"How about if you could make a living doing the things you love?"
A Portfolio Life
  • Home
  • Working
  • Writing
  • Gambling

Notes on Bankers (3) If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Oh. 

20/1/2014

0 Comments

 
I like listening to bankers talk about banking, They often let slip things that they're probably not meant to. Of course, this is exactly why the coffee houses of the City were so successful back in the day (centuries before Starbucks); why the pavements outside City pubs remain a better bet for inside information than the Hargreaves Lansdown newsletter, and why Regulators have no excuse whatsoever for pretending they didn't know what was going on.

Anyway, I liked this quote in the Guardian attributed to Declan Williams, a banker, aged 50.  It confirms something another friend told me after a few too many XO Cognacs. Put simply, banks are fucked and currently it's all just a devil-take-the-hindmost, dead-cat bounce of a last-ditch money grab dressed up as business as usual (I think that's what he said. I may have overlooked the odd mathematical model and occasional drunken rationalisation – but hey – XO cognac).


Here's how, the presumably more sober, Williams put it :

"There's definitely been a reaction (to lending) by the banks. If you really drilled in hard enough, a lot of the banks are basically bust. They can't afford to crystallise their own losses. They've got a huge amount of debt underwater. They cosmetically keep these companies alive, but downstream, the SME community has their money sucked out. If you're an SME and you're very asset rich they'll still pawn-broke you. And if you're an entrepreneur, they'll entertain you, because they have to be out there saying 'we're open for business' but you won't see any money."








0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Working

    A self-employed training consultant muses on the world of work. 





    Archives

    August 2019
    July 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    May 2016
    March 2016
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Banking
    Hr
    Job Hunting
    Leadership
    Silly Work Stories
    Training

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly