Sunday, July 12, 2009

Why you can't bank on the Isle of Man

"Trust is a relationship of reliance. Trust is a prediction of reliance on an action, based on what a party knows about the other party. Trust is a statement about what is otherwise unknown -- for example, because it is far away, cannot be verified, or is in the future." Wikipedia

Trust has become a big issue in British society. The sense of betrayal is widespread and becoming deep rooted in the minds of citizens. Events over the past 12 months have caused the Nation to mistrust the institutions of Parliament, the activities of Whitehall, the shenanigans of banks, the dubious operations of the City & questionable mechanisms of international finance.

It is the issue of the trustworthiness of banks that is probably of most concern to people, because if their hard earned money isn't in their pocket it is either under the matress or in a bank. That is the reason why the Prime Minister & the Chancellor have spoken & acted to try to reassure people that their money is safe irrespective of events that have caused people to think otherwise.

The big problem is that Tony Brown, Chief Minister of the Isle of Man - whose economy relies heavily on the island’s financial services industry - can not speak and act in the same way. Trust is not a concept that fits into the the way the IoM does business. Yes, every bank peddling for your money all shout "trust me" but the simple fact is you can not take them at their word. Why? because their word is not their bond, and the literature and hard sell tells you all the reasons why you should trust them with your money but does not tell you the risks of banking with them. For that you have to rely on what the crafty Chief of the FSC says, & if you do that then you will not put your trust in a bank on the Isle of Man.

3 comments:

  1. I have come here from Youtube after seeing the videos about not banking on the Isle of Man. Its amazing what is going on under our noses & we didn't know anything about it. If this were happening in England I think there would be riots. I read somewhere 95% of the wealth of the UK is held by 5% of people & institutions, and bankers are amongst them. God! don't we need a revolution!

    Mike Morrison

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  2. The financial regulators with their minimum capital requirements for the banks that depend on the ratings trusted the credit rating agencies so much that they did not even think that these agencies could be captured by other interests.

    Trust you say? I will tell you what trust is. The financial regulators still trust the credit rating agencies. That´s trust!… although bordering on insane.

    Cheers

    http://bit.ly/gNemy

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  3. The big question is: "who pays the credit rating agencies?" The Isle of Man gets what it pays for. If its economy is so strong why does it need credit rating?
    I believe Kaupthing had AAA rating...mmmmm

    Chris Fellows

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