The Financial Crisis and UK Bank Scandals

1054 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: U.S. Subprime Mortgage Crisis: Policy Reactions(b) conclusion

The Financial Crisis and UK Bank Scandals

In September 2007 the UK banking industry began exhibiting symptoms of the financial crisis that started in America in 2006. Northern Rock was in trouble and had to ask the Bank of England for help. When news of this got out customers started queuing around the block to withdraw their money. In 2008 Northern Rock was nationalised, and in 2012 it was bought by Virgin Money.

Today the banking industry can be seen to be on the road to recovery. But on that road there have been potholes of controversy. I'm thinking Libor, excessive bonuses, payment protection mis-selling and foreign exchange manipulation, to name a few.

But before we look at those in a bit more detail, let's quickly recap on the financial crisis and what it did to UK banking. To do that we need to start in the States.

In 2006 American banks started seeing a rapid rate of default against sub-prime mortgages. These mortgages were granted to high risk customers, many of whom didn't understand what they were getting into, and had difficulties repaying the loans. The banks must take some responsibility for their loose lending principles. For instance, they were happy to lend to NINJAs - customers with No Income, No Job or Assets. And they also offered 'teaser' type mortgages, with an initially low interest rate that was hiked up sharply a few months later. With such a rate of default the price of houses dropped substantially, and your average American became poorer, with many becoming homeless.

Banks tried to mitigate their risk by selling bundles of mortgages to secondary buyers such as investment banks. In a process known as securitization, those secondary buyers might once again re-package the mortgages and sell them as b...

... middle of paper ...

...n exchange rates. Forex traders across several banks were allegedly colluding to set a daily benchmark rate used by corporate customers. Again, this is something that may have been going on for ten years or more. As a result the banks concerned are under investigation and several traders have been suspended. Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, told a Treasury Select Committee in March that the allegations are "as serious as Libor, if not more so".

Just a selection of questionable banking practices then. In the last five years there were also money laundering offences, credit card insurance mis-selling, rogue and insider trading - the list goes on. If money wasn't devalued by inflation I'd just convert all my assets into cash and stick it under the mattress. Maybe I'll be offered a collateralized mortgage obligation instead - who could resist?

Show More
Related

  • Lincoln Savings and Loan Crisis and the Keating Five

    2586 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Savings and Loans Crisis of the 1980’s and early 90’s created the greatest banking collapse since the Great Depression in 1929. Over half the S & L’s failed, along with the FSLIC fund that was created to insure their deposits.

    Read More

  • The Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 and The Federal Reserve

    2612 Words  | 6 Pages

    The financial crisis of 2007–2008 is considered by many economists the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This crisis resulted in the threat of total collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world. The crisis led to a series of events including: the 2008–2012 global recessions and the European sovereign-debt crisis. The reasons of this financial crisis are argued by economists. The performance of the Federal Reserve becomes a focal point in this argument.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Mansion: A Subprime Parable By Michael Lewis

    487 Words  | 1 Pages

    There is no space for argument when saying that agencies, mortgage agents, and various big organisations are to be blamed for this disaster, but they're not the only ones to be blamed for the entire issue. More than half of the blame, according to Lewis, goes to American citizens. In reality, most Americans are blinded by their lack of satisfaction and greed. They desire the luxurious way of life, Americans tend to look beyond their financial capabilities and power in search of unnecessary materialistic objects, such as overly large houses.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between the Great Depression and the Great Recession

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    Leading up to the crisis of the housing market, borrowers got mortgages without understanding the terms. Banks were giving out loans to people the banks weren't sure could pay the money back. The closer to the crisis, the higher the frequency of illegitimate loans and mortgages. Because there were so many mortgages on houses that could not be paid back, millions of mortgages were foreclosed on, and the houses we...

    Read More

  • Causes of the 2008 US Recession

    1519 Words  | 4 Pages

    A majority of mortgage defaults that Americans used were on subprime mortgage loans, which were high-interest-rate loans lent to people with high risk credit rates (Brue). Despite knowing the risks, the Federal government encouraged major banks to lend out these loans to buyers, in hopes, of broadening ho...

    Read More

  • Subprime Mortgage Crisis

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mortgage crisis can evidently be associated with excessive borrowing from the financial institutions without proper considerations of the terms and conditions of the deal. The prospects that surround business in real estate are always promising and this presumption got into the mind of all stakeholders involved in the subprime mortgage lending business. This is because in 2000, the mortgage rates were low and everybody would afford a mortgage. Unfortunately, the financial models were flawed as the rate was adjustable. After many people were nested in the mortgage bracket, greed propelled the rates to levels subprime cannot afford thus leading to foreclosures. It can be concluded that greed, lack of sufficient knowledge and flawed financial models led to the emergency of subprime mortgage crisis.

    Read More

  • The Great Recession

    670 Words  | 2 Pages

    It can be argued that the economic hardships of the great recession began when interest rates were lowered by the Federal Reserve. This caused a bubble in the housing market. Housing prices plummeted, home prices plummeted, then thousands of borrowers could no longer afford to pay on their loans (Koba, 2011). The bubble forced banks to give out homes loans with unreasonably high risk rates. The response of the banks caused a decline in the amount of houses purchased and “a crisis involving mortgage loans and the financial securities built on them” (McConnell, 2012 p.479). The effect on the economy was catastrophic and caused a “pandemic” of foreclosures that effected tens of thousands home owners across the U.S. (Scaliger, 2013). The debt burden eventually became unsustainable and the U.S. crisis deepened as the long-term effect on bank loans would affect not only the housing market, but also the job market.

    Read More

  • Unemployment In The 1930s Essay

    515 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 1920s about 600 banks failed each year (Luke, 2009). No one was terribly concerned because these banks were not very large they were just rural banks. Investors and other businessmen thought that the reason these banks failed was because they were poorly managed and or just weak banks compared to large corporate banks. Some even believed that these bank failures would help strengthen the banking system. However, when the 1930s came around the problem became worse. Imagine working hard and saving enough money so that a new house, or a new Ford Model A, can be purchased. Then one day the money is just gone with no explanation. In 1930 approximately 1,350 banks were closed due to financial difficulties, while others were placed into receivership (Luke, 2009). Within the first four years of the 1930s about 10,000 banks closed. Due to these bank closures people became unemployed, which led to them losing everything. Bank closures in the 1930s caused the wealthy to lose their assets, which resulted in numerous suicides.

    Read More

  • Federal Reserve Act

    1872 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stories of bank runs- tales of people running to withdraw all their cash from their accounts- may seem dramatic, almost theatrical to people today. But to people living in an economically unstable society, like the early twentieth century, they were an expected occurrence. The banks were independent rivals, the amount of currency in circulation was fixed, and there was no element of trust between the depositor and the bank. Abram P. Andrews, secretary of the National Monetary Commission in 1908 provided a vivid description of the banks' quandary at the time:

    Read More

  • Transforming Your Paper into a Presentation

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    Investment banks, Rating agencies and Insurance companies are key components of the financial market. In this presentation, I’m going to explain how these three key roles worked together to create the 2008 financial crisis.

    Read More

  • America, the Great Depression, and The Cinderella Man

    1787 Words  | 4 Pages

    Banks failed due to unpaid loans and bank runs. Just a few years after the crash, more than 5,000 banks closed.... ... middle of paper ... ... Print.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Movie Inside Job

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the first part, “the foundation” is explained and details about the five main dominating banks. The rating agencies are discussed as well as they do not have a reliable rating system for financial institutions. The second part is about the “mortgage boom” in US and how it leaded toward the debt burden and how money is created out of thin air. The third part is about “the crisis” which was warned by advisers

    Read More

  • 2008 Financial Crisis Essay

    1536 Words  | 4 Pages

    The "subprime crises" was one of the most significant financial events since the Great Depression and definitely left a mark upon the country as we remain upon a steady path towards recovering fully. The financial crisis of 2008, became a defining moment within the infrastructure of the US financial system and its need for restructuring. One of the main moments that alerted the global economy of our declining state was the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on Sunday, September 14, 2008 and after this the economy began spreading as companies and individuals were struggling to find a way around this crisis. (Murphy, 2008) The US banking sector was first hit with a crisis amongst liquidity and declining world stock markets as well. The subprime mortgage crisis was characterized by a decrease within the housing market due to excessive individuals and corporate debt along with risky lending and borrowing practices. Over time, the market apparently began displaying more weaknesses as the global financial system was being affected. With this being said, this brings into question about who is actually to assume blame for this financial fiasco. It is extremely hard to just assign blame to one individual party as there were many different factors at work here. This paper will analyze how the stakeholders created a financial disaster and did nothing to prevent it as the credit rating agencies created an amount of turmoil due to their unethical decisions and costly mistakes.

    Read More

  • The Cause and Effect of the Subprime Mortgage Crisis

    1310 Words  | 3 Pages

    The subprime mortgage crisis is an ongoing event that is affecting buyers who purchased homes in the early 2000s. The term subprime mortgage refers to the many home loans taken out during a housing bubble occurring on the US coast, from 2000-2005. The home loans were given at a subprime rate, and have now lead to extensive foreclosures on home loans, and people having to leave their homes because they can not afford the payments. (Chote) The cause and effect of this crisis can be broken down into five major reasons.

    Read More

  • Greediness of Mortgage Lenders

    666 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mortgage loans are a substantial form of revenue for the financial industry. Mortgage loans generate billions of dollars in the financial industry. It is no secret that companies have the ability to make a lot of money by offering a variety of mortgage loan products. The problem was not mortgage loans but that mortgage companies were using unethical behavior to get consumer mortgage loans approved. Unfortunately, the Countrywide Financial case was not an isolated case. Many top name mortgage companies have been guilty of unethical behavior. Just as the American housing market was starting to recover from its worst battering since the Great Depression, a new scandal, an epidemic of flawed or fraudulent mortgage documents, threatens to send not just the housing market but the entire economy back into a tailspin (Nation, 2010).

    Read More

More about The Financial Crisis and UK Bank Scandals

Open Document