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Spain is poised to grow at a faster rate than the United States over the next three years and will emerge as a shining light of the European recovery story, GAM’s Niall Gallagher has said. http://citywire.co.uk/money/spain-can-outstrip-us-growth-says-gams-gallagher/a810762?re=33880&ea=222385&utm_source=BulkEmail_Money_Daily_Summary&utm_medium=BulkEmail_Money_Daily_Summary&utm_campaign=BulkEmail_Money_Daily_Summary

"..Locked in a race with Coca Cola"? Are they clutching at straws?

By today's standards, Nick Leeson was hard done by. What's extraordinary is that those who handle our incomes and savings, appear to have used him as a role model rather than an example of bad practice! He was the tip of a very large iceberg that the finance industry evidently took no action to avoid.

Good job it wasn't Warren Buffet or I'd be thinking of selling after his Tesco example.

In a sense this share is in limbo for the time being. The merger was leaked which was bad for the company albeit probably superficially providing they hang the culprit before more leaks occur. Then we await the scheme document to be released next month, giving more details of the tactics for dealing with the change. Then there will be a meeting in March to obtain shareholder approval. So there's a lot of stuff in the air waiting to fall to earth before a realistic appraisal of the SP can be made.

At first glance, any pain in Spain should be bad news for a Spanish bank. However thanks to Santander's very wide geographical diversification and strength overseas it does only 1/3rd of its business in Spain. Seems bad news from the Spanish economy is good news for those like me who want to buy more of this stock.

Is linking up with Friends Life quite as exuberant as what NR got up to - borrowing money to create junk that no one wanted? The taint of aggressive expansion that created Aviva might linger and organic growth is always better evidence of a good company. However whilst it's possible that the cost of purchase and merger might take longer to recoup than anticipated, is there a worse case scenario?

Am just about even stevens on the shares i got under sharesave. The dividends have been the saving grace. There's a lot to be said about the fact Moss was evicted,not an easy process and might be sign that investors are less easy to please. Especially with Prudential setting an example up front. I don't want to see Aviva (as its now called) going down the acquisitions route again - as you say, Life legacy systems are a real drag on performance.

"Aviva has almost halved in value since the turn of the millennium. The shares were worth more than £10 in 2000 before the company’s profits and share price collapsed in 2002 after the dotcom bust." Aviva didn't exist at the turn of the millennium! At the turn of the millennium it was called 'CGU' and in 2001 became 'CGNU' before the name 'Aviva' arrived in 2002. It had a volatile share price as the below figures show: Dec 1999 CGU share price £ 9.37; May 2000 CGU share price £ 5.24; Dec 2000 CGU share price £10.71; Mar 2001 CGNU sp £11.25 ; May 2001 CGNU sp £ 4.22 ; jun 2002 CGNUsp £ 7.74 ; Nov2002 Aviva sp £ 5.09 . The real problem in the 21st century was the lack-lustre performance under Andrew Moss, not the dot-com bubble.

Other than cost savings it's possible that Wilson simply saw the need to swallow up Friends before someone else did.

Realreturn, I too am a redundant Aviva worker (2005) having started at General Accident years before. I regret the string of acquisitions that made Aviva regarding them as too similar in nature to the ABN Amro fiasco that took down RBS. We had strong links to RBS through bankassurance and must be grateful for having had genuine professionals around to preserve the company to some extent from that madness before the banking crisis hit. From a shareholding rather than jobholding perspective I'm selfishly not completely pessimistic about this move but I'd be interested to hear what Norwich people think. My last link to the past is praying for redundancy!

"Aviva and Friends Life are in talks about a possible £5.6bn merger deal, the two insurance companies have said." Sounds like this could happen.. "Any tie-up would create the UK's leading insurance, savings and asset management firm by customer numbers. Friends Life said it had "indicated to Aviva that it is willing to recommend the key financial terms of the possible offer to Friends Life shareholders". Aviva would offer Friends Life shareholders 0.74 shares for each Friends Life share."

Hmmm.. RBS was worse but their drop is less than half as severe today. Also this: "Banco Santander made a profit of ?2.26bn in the first half of 2013, up 29% on last year and roughly equal to its full-year profit for 2012. It has also bolstered its capital cushion, up 0.44% in the first half to 11.11%, and is on course to meet its full capital requirements under Basel III five years early. " of a few days ago here: http://www.iii.co.uk/articles/123452/why-i-love-banco-santander-sa Could be just a knee-jerk?

"this could mean that shares in Santander trade at a level that is 50% higher than the current share price in 2015." http://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2014/10/27/2-stocks-set-to-surge-by-50-in-2015-standard-chartered-plc-and-banco-santander-sa/ esp. given this morning's tumble.

An interesting report, particularly the bit about their investment in Canada, a country I visited this year. Calgary is quite literally a boom town for the energy sector and the other areas we visited also looked in excellent shape. Vancouver particularly so. A good place for a bank to do business, I think.

Just been dithering about snapping up a few bargains and now it's too late. Anyone know when will the IMF next open its big mouth? I need to be ready..

..Aviva shares are, and should be at the boring end of the investment spectrum. A long time ago when buying one its constituent's shares I was told - 'they just track the market',and so it did until swallowed by Aviva and times got a bit more exciting. Now it's back to boring as it should be and I've bought where i get my groceries, tesco, being a contrarian. It's only what i can afford to lose, as ever, but more interesting. Yesterday a farmer was driving his tractor and large trailer round and round the car park. Whatever next?

I'd suggest that having a go at insurers is an easy way to make yourself popular. For decades folk have moaned about having to lock in their savings to get a return and why wouldn't they? Even the endowment furore was overblown since those complaining overlooked the fact that whilst reduced inflation meant their payout was reduced it also meant the value of the security, the house, was at least maintained but in most cases had soared. UK insurance companies might have gone the way of the banks but they did not; small credit they are being given for that! Despite what Osborne might wish, people cannot stop saving if they wish to safeguard their futures. They cannot blow everything they have put by to re-inflate the economic bubble and to hell with the consequences. Nor can the average saver match the expertise or influence of a financial giant such as Aviva or Prudential in getting the best return. Personally, over a lot of years, I've done well out of these companies products. The ones that let me down are those that were bought by banks - Scottish Widows for example. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/10456993/Scottish-Widows-secretly-moves-billions-into-dud-funds.html

All insurance companies hedge their bets by laying off risk with reinsurance companies: Swiss Re, Munich Re, etc. Thus the effects of any large payouts are spread amongst many companies. If the 'experts' have done their job the risk to Aviva would be minimal and they would in any case recoup payouts through increased premiums if need be.

Am of the opinion the failure will be better for Santander than RBS. For a start, the price agreed back in 2010 must have been based on more optimistic forecasts than those prevailing today. I am also sceptical as to the good will with which the transfer would have been made. I think Santander would have been presented with something of a lemon to suck. (I have had hands-on experience of such matters). Further expansion would at this stage not help Santander's improvement of their customer or public relations.