UKUncut is selling the public short. The implicit subsidy that the banks get from the state standing by to bail them out – which enables the banks to borrowly more cheaply than otherwise – is only one issue. What of the misselling of financial products to further boost bank profits?

“The Financial Services Authority has hit Barclays (BARC.L) with a record 7.7 million pound fine for mis-selling two income investment products to more than 12,000 clients who lost money during the financial crisis.” [January 2011]
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLNE70H03B20110118

The Financial Services Authority last year put the cost of compensation claims [for Payment Protection Insurance misselling] at £4.2bn, however City analysts said the claims could exceed this with Morgan Stanley putting the cost at more than £5bn.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8503298/Banks-abandon-challenge-over-PPI-mis-selling.html

As the spending on the NHS would have gone down under a Labour government and is at worst frozen and at best, linked to inflation under the Coalition government, can I presume they are protesting against Labour plans for the NHS?

Or do they see cutting waste as a bad thing?

@2

As UNuncut are affiliated to no party then the answer to your question must be yes.

*UKuncut, clearly…

UK Uncut, the anti-austerity action group, is rallying activists to transform banks nationwide into hospitals, operating theatres and GPs surgeries, to demand that government focus on banking reform than NHS cuts.

Did they really put out a press release with a ‘rather’ missing (it should be the fourth word from the end of that quote)? Highly effective…

I am also slightly bemused as to how they expect to do this transforming without getting themselves arrested for tresspass or criminal damage. I think after their last attempt at major protest, UKUncut might be less tolerated any more.

And as for doing this on a Saturday, is it really a good idea to inconvenience bank customers who have limited service on that day, but often need to use it (it is the major day for sorting out mortgages or loans for example)? I can’t see how ”demanding government focus” is going to work if at the same time you just irritate more people…

one might almost get the misleading impression from the OP that we, the taxpayer, are giving the banks £100bn per year which if we weren’t, we could spend on the NHS. I hope UKuncut will be careful not to give the wrong impression when they draw attention to it (the implicit subsidy).

however, we could be charging the banks £100bn per year* for the guarantee we provide and spending that on the NHS

(* they’d never wear quite that much – that’s one of those “as much as” estimates, back of fag packet stuff).

I don’t think UKuncut should overlook undisclosed conflicts of interests in the ways that banks deal with their clients:

“Goldman Sachs apparently failed to declare a potential conflict of interest which resulted in pushing up the cost of a £23.5billion bail-out of Lloyds Banking Group, City sources claimed last night. The allegation that the Wall Street bank may have put its own interests ahead of its British clients comes just a week after it was accused of fraud in the US.” [April 2010]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1268378/Goldman-Sachs-conflict-inflated-Lloyds-bail-costs.html

Or the scope for insider trading:

A City banker who amassed almost £600,000 through insider trading with his wife and a friend has been jailed for three years and four months. [February 2011]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12345373

actually, sorry, of course charging them as suggested a 7 is a bad idea – the last thing we want is to sell them bailout insurance, and watch them leverage up knowing they’ve paid for a bailout when required.

That is a tiresome, boring set of links. From the OP we go to Treasure Islands which does not have enough words for any debate, thankfully advising readers: “Phew! If you want the pdf of his presentation…”. Treasure Islands links to a video labelled as a “remarkable presentation”.

I doubt that few people will view the video to which Treasure Island links in entirety. Count yourselves lucky if you followed a few of those links and lived.

This is not internet campaigning. No humans are involved.

“That is a tiresome, boring set of links. ”

IMO the links @1 and @8 to news reports are illuminating because they show beyond dispute what our banks and bankers really do and how they make their profits. Needless to say, some don’t wish such press reports to be disseminated. Ignorance is strength.

@ Bob,

Aren’t your posts 1 & 8 irrelevant to the discussion? These are illegal practices and banks / individuals are being taken to court.

@12: “These are illegal practices and banks / individuals are being taken to court.”

That almost suggests these are really rather peripheral issues whereas the scale of the financial rewards to banks and bankers are vast compared with the incomes of most folk.

I’ve suggested before that we need to reflect on how banks in Britain make their profits – and by several reports British banks are more profitable on average than their counter-parts in most other west European countries, which could be an outcome of the reduced competitive pressures on the banks because of the greater market concentration of the leading banks here, another issue which UKuncut could look into.

The recent conviction on trial of a hedge fund manager for insider trading in America illustrates the challenges prosecuting authorities face in collecting evidence to make a case in court – which suggests that insider trading could be far more prevalent than is commonly suspected:

Lawyers see green light in verdict for wiretaps
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d218d0d8-71ae-11e0-9adf-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1M6Zl5OKi

@13 Yes I believe they are peripheral issues and form a small part of bank profits.

And hedge funds are not banks.

I find the suggestion that in Britain there is not very much competition in banking very surprising. There are many options for meeting your financkial services needs in this country. When I went to take out my mortgage the IFA I went to had 1400 different offers for me to choose from. There must be at least 10 providers of current accounts in the market place.