Britain’s Post Office to offer current (bank) accounts

www.bbc.co.uk • April 10, 2013

The Post Office is to offer current accounts in the UK, following a regulator’s claim that the market offers little choice for consumers.

The new account, provided by Bank of Ireland, will be available in some areas in the coming weeks before a wider launch next year.

Few details have been released about the characteristics of the current account at this stage.

In January, a regulator said the market was dominated by a few providers.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said that Lloyds, RBS, Barclays and HSBC held 75% of the market.

This led to a “lack of dynamism” from the banks, it said, together with a lack of choice for customers, meaning they were unlikely to switch to a different bank.

The Post Office, which has 11,500 branches, already offers a range of financial products in a link with Bank of Ireland.

Some three million Post Office customers already use products such as savings accounts, mortgages and insurance policies.

Read the entire article here.

It Can Happen Here: The Confiscation Scheme Planned for US and UK Depositors

Ellen Brown • http://www.huffingtonpost.com • April 3, 2013

Confiscating the customer deposits in Cyprus banks, it seems, was not a one-off, desperate idea of a few eurozone troika officials scrambling to salvage their balance sheets. A joint paper by the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Bank of England dated December 10, 2012, shows that these plans have been long in the making; that they originated with the G20 Financial Stability Board in Basel, Switzerland (discussed earlier here); and that the result will be to deliver clear title to the banks of depositor funds. New Zealand has a similar directive, discussed earlier here.

Read the entire article here.

School districts pay dearly for bonds…ANOTHER reason for publicly-owned banks!

Trey Bundy and Shane Shifflett, California Watch • http://www.sfgate.com • January 31, 2013

The Napa Valley Unified School District had a quandary: The district needed a new high school in American Canyon, but taxpayers appeared unwilling to take the financial hit required to build it.

So in 2009, the district took out an unusual loan: $22 million with no payments due for 21 years. By 2049, when the debt is paid, it will have cost taxpayers $154 million - seven times the amount borrowed.

…This form of borrowing has created billions of dollars in debt for taxpayers and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for financial advisers and underwriters. Voters are usually unaware of the bonds’ high interest. At least one state, Michigan, has banned their use.

Read the entire article here.

PBI Newsletter, March 2013: TPP and Public Banks, Cyprus, Letter from a Vermont Farmer, and more…

PBI Newsletter, March 2013 • PublicBankingInstitute.org • March 29, 2013

The PBI (Public Banking Institute) March 2013 Newsletter is here!
Sign up for the Newsletter here.

Yes, We Can Have Banks That Work For the People

Richard (RJ) Eskow • http://www.huffingtonpost.com • March 28, 2013

We all know the banking system is broken. It’s easy to become pessimistic in the face of corporate and political corruption, but the system can be changed. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again.

One pathway to genuine reform is “public banking”: the establishment of banks which are owned at operated by the government, and which serve people and small businesses directly. Here’s why public banking should be included in the agenda for deep and genuine financial reform.

Read the entire article here.

Understanding Money by John H. Hotson

John H. Hotson • PCDForum Article #15 • June 1, 1996

An understanding of the true nature of money is essential for those seeking economic reforms toward the creation of sustainable societies…

…Governments got into this mess by violating four common sense rules regarding their fiscal and monetary policies. These rules are:

1. No sovereign government should ever, under any circumstances, give over democratic control of its money supply to bankers.

2. No sovereign government should ever, under any circumstances, borrow any money from any private bank.

3. No national, provincial, or local government should borrow foreign money to increase purchases abroad when there is excessive domestic unemployment.

4. Governments, like businesses, should distinguish between “capital” and “current” expenditures, and when it is prudent to do so, finance capital improvements with money the government has created for itself.

Read the entire article here.

Richard Werner: Local Banks – Their Vital Role

Charles Bazlinton • www.youtube.com • May 20, 2011

“…Banks, in all countries at the moment, have been given the PRIVILEGE to creating the money supply, and allocate the money as they see fit.”

In the UK the Coalition Government has for some time been pleading the banks to lend to small and medium-sized businesses – with the aim of kick-starting economic growth. But it has not worked. In this video interview Professor Werner shows how this failure is particular to the UK due to the size of the banks. There is a mismatch. These huge centralised international banks are not suited for lending to local and regonal businesses. This means that small local businesses are throttled and the shape of the economy is skewed in favour of large firms. A Government committed to localism and the participation of all under its Big Society banner should heed Dr Werner’s clear agenda of what should be done now to provide Banking for the BIg Society.

 

Watch the video here.