In the UK, most independent commentators now accept
that the loose financial policies of the last decade in the
UK, which led to many people over extending themselves,
inadequate control by the regulatory body charged with
overseeing the banks, and the “innovative” short term actions
by groups of over clever bankers coupled with poor lending
practices has led to the virtual collapse of the Scottish
banking industry.
The
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which was founded in 1727, and
over the last few years was the 4th largest bank in the world,
after becoming over involved in the US housing market and
after paying too much for the Dutch bank ABN-AMRO, is no
longer an independent company being now predominately State
owned by British taxpayers.
The Bank of Scotland’s
merger a few years ago with the UK mortgage bank, Halifax to
form HBOS has led to huge debts in both the US and UK housing
markets, with a result that the Bank, first founded in 1695,
has been bought by its English rival,
Lloyds.
The Dunfermline
Building Society, Scotland’s largest mortgage bank, has
collapsed with the profitable parts being taken over by the
English based Nationwide Building Society.
These last few
months have been sad days indeed for the Scottish banking
sector, which in its heyday in the last century had branches
of the National, Commercial, Clydesdale, Royal, British Linen,
Union, Bank of Scotland and the Trustee Savings Bank (the
first savings bank in the world) spread around its capital
city.
Most of these
financial institutions no longer exist and those that do are
no longer Scottish owned. Many of the magnificent banking
halls, a reminder of the good times, are today either
restaurants or bars or even worse lying empty.
