The Billion-Pound Savings Scandal

Lady Bobsworth recorded this Panorama investigation for me last week. She's really good at picking out programmes worth watching. I watched it last night after th'athletics.

Fascinating revelations but sadly all too typical of regulators whose main pre-occupation seems to be finding excuses for doing nothing about the serious stuff.

Where's the man who was running the Financial Conduct Authority at the time, do I hear you ask? Whether I do or not, this will tell you:


https://p2pfinancenews.co.uk/2022/08/16/andrew-bailey-under-fire-over-blackmore-bond-collapse/

It's an incredibly difficult time for investors at the moment, losing money hand over fist since the Ukraine war started and that following on from the pandemic. As usual, we are being advised to stay calm, ride it out and the markets will come good sooner or later and we'll get our money back in the long term.
The natural reaction to that is to compare broker performance, even though pulling out of funds is not an option when the share price is down.
But there's another reason to do it - to estimate if your money is being mismanaged as per the Blackmore scandal and there's a possibility you could lose everything.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the FCA should have stopped them trading way before the poo hit the fan - and I remember watching the Panorama investigation in 2017 so it wasn't as if they didn't know - but this lot move in the same circles, a "club" if you will.
They never stop their friends from having the chance to make money off suckers like pension funds who invest in them - and they never carry the can when the poo hits the fan.

Yes - Bailey supported his chums in the club, failed to do his job, cost  thousands of people their life savings and failed to uphold the responsibility of public office.

And what was his reward for failure?


The Tories made him Governor of the Bank of England.

Although Javid who appointed him quit shortly afterwards allegedly due to a row with Boris who approved the appointment.

Scandalous.

wanderlust wrote:It's an incredibly difficult time for investors at the moment, losing money hand over fist since the Ukraine war started and that following on from the pandemic. As usual, we are being advised to stay calm, ride it out and the markets will come good sooner or later and we'll get our money back in the long term.
The natural reaction to that is to compare broker performance, even though pulling out of funds is not an option when the share price is down.
But there's another reason to do it - to estimate if your money is being mismanaged as per the Blackmore scandal and there's a possibility you could lose everything.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the FCA should have stopped them trading way before the poo hit the fan - and I remember watching the Panorama investigation in 2017 so it wasn't as if they didn't know - but this lot move in the same circles, a "club" if you will.
They never stop their friends from having the chance to make money off suckers like pension funds who invest in them - and they never carry the can when the poo hits the fan.

Yes - Bailey supported his chums in the club, failed to do his job, cost  thousands of people their life savings and failed to uphold the responsibility of public office.

And what was his reward for failure?


The Tories made him Governor of the Bank of England.

Although Javid who appointed him quit shortly afterwards allegedly due to a row with Boris who approved the appointment.

Scandalous.

Do you have any evidence that Nunn and McCreech were chums of Andrew Bailey and it was for that reason that Blackmore was not investigated by the FCA when it should have been?

Ten Bobsworth wrote:

Do you have any evidence that Nunn and McCreech were chums of Andrew Bailey and it was for that reason that Blackmore was not investigated by the FCA when it should have been?

Despite the evidence of Bailey's direct involvement in the Blackmore scandal, despite Bailey's (doctored) response to Carlier and despite the Panorama investigation findings, we'll have to see if the government respond to the bi-partisan group of MPs call for an enquiry is blocked or enacted, and if enacted what they conclude for an "official" answer to that question.
But you are right to question my opinion - they may conclude that it was rank incompetence rather than nepotism - although the Carlier letter implies it was a deliberate attempt by Bailey to brush it under the carpet.
Either way, there's no justification for his promotion and whatever they conclude it's unlikely to affect my opinion.

wanderlust wrote:
Despite the evidence of Bailey's direct involvement in the Blackmore scandal, despite Bailey's (doctored) response to Carlier and despite the Panorama investigation findings, we'll have to see if the government respond to the bi-partisan group of MPs call for an enquiry is blocked or enacted, and if enacted what they conclude for an "official" answer to that question.
But you are right to question my opinion - they may conclude that it was rank incompetence rather than nepotism - although the Carlier letter implies it was a deliberate attempt by Bailey to brush it under the carpet.
Either way, there's no justification for his promotion and whatever they conclude it's unlikely to affect my opinion.

I too would like an independent investigation of all this but I do try to base my opinions on fact whilst appreciating that sometimes the facts are hidden or misrepresented.

Without in any way seeking to disregard any of the misdemeanors that got Ken Anderson a nine-year ban from being a director, I do wonder if they were more serious than allegedly using unregulated 'boiler-room' tactics to deprive honest people of their life savings and  pensions.