Christmas Windfall For Barnsley Building Society

Members of Barnsley Building Society are in for an unexpected Christmas present as they will receive up to £5,000, after the building society recovered money tied up in failed Icelandic banks.

Barnsley was forced to merge with Yorkshire Building Society after £10M it had deposited with two Icelandic banks, Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander and Heritable Bank, was feared lost.

However, as per the Telegraph, it promised that any money it recovered from the banks' administrators would be returned to its savers and borrowers. Approximately £8.8M has been recovered.

Barnsley's savers will receive 3.31% of their total savings balance held with the society on October 21 2008, subject to a minimum of £25 and a maximum of £5,000. Borrowers will get a flat payment of £250, although all payments will be taxed at source. Approximately 28,000 account holders will benefit.

To qualify for the windfalls, savers and borrowers are required to have maintained continuous membership between October 21 2008 and October 21 this year with one or more of the brands in the Yorkshire Group, which also includes Chelsea and Norwich & Peterborough building societies and Egg.

The payments are expected to be completed by 21 December, just in time for Christmas.

Tchenguiz Brothers Arrested

The FT reports that Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz, the high profile property entrepreneurs, have been arrested as part of an investigation into the collapse of Kaupthing, the Icelandic investment bank.

Enforcement officers from the Serious Fraud Office and the City of London police made the arrests in the early hours of this morning. It is reported that a raid has also been carried out on the offices of Rotch Property, the investment vehicle that controls the brothers' property portfolio.

Additionally eight residential addresses in London were searched (seven men were arrested), and two residential properties in Reykjavik were searched (two men were arrested).

Robert Tchenguiz lost £1BN in one day when the UK subsidiary of Kaupthing collapsed.

Euro 40BN Claim Against Kaupthing Bank

Wikileaks reports that 28167 claims, totalling over 40 billion euro, have been lodged against the failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing Bank hf.

FSA Asleep At The Wheel - As Per Usual

Yet again Britain's hapless Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been found to be asleep at the wheel.

It transpires that way back in 2005, the FSA was warned by Tony Shearer (CEO of Singer & Friedlander Group) not to give the go-ahead for the Icelandic bank Kaupthing's acquisition of Singer & Friedlander.

For why?

In Shearer's view the management of Kaupthing were not "fit and proper" to control a British bank.

Mr Shearer will repeat these allegations to the Treasury Select Committee tomorrow, and tell the committee that the FSA rushed through the approval of the change of control.

Kaupthing recently hit the headlines when it was nationalised by the Icelandic Government, after the UK Treasury seized Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander to protect the interests of depositors and taxpayers.

The FSA deny Mr Shearer's version of events. They are quoted in The Times:

"In such circumstances the FSA always conducts checks and only approves the change [of control] if we are satisfied our requirements will be met. In this instance, we do not believe the statement made to the Treasury Select Committee represents an accurate summary of the events."

The trouble is this is but one of a long list of instances whereby the FSA has been found to be asleep at the wheel (eg Northern Rock, endowment compensation, PPI, bank charges etc)

The FSA:

- Hopeless
- Hapless
- Useless
- Toothless