Member Info for Just_My_Opinions

No not a fan of EWT, I found it's results to be very inaccurate. I can honestly say almost always it's been wrong. I've seen loads of predictions with it, that never happen. And hardly any that do work out as accurate.

The banks are one big ATM machine for claimants. The deadline is the 29/08/2019 so there's a good chance there will be a massive influx of claims before the deadline.

The above RNS quote shows they've compensated on 53% of all PPI policies since 2000, so they must have records all the way back to 2000 for them to be able to say "since 2000" surely?

So what do you think would have happened to all the banks on the brink of collapse if the Government hadn't injected cash?

Humans are only ever 3 square meals away from anarchy.

So 47% of the policies haven't even been claimed on yet. What's the deadline for claiming? That might cause a big influx of claims nearer the time.

Calisto,

You're pigeon holing the discussion into the UK only with the first post. This happened all over the Western world with nearly all the major banks mate. The UK has at least tried to prevent it from happening again by forcing the Retail and Investment banks to ring fence their operations... but the structure of what I say stands.

It's widely accepted that this is the main point of how it happened. I don't disagree with the points you raised though... I've read this literally loads of times, both left wing and right wing... there's even been entire movies made about it.

Andy,

Obviously I can't prove what I'm saying because I don't have the ability to show you the future. But I genuinely believe the EU won't exist in the future. If it's still around by 2030 to 2035 I expect a massive chunk of it's constituent countries will have left.

I expect migration from Africa to run into the hundreds of millions (Even President Macron of France said this) and I expect migration from other very dangerous countries to continue. And I believe it's logical to expect the respective populations of the EU's constituent countries to become very angry, voting in very Conservative governments (not like our pathetic Tory's) very Conservative governments who will lock their respect countries borders down.

And in doing so they will fall clash with the EU. In my opinion the only way the EU can survive is to remove the Freedom of Movement, and for all constituent countries in the EU to come together to lock the EU's borders down strongly and to implement very strict immigration procedures.

This might happen of course, I might be proven wrong. But I can't see all of the countries doing this.

I don't want Labour to win, because I think Marxism will destroy our economy. I think Brexit is nothing compared to what Marxism will do.

But I'm honest... I fully expect Jeremy Corbyn to be the UK's next Prime Minister.

I voted Leave so I will vote UKIP, but I don't know if UKIP has the ability to run the country. But I also don't think they could do much worse than Labour or the Conservatives.

One has almost decimated public services and the armed forces, bringing all of them to the brink. The other deregulated the financial service industry and almost destroyed our entire financial system, sold off our gold and let in half the 3rd world.

I'd much rather have proportionate voting then everyone gets representation in parliament, and everyone's vote actually matters.

James,

In all honesty... there is "no" party that would be beneficial to the UK in it's entirety. Labour are controlled by 300,000 Far Left nutcases (Momentum), The Conservatives (who I normally vote for) are full of Elitists trying their best not to implement what the majority of the country voted for, leaving the EU or at least water it down to the point where there's not much difference between remaining or leaving.

UKIP would implement the democratic vote in it's entirety, but I'm not convinced they have the ability to run the country. With that said, clearly the Conservatives don't, and neither does Labour.

We have a very divided society, I think the only solution would be to implement proportionate voting. That way every section of society would be represented in parliament. But keep the same voting system for parliament in that the most votes wins and either passes or deny's the passing of new laws.

But the politicians care more about themselves than implementing a proportionate voting system. So it can't happen without some serious strife first. I think over time the strife will happen.

I know Jeremy Corbyn and McDonnell will just make things worse, but it's easy to see why the young prefer Labour. They want to rob the rich to pay the poor. I think this needs to happen to an extent too...

But Labour will take it to the extremes. No extreme is the right answer from either side of the political spectrum.

"Institutional Investors demanded higher and higher yield and fully understood that higher yield meant higher risk."

From everything I've read there was 4 stages.

1. Deliberately lend money to higher credit risks.
2. Package those loans into products called CDO's (Collateralised Debt Obligations)
3. Move the CDO's from the Retail banks to the Investment banks, where the investment banks would then sell them on to their clients as very low risk investments. Because who wants to default on their mortgage etc.
4. A lot of those clients/investors insured their CDO's against default with companies like AIG (Worlds biggest insurer at the time).

That led to the next 4 stages...

1. Defaults on the debts started increasing.
2. The retail banks almost completely stopped lending because they couldn't shift the toxic debt to the investment banks. and they didn't want more exposure.
3. The Investment banks couldn't shift the debt they had already taken on.
4. And loads of investors started claiming the insurers for their junk CDO's.

So we had a Credit Crunch and a massive amount of repossessed properties flooding the market crashing house prices. Banks going under and insurance companies almost doing the same.

So the Governments bailed them all out... and the rest of us are still paying for it till this day. In the form of cuts to public services, increased inflation etc some of which literally causing more deaths than necessary.

And the people responsible for it almost completely got off with it all... some of which swanned off to other high paid jobs or big pensions in their retirement.

Lost their jobs and houses*

The PPI payment would never have even happened if some very rich person on the BOD of whatever bank started it all hadn't pushed relentlessly for it to be sold just so he could bulk his bonus up.

Think how many people lost their jobs during the Financial crash/Credit Crunch and all because some very greedy Executives in the banks created Collateralised Debt Obligations full of debt that should never have been granted to people who couldn't afford it.

How many of those people who lost their houses and/or lost their houses who then went on to either do what your Friends brother did, or who simply decided to end their lives. And all because of what those executives did. Not everyone is clued up in this world, not everyone is mentally strong enough make the right choices. Some are and still lose everything.... but the elite at the top of the tree don't care.

Not only did the above happen... but think how many public services suffered for years after it and are still suffering right now because of the mammoth bailouts required to stop the whole financial system collapsing and taking Western civilization with it. So many people will have died due to the NHS not being able to afford X, Y and Z drugs. Disabled people (genuine disabled people) not getting the help they need, mental healthcare starved of funds...

And all because some rich bankers wanted to boost their bonuses, and a totally incompetent government them allowed them to run riot.

The bank I worked for (not Lloyds), there was a culture of fear. You had to hit sales targets, or you were put on a (PIP) personal improvement plan. I was actually one of the top performers for months, but in the end I got burned out with it, and stopped giving a sh*t about selling. I then found another job whilst they were trying to manage me out the door.

When I was selling the management loved me, they'd do everything possible to make you feel good. Incentives, letting you go early if you sold enough, stroking the ego, time off the phone to train others how to sell etc. The bonuses weren't very big to be honest, but for an unskilled job sometimes you could take home a bonus nearly as much as your salary. The people selling were a mixture of ethical sellers, and ruthless liars that only gave a sh*t about themselves.

We were encouraged to mark our sales up on a board at the end of the banks of desks... so we were all in competition with each other to sell the most. The one who filled up their target first got home early, or some other incentive. I refused to miss-sell. I always felt bad for the customers, most of which weren't wealthy, they'd phone up trying to activate a Credit card. I could see them sitting with a maxed out overdraft, and they were obviously borrowing from Peter to pay Paul... I used to introduce my sales pitch in a way that I knew it would be rejected by those people.

When someone came in with a bit of money, not rich but not struggling either... I'd offer them the PLP and CRP in a way that made logical sense to them, I'd then have all my answers to any objections they had until I talked them into it. So my customers always knew what they were agreeing to and how much it would cost them.

But all around me, people were using very dodgy tactics to sell more. Inevitably they were the top performers, I was close to them as I worked hard. But rarely was I top. If I sold like them I could be top... but I had a conscience.

There's no doubt it came from the BOD, then down to Heads of business areas, then to operations managers, then team managers then the phone monkey's like I was.

The problem with scandals in banking is... the courts almost always rule fines. The banks pay the fines and the shareholders through no fault of their own suffer.

But the executives that authorised the miss-selling, or the CDO scandals etc... they barely get a slap on the wrist. And off they go to their next venture, no punishment, no lesson learned ready to cause the next scandal.

Another favorite is the "select committees" ... a pantomime setup with Government ministers questioning the elite over something they did wrong, making them squirm... but not giving them actual punishment for what they did. Over and over again, the very rich basically robbing people in a "legal" way... and getting of with nothing more than a difficult grilling.

But I guarantee you if I walked into a bank with a Ski Mask on, weapon in hand demanding money... I'd be going to jail for longer than a murderer gets.

The Elite protect the Elite it's obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes and ears.

miss-selling* not misspelling haha

Years ago I worked in a call center for a big bank (won't name it)... I sold Cardholder Repayment protection (CRP) and Personal Loan Protection (PLP).

I stuck to compliance 100% and my customers knew what I was offering them because I made sure they did by questioning them. I had to work harder for my sales as a result. Some people in my team were implying it was more likely the customer would get accepted for a Loan if they took it. And some lied saying when their credit card is activated we also activate CRP.

I told my manager about it, because the people doing it were getting more time off, getting away early etc but they were blatantly misspelling. I was told they weren't misspelling, even though I heard them with my own ears doing it.

Then you'd get customers phoning up with debt problems, and a big chunk of the debt they had accrued was payments to Personal Loan Protection, or Cardhold Repayment Protection...

I've got no doubt the banks are still misspelling other things, there was a relentless pressure to sell as much as possible with no thought for the consequences. People were scared of losing their jobs if they didn't hit sales targets, even though the job was always supposed to be customer service with sales if the customer needed it.

When I found out about the Courts Ruling against PPI and CPI I had a big smile on my face, first thing I thought was "Karma"... then I thought, there's no Karma, because the people at the top putting all the pressure on moved on to various other companies, still making an absolute fortune, and ultimately the only people that suffered was the shareholders.

It's about more than Trump. China has Debt to GDP at 235%, it's already fooked... Trump is just hastening it. The Chinese Market got gubbed again today, and it's taking the miners with it.

It can't hold any gains, so many times it rises to the top of it's range, then bang drops like a rock. There's a lot of uncertainty in the market right now.