Blank Cheque

Extract from interview between Sky News' Jeff Randall and Sir Victor Blank (Chairman of Lloyds Bank). - 19th January 2009


JR:

Why don't the banks come clean, why are they not telling us what's really going on?

VB:

Well this bank has come clean. We showed twelve months ago exactly what we had got in terms of any kinds of toxic assets.

JR:

Including HBOS?

VB:

We didn't own HBOS then.

JR:

But is everything out there now?

VB:

I believe that everything is out there as far as HBOS is concerned. They've made I think three or four statements over the course of the last year explaining exactly what their financial position is.

Peter Cummings: the loaded gun

I might start a collection of quotations from the directors of various banks over the last year or two. To get the ball rolling, here's one from Peter Cummings, HBOS' former head of corporate finance. According to the Telegraph, "Mr Cummings received a £1.8m bonus last year on top of his salary and has built up a £5.97m pension pot that will pay him a retirement income of £344,000 a year from the age of 60." Another profile of the guy that won't have to worry about money, while the millions of people affected by this bubble go down like flies, is from the Guardian, here.

http://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/corporate/pdf/propertydealleader11.pdf
(see page 2)

Peter Cummings: The loaded gun

"At Bank of Scotland Corporate, we and our partners have been
deliberately prudent in our approach to commercial real estate in
contrast to the unrealistic top-of-the-cycle behaviours we’ve been
witnessing elsewhere.

We’ve seen enough of finance in the hands of amateurs in real estate in the last
two to three years. And that’s been dangerous. The loaded gun
we’re now giving the next generation of promising property
entrepreneurs will absolutely score – for them and for us."

Peter Cummings



"It was hard work for
a team of unfit bankers"
(from page 1)

Priceless.