The Bank Of Dave, part deux...
- 28 February 2013 23:13218051I cannot find the original thread, but as it was widely ignored...no matter.
The Bank of Dave goes (falteringly) from strength to strength...
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/bank-of-dave/4odIgnorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing. - 1 March 2013 10:47218101Bank of Dave: Fighting the Fat Cats
"If Dave Fishwick were a perfume - and I think he should be - he would be a heady thing scented with banana (Dave's snack of choice), sold by the pint so that it might be liberally splashed around for the enjoyment of all, with ebullient top notes and just a hint of bullishness underneath. And it would be called "Dave Fishwick Perfume" because Dave is, above all, a straightforward man.
Yes, television's greatest discovery of 2012 is back. The Channel 4 series Bank of Dave followed the attempts of the former DJ, self-made minibus-retailing millionaire and Burnley native to set up his own local bank for local people and businesses now that all the established players are refusing to lend anyone anything, ever. At the start of Bank of Dave: Fighting the Fat Cats (Channel 4), he has now been in the savings and loan business for a year, and he, Other Dave and their single other member of staff are about to start celebrating when a letter from the Financial Services Authority arrives. It says Dave's venture amounts to an "unregulated collective investment scheme" and demands that he stop taking deposits, effectively closing him down.
"Pompous bastards," says Dave, and sets to work getting the law changed. He tours the country in his battlebus and goes on The One Show to press his cause, parlaying the publicity from his original appearance on Channel 4, plus his own irrepressible charm, abundant energy and absolute inability to take no for an answer into first popular and then parliamentary support. "I'm not 'avin' it," Dave explains. "I'm not 'avin' it. We're right. They're wrong. Bollocks to 'em."
The forced closure date for the little bank (the Burnley banquette?) looms and the FSA remains silently instransigent. And then, shortly before Dave delivers his speech and report to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Economic Reform ("I'm a little bit nervous," says Dave, with surprise "Well," says Other Dave, "'S a big thing, in't it?") it caves in. As long as Dave and Other Dave keep savers' deposits in a separate account until they are matched with loans - as they have been doing since the beginning - they may continue to operate.
"We'll have a cup of tea on that," says Dave to Other Dave. And they do.
The FSA was conspicuous by its absence. From the way they resurrected their objections to "Bank on Dave" as soon as last year's programme aired, and dropped them when Dave began to push back, it was difficult to think of a more plausible explanation for their behaviour than the one assigned to them by Dave: simple bully-boy tactics. Legal niceties seemed designed to protect the high street banks and frustrate potential competition. The authority seemed unable to understand a model as simple and transparent as Dave's and determined to punish him, either for having the arrogance to come up with it, or for seeing through all the smoke and mirrors the industry has put in place over the years to dazzle and confuse us into thinking that it knows best. Fighting the fat cats took all the sprawling, multitudinous issues, problems, betrayals and injustices that exist between high-finance Them and the rest of Us and distilled it into its purest form - one man against one agency. And he won. If we can only replicate the effect a millionfold across Europe, well ... I'd have a cup of tea on that."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/mar/01/bank-of-dave-fighting-fat-catsIgnorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing. - 1 March 2013 11:00218102There is nothing new there about the FSA in this, nothing at all sinister.
'The Bank of Dave' is merely finding out what it is like to deal with them in the real world.
I am not a big fan of the FSA and consider them too intrusive and are too keen on covering their own backs. But, to be fair - they have grasped some nettles that are making the advisory side of financial services much more transparent and shifting power away from big product providers to clients and their advisers. - 1 March 2013 11:22218103Reading a Guardian hackette's take on the programme is no substitute for watching the whole thing.
"The Bank of Dave" has put about £750,000 into the local economy of Burnley in the past year, he offers savers 5% interest and has people queuing-up to make deposits.
Part of the programme shows Dave visiting similar community based banks in Germany where they are the norm.Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing. - 1 March 2013 12:08218105i wasn't aware that such banks existed, i hope that dave continues his venture.
bet he has upset a few loan sharks where he lives. - 1 March 2013 12:33218108I watched this programme last night. I had never heard of Dave or his idea before. I was very surprised to see his visit to Germany where they have had local banks like this for years. Good luck to him. I hope the idea catches on.
Keeps politics to myself - Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
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1 March 2013 14:12218120I have just watched the programme very interesting and I also hope the idea catches on.
Possibly an idea for the Town Team or the Big Local to think about at some time in the future. I would prefer to invest my savings in a similar bank rather than one that pays savers a pittance in interest but can manage to pay millions in bonuses to those already earning a fortune.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
------------------------------------------------------------------- - 2 March 2013 05:30218334Barry may well be right about the good and bad side of the FSA, but as this guy is doing well and he continues to be as straight as he is now, it will be a poke (admittedly a small poke) in the eye for the big banks. Like your posting Jan (no.7).
Roger - 2 March 2013 10:32218370Oh dear. I've done it again. Woe, woe, woe is me.
What was I thinking? I should never have bothered to post #2. What a dumb-dumb am I, thinking (or, more likely, not thinking) that there would be the slightest benefit from 'exposing' you all to the spavined views of some hack. The hair-shirt is drying as I write.
The point here is nothing much to do with the FSA or anything much to do with the 'big banks'. This is about PEOPLE, people just like you and me, being offered a useful service tailored to their needs and the needs of their community.
Big Banks pay scant regard to the small saver. Banking in the High Street is little better than giving your email address to some web-site and ticking the box, or unticking the box, to receive 'carefully tailored' third party spam/ oops, third party 'valuable services'. You just become a captive audience.
Casino-banking has such a strong hold upon a once proud institution I wonder why they bother with the likes of us, except for the captive audience bit.
"It's a Wonderful Life." The question remains: Was it ever Black & White or always shades of grey?Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing. - 2 March 2013 10:41218372It is everything to do with the FSA. They as the regulator have massive powers over financial institutions, rightly or wrongly. They have not always exercise that power well.
Are you suggesting Tom that local 'small' banking enterprises should not be regulated by the FSA?
I would have to disagree. They need proper regulation as much as the big banks. This is indeed people we are talking about, it is people's money and it could easily be lost if there is insufficient capital adequacy. This regulation is also excessively expensive, as I know only too well and I certainly do not want the costs associated with the failure of small banking enterprises to be added to my costs as these are quite enough anyway. - 2 March 2013 11:05218376It has everything to do with the FSA, depends rather on what 'it' is. Certainly there needs to be regulation, and this is cover if you ever take the time to watch the programme, as I have been emphasising.
But, as with viewing any picture...there is much to see. The title of an artwork can present it's own problems:with the picture linked to below, is it the Kings that are being adored?
In short, you pick out what you wish to and I shall do likewise Barry.
"Pieter Bruegel the Elder: 'The Adoration of the Kings'
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/pieter-bruegel-the-elder-the-adoration-of-the-kingsIgnorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing. - 26 March 2013 16:39222338" LONDON (Reuters) - Start-up banks in Britain will not need as much capital as their established rivals starting from April, Britain's Financial Services Authority (FSA) said, in a move to boost competition."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/britain-makes-easier-start-banks-112105021--sector.html#rbb5grNIgnorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing. - 26 March 2013 18:14222349mmmm flexibility from the FSA, how unusual.....