Hi Financial experts. Plenty of info on Swiss banks and how safe they might be, but what about our dearly beloved banks at home, especially in light of the rescue deal in the states being rejected?

I understand that in the UK depositors have 35k guarantee - does that apply to say channel islands as well? Isle of Man? What about other European countries? Damn BBC all about the states and UK, nothing that I've seen on the rest of Europe.

Don't know about the whole of Europe but the irish government has just announced that it will guarantee all deposits with and debts of a number of Irish Banks for two years. So if you have Euros, Ireland looks like a safer place to park your dosh.
I believe I read some where that the UK deposit protection scheme does not extend to offshore banks like Jersey and the Isle of Man.

This assumes that governments can support such guarantees.

Every government has theoretically unlimited supplies of money as they can just print more, but the consequences of that and whether the Euro zone countries can do that anymore is another can of worms...

Well last I heard was that the Irish government have raised the guarantee level to €100,000

Jim

You're right but it's unlikely all the banks in Ireland would go belly up so the risk is not as big as it seems to be. After yesterdays collapse in Irish Bank stocks the fear was a liquidity squeeze arising from a run on the banks. This should stop that. And they are charging the banks for the guarantee. But it does raise the stake - is a sovereign guarantee the ultimate in "too big to fail"

That was before stocks of Irish banks tumbled 20% to 35% yesterday. Things move fast these days!

We'll see how well that works out for Iceland.

Try this: Europe Sees Three Bank Bailouts in Two Days (Der Speigel)

300,000 people sitting on top of an active volcano. They have bigger problems than the credit crunch!

Just back from France.
Saw on local TV that deposits there are insured Eur 70k.
Discovered from a wealthy norwegian tourist that up there accts are guaranteed up to Eur 250k per deposit per bank.
Of course if things go bad, you can always ask to be paid in barrels of crude oil

Paul

The compensation rate in the UK has been raised today from £35K to £50k.

The UK deposit protection scheme indeed does not extend to the Isle of Man, the island has its own protection scheme which provides a guarantee of up to 75% of a 20,000 max. So in other-words 15,000 pounds.

The only accounts available in the Isle of Man fully guaranteed are the National Savings accounts from the post office (which are then UK based).

The Isle of Man treasury have announced increased protection on accounts held in the Isle of Man with an increased limit of £50,000 no matter where you reside.

Unfortunately the protection is not immediately available but only after a session of Tynwald (Manx government) later in the month.

http://www.gov.im/fsc/ViewNews.gov?p...orscompen1.xml

Interest rates have just been cut by 1/2% in the UK and Switzerland and other lands...

In the Netherlands, guarantees for all banks are now up to 100.000 Euros.

Edit: I wonder if Swiss interest rates, like those of PostFinance will go down now and how soon?

Excellent. My mortgage will go down. Or am I being too naive?

I've been thinking what would actually happen if a major bank in the UK really was allowed to die. I figure the administrator would have to foreclose on the mortgages, but then, who would remortgage for those people, or otherwise buy the houses in any case?

My sister informs me there are lots of places available now as (a) noone can sell, and (b) people want to sell as their cost of living is too high and they cannot afford their mortgages!

Hmm. Sounds like we might be able to eventually buy a house at some point if they keep falling like this. You never know - there might be a silver lining in that property shows on channels 4 and 5 might disappear...

Here's one for you. RBS on Jersey have said to us personally that they cannot guarantee the safety of our deposits. They are writing a press release for their customers now.

For those with money in the Isle of Man, the increased protection rate of 50,000 should come into effect today as the government have called an emergency session to get it approved.

Just a little perspective here regarding offshore banks. Many are specialist savings and wealth management institutions ie they are hoarders of cash. That means they do a lot less lending than typical banks and as such have multiples more customer deposits than customer loans which gives them a very high degree of stability in terms of short term funding. And it's lack of liquidity - lack of short term funding in the interbank market - which is the major bank risk today and which is responsible for recent bank failures. Though these days you take the protection you can get, this differentiator in business model for offshore banks is probably worth more than a deposit scheme protection scheme or "guarantee" from a island with a population of 80,000. Of course not all offshore banks are the same, you have to do your own due diligence and make sure you're with a major player in the asset gathering business.