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Nick Harvey MPStanding up for North Devon since 1992 |
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BANKING ALBATROSS - LATEST LOSSES
August 5, 2009 3:18 PM
"Despite the massive taxpayer bailout, some banks are still posting losses for the first half of this year," comments Nick Harvey. "This is especially worrying for taxpayers rather than shareholders, as most of the poor quality loans are now being insured by taxpayers, not the banks. Long term this cannot be good."
Northern Rock's losses totalled £724.2m in the first six months of 2009 (compared with £585.4m in the first half of 2008). Lloyds Banking Group made a staggering loss of £4bn in the first half of the year, due to mounting bad debts at HBOS, which it took over in January.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said that big banks were still not lending enough to viable businesses:
"They were reckless in the past - they over-lent in many cases - now they've lurched to the other extreme."
"Good British companies cannot get credit and large numbers of people are losing their jobs as a result, making the recession worse."
Banking group HSBC saw pre-tax profits halve to $5bn (£2.98bn) in the first six months of 2009. Rising bad debts in the US, Europe and Asia forced it to write-off $13.9bn - 39% more than the same period in 2008. In contrast Barclay's pre-tax profits for the first six months came in at £2.98bn ($5bn).
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