul 6, 2015 4:18am EDT
Related:
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Greek finance minister quits to smooth talks after 'No' vote
ATHENS/FRANKFURT | BY RENEE MALTEZOU AND
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Greece's outspoken finance minister resigned on Monday, removing a major obstacle to any deal to keep Athens in the euro zone after Greeks voted resoundingly to back the government in rejecting the austerity terms of a bailout.

Yanis Varoufakis, a self-proclaimed "erratic Marxist" economist who infuriated euro zone partners with his unconventional style and hectoring lectures, had campaigned for Sunday's sweeping 'No' vote, accusing Greece' creditors of "terrorism".

"I was made aware of a certain ‘preference’ by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted ‘partners’, for my... ‘absence’ from its meetings; an idea that the Prime Minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement," Varoufakis said in a statement.

His sacrifice, after promising Greeks he would win a better deal within a day of their overwhelming referendum vote, suggested leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is determined to try to reach a last-ditch compromise with European leaders.

Greece's chief negotiator in aid talks with international creditors, Euclid Tsakalotos, is the frontrunner to become finance minister, a senior government official said.

A mild-mannered economist and professor, Tsakalotos had already taken over a prominent role in negotiations with lenders after Varoufakis was sidelined from the talks in April.

Varoufakis' successor is due to be named after a meeting of political leaders that got under way at 10 a.m. (3.00 a.m. EDT).

With banks shuttered, cash machines running out of banknotes and sympathy for Athens among EU governments close to exhausted, Greece's fate is largely in the hands of the European Central Bank and of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The ECB's policymaking governing council was holding a conference call on Monday to decide how long to go on keeping Greek banks afloat after the overwhelming rejection of bailout terms the central bank had helped to shape.

Merkel, under mounting pressure in Germany to cut Greece loose from the euro zone, meets French President Francois Hollande in Paris later in the day to seek a joint response ahead of an emergency summit of euro zone leaders in Brussels on Tuesday.

Public opinion in Europe's biggest economy is fast turning against any further aid to Greece, and Merkel's vice-chancellor, Social Democrat Sigmar Gabriel, said on Sunday that Tsipras had torn down the last bridges of compromise with the euro zone.

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After five years of economic crisis and mass unemployment, Greek electors voted 61.3 percent 'No' to the bailout conditions rejected this month by their radical leftist government, casting Greece into the unknown.

"You made a very brave choice," Tsipras said in a televised address as jubilant supporters thronged Athens' central Syntagma Square to celebrate the act of defiance of Europe's political and financial establishment.

"The mandate you gave me is not the mandate of a rupture with Europe, but a mandate to strengthen our negotiating position to seek a viable solution."





The ECB's policymaking governing council was meeting to decide whether maintain, increase or reduce a lifeline for Greek banks, which have been shuttered for a week with cash withdrawals rationed and money fast running out.

Several people familiar with ECB policy said the central bank would reject a Greek government request to raise the cap on emergency liquidity assistance provided by the Greek central bank and leave the limit unchanged, slowly tightening the noose on the banks but giving them a few more days' air.

The euro tumbled against the dollar on Asian markets after the setback for Europe's monetary union and European shares and bonds were expected to take a hit when markets opened after the weekend.

In early bond trading, investors rushed into safe-haven German bonds while yields on Italian government debt rose sharply.

Asian stocks suffered the biggest daily fall in two years, partly because of fears over China's economy, but Varoufakis' departure may soften the impact in Europe, maintaining a slender prospect of a deal to keep Greece in the euro and avoid a catastrophic bankruptcy.

"The first message to Athens is that no one ever wants to see Varoufakis again after he called us terrorists," an official who attends Eurogroup meetings said.

It was not clear whether Hollande or top EU policymakers had conveyed that message to Tsipras in telephone calls on Sunday evening after the referendum result became clear.

In a parting blog post celebrating the Greek 'Oxi' ('No') vote, Varoufakis said Greeks had taught Europe a lesson in democracy and should now demand better financial rescue terms.

"It is, therefore, essential that the great capital bestowed upon our government by the splendid 'No' vote be invested immediately into a 'Yes' to a proper resolution – to an agreement that involves debt restructuring, less austerity, redistribution in favor of the needy, and real reforms."

EU officials said it would be hard to give Greece easier terms, not least because its economy has plunged back into recession since Tsipras' Syriza party won power in January, leaving public finances in a worse position than when the rejected bailout deal was put together.

Analysts with several major banks including Citi, Barclay's and J.P. Morgan said a "Grexit" from the euro zone was now their base case, or most likely scenario.

But on the streets of Athens, citizens were unrepentant at their defiant vote.

"I voted ‘No’ to austerity; I want this torture to end," said 42-year-old Katerina Sarri, a mother of two manning a Kiosk in Athens.

"I’m aware that we will suffer for years but I’m still hopeful. I need to know that there is light at the end of tunnel, that the lives of my children will be better," she said.



(Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Anna Willard and
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So now comes the question, Who is going to lay down the money to keep Greece from the Fryer?
Putin seems willing to make something of a deal of late but it hangs on building a pipeline with which he can route around Ukraine long term.
 

SampanViking

The Capitalist
Staff member
Super Moderator
VIP Professional
Registered Member
I do wonder if anyone has given consideration to the Geopolitical implications of all this?
We now have Turkey and Greece both; in their own ways, disenchanted with the EU, we have both countries being wooed by Russia with a Gas Pipeline (and other benefits) that will transit and supply both countries both continuing to the EU.
Will historians call 2015 the year Putin took the Dardanelles, Mamara and Bosphorous without firing a shot?
 
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