Like everyone in the UK I heard with disbelief that money (some £62 Billion) had been paid in secret to RBS & HSBC before the whole banking scandal became public.
If, as it now appears, this money was used to shored up HSBC ready for the Lloyds takeover, surely this means that the price that Lloyd shareholders paid was too high.
I seem to remember a few years ago that laws were brought in to stop what was known as Insider Dealing.
Surely if a trader (or anyone else with appropriate knowledge) made moves to artificially hold high the value of a company that they knew to be wrong, then they could be charged with Insider Dealing and face stiff penalties.
Is this announcement not just another example of one rule for us and one rule for the government?
Yes the Banking system nearly collapsed and we would have all suffered, but this Government only added to the problems with it past actions of too little legislation and a watchdog – The FSA – so ineffective that even the bankers that ran it, had no idea what was going on.
We – the tax payers – are now saddled with so much debt, we will be paying this back to… yes other bankers for many years to come.
What a mess!
Beasley's Place 