Bad Banks,Bad Bankers,The Norm? - Bankster Crime (2024)

Paul’s charge to us inRomans 13:8to owe nothing but love is a powerful reminder of God’s distaste for all forms of debt that are not being paid in a timely manner (see alsoPsalm 37:21). At the same time, the Bible does not explicitly command against all forms of debt. The Bible warns against debt, and extols the virtue of not going into debt, but does not forbid debt. The Bible has harsh words of condemnation for lenders who abuse those who are bound to them in debt, but it does not condemn the debtor.

Some people question the charging of any interest on loans, but several times in the Bible we see that a fair interest rate is expected to be received on borrowed money (Proverbs 28:8;Matthew 25:27). In ancient Israel, the Law did prohibit charging interest on one category of loans—those made to the poor (Leviticus 25:35-38). This law had many social, financial, and spiritual implications, but two are especially worth mentioning. First, the law genuinely helped the poor by not making their situation worse. It was bad enough to have fallen into poverty, and it could be humiliating to have to seek assistance. But if, in addition to repaying the loan, a poor person had to make crushing interest payments, the obligation would be more hurtful than helpful.

Second, the law taught an important spiritual lesson. For a lender to forego interest on a loan to a poor person would be an act of mercy. He would be losing the use of that money while it was loaned out. Yet that would be a tangible way of expressing gratitude to God for His mercy in not charging His people “interest” for the grace He has extended to them. Just as God had mercifully brought the Israelites out of Egypt when they were nothing but penniless slaves and had given them a land of their own (Leviticus 25:38), so He expected them to express similar kindness to their own poor citizens.

From manipulating rates to mis-selling products and lax enforcement ofmoney-laundering controls, the scandals in the financial sector show the urgent need not only for reform of the regulatory system but also for an overhaul of how these institutions operate.

So far, a handful of banks – includingBarclays,HSBC, andCoutts– have been fined more than US$500 million in the past 12 months for misconduct. This sounds impressive until it’s compared to theUS$8.5 trillionin assets that just five leading banks held at the end of 2011, or the half-year profits reported this year. Although banks under scrutiny are putting aside funds to take care of fines and possible lawsuits,Barclays BankandHSBCalone reported more than US$17 billion in pre-tax profits for the first six months of this year.

Corruption and tolerance for unethical behavior are at the root of the illegal activities that have damaged the livelihoods of millions of people and the reputation of the financial industry as a whole. This has to change. If you rely and on FDIC to protect your best interest at a bank, take a close look at what bank partners in crime have to offer… Michael Huke a senior manager at Lloyds Bank HQ Bristol, a record of his nefarious activities, each reported to Lloyds Bank and Avon and Somerset police where applicable, NO action has been taken by either party.

Michael Huke’ on YouTube witness his disgraceful conduct.
1. CCTV of Michael Huke shouting abuse and videoing his neighbors within their premises.
2. Assaulting neighbors physically and verbally, captured on CCTV and audio.
3. Offensive and unlawful TEXTs sent by Michael Huke……..
a) TEXT ‘My secretary gives me a blow j*b when I’m allocating bonuses
b) TEXT ‘Kompany and Fernandinho (Manchester City footballers) are Northern black c*nts’.
c) TEXT ‘Antonio Horta Osario (Lloyds Bank CEO) has no balls because he was off sick at the priory for 6 months’ suffering from a nervous breakdown.
d) TEXT claiming ‘He would wind up 2 neighbors (he was hostile towards) so much, he would let them Twat him and get them done’. Plus more TEXTs of a similar grossly offensive nature.
4. When asked by friends the wealth of a landlord neighbor (that he was in conflict with), he answered ‘neither the landlord or his wife bank with Lloyds Banking Group and never have had accounts with us’. Within his ‘position of trust’ how did he determine that information, had they banked with Lloyds he would surely have probed their accounts?

5. He was prosecuted, when caught on covert CCTV, watching his dog defecate outside a neighbor’s property and not clear it up.
6. He signed an ABC (Acceptable Behaviour Contract) issued to him by South Gloucestershire Council ASBO team.
7. Attacked a 71-year-old man because he’d parked briefly on the road outside his house; captured on CCTV, video/audio recorded and independently witnessed (view on YouTube).
8. The 71-year-old victim of the attack and one of the witnesses (who’d videoed the attack) were arrested and held in custody (several months after the video of the attack had been uploaded onto YouTube, (by persons unknown), charged with uploading the video, (which was factual and not menacing in character) as it discredited Michael Huke in front of his staff and jeopardized his job at Lloyds Bank HQ Bristol. No charge was pursued. This arrest was almost certainly influenced by Lloyds Banking Group, Freemasons, a police sergeant friend who lives nearby or corrupt members of Avon and Somerset Police, possibly a combination of them all.

Corruption Index

Since the above, he works from home one or two days each week spending time at the sports center and maintaining his property and garden!
These incidents plus many more have taken place over a 3 year period; all reported to Lloyds Banking Group, yet Michael Huke is still an employee of Lloyds Bank?
Views, opinions, advice would be greatly appreciated.

You’re protected from losses if your FDIC-insured bank goes belly-up, assuming your funds are inqualifying accountsand fall below the maximum limits.

Although banks are a safe place for your money, they dolend your money out and invest itto earn a profit. If these investments go sour, what happens to your money?

If your account is fully insured, you’re in pretty good shape. The FDIC will make you whole by replacing your funds or sending money to you. However, FDIC coverage has limits. Certain types of accounts are not insured, and you’re only covered up to $250,000 per depositor per bank. You can get additional coverage at a single bank depending on a number of factors, including how your accounts are titled. Read More

Between the bank’s lawyers and FDIC, you’ll need GOD to be protected

As she says, these services are all readily available in the world’s biggestinternational financial centres, like Singapore, London or New York, as well as smaller tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions. It’s very easy to set up layers ofpaper companiesand trusts to cover your tracks.Bankstoo often fail to do the proper checks on suspect clients or funds, and regulators don’t punish them for these failures. Without this kind of complicity from the international system, crime and corruption of this kind would be much harder to get away with.

When citizens get so fed up with the state-looting they pour out onto the streets in protest, as seen recently inLibyaorUkraine, and governments are quick to freeze assets. But the headlines about expensive private homes, huge bank accounts and glamorous double lives of newly fallen dictators in Western hotspots point to a more fundamental problem. If corruption is so obvious, what is the money doing there in the first place?

Global Witness wants to change this. We want a world in which business is done in the open and for the greater good. That’s why our investigations and advocacy focus on changing the international systems which make corruption and money laundering possible. We’re calling for international public registries of the real owners of companies, visa bans for corrupt politicians, better regulation of banks and lawyers and strict enforcement of anti-money laundering laws. Source

List of international bank acquisitionsAnnouncement dateTargetAcquirerTransaction ValueUS$ billion)9-10-2007Netherlands ABN AMROUnited Kingdom Royal Bank of Scotland Belgium Fortis Spain Santander77.23022-2-2008United Kingdom Northern RockUnited Kingdom Government of the United Kingdom41.2131-4-2008United States Bear StearnsUnited States JPMorgan2.2001-7-2008United States Countrywide FinancialUnited States Bank of America4.00014-7-2008United Kingdom Alliance & LeicesterSpain Santander1.93031-8-2008Germany Dresdner KleinwortGermany Commerzbank10.8127-9-2008United States Fannie Mae and Freddie MacUnited States Federal Housing Finance Agency5,000.00014-9-2008United States Merrill LynchUnited States Bank of America44.00016-9-2008United States American International GroupUnited States United States Treasury182.00017-9-2008United States Lehman BrothersUnited Kingdom Barclays1.30018-9-2008United Kingdom HBOSUnited Kingdom Lloyds TSB33.47526-9-2008United States Lehman BrothersJapan Nomura Holdings1.30026-9-2008United States Washington MutualUnited States JPMorgan1.90028-9-2008United Kingdom Bradford & BingleyUnited Kingdom Government of the United Kingdom Spain Santander1.83828-9-2008Belgium Luxembourg Netherlands FortisFrance BNP Paribas12.35629-9-2008United Kingdom Abbey NationalUnited Kingdom Government of the United Kingdom Spain Santander2.29830-9-2008Belgium DexiaBelgium France Luxembourg The Governments of Belgium, France and Luxembourg7.0603-10-2008United States WachoviaUnited States Wells Fargo15.0007-10-2008Iceland LandsbankiIceland Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority4.1928-10-2008Iceland GlitnirIceland Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority3.2549-10-2008Iceland Kaupthing BankIceland Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority1.25713-10-2008United Kingdom Lloyds Banking GroupUnited Kingdom Government of the United Kingdom26.04513-10-2008United Kingdom Royal Bank of Scotland GroupUnited Kingdom Government of the United Kingdom30.64114-10-2008United States Bank of AmericaUnited States United States Federal Government45.00014-10-2008United States Bank of New York MellonUnited States United States Federal Government3.00014-10-2008United States Goldman SachsUnited States United States Federal Government10.00014-10-2008United States JP MorganUnited States United States Federal Government25.00014-10-2008United States Morgan StanleyUnited States United States Federal Government10.00014-10-2008United States State StreetUnited States United States Federal Government2.00014-10-2008United States Wells FargoUnited States United States Federal Government25.00017-10-2008Switzerland UBSSwitzerland Swiss National Bank65.31422-10-2008Netherlands ING GroupNetherlands Government of the Netherlands11.03223-11-2008United States CitigroupUnited States United States Federal Government300.00011-2-2009Republic of Ireland Allied Irish BankRepublic of Ireland Government of the Republic of Ireland3.86111-2-2009Republic of Ireland Anglo Irish BankRepublic of Ireland Government of the Republic of Ireland13.57011-2-2009Republic of Ireland Bank of IrelandRepublic of Ireland Government of the Republic of Ireland3.86113-3-2012Greece Alpha BankGreece Government of Greece2.09613-3-2012Greece EurobankGreece Government of Greece4.63313-3-2012Greece National Bank of GreeceGreece Government of Greece7.61213-3-2012Greece Piraeus BankGreece Government of Greece5.51625-3-2012Cyprus Laiki BankCyprus Bank of Cyprus10.81225-5-2012Spain BankiaSpain Government of Spain20.9627-6-2012Portugal Caixa Geral de DepositosPortugal Government of Portugal1.7807-6-2012Portugal Millennium BCPPortugal Government of Portugal3.300Bank failures in the U.S.In the U.S., deposits in savings and checking accounts are backed by the FDIC. Currently, each account owner is insured up to $250,000 in the event of a bank failure.[4] When a bank fails, in addition to insuring the deposits, the FDIC acts as the receiver of the failed bank, taking control of the bank’s assets and deciding how to settle its debts. The number of bank failures is tracked and published by the FDIC since 1934 and has decreased after a peak in 2010 due to the financial crisis of 2007–08.[5]No advance notice is given to the public when a bank fails.[6] Under ideal circ*mstances, a bank failure can occur without customers losing access to their funds at any point. For example, in the 2008 failure of Washington Mutual the FDIC was able to broker a deal in which JP Morgan Chase bought the assets of Washington Mutual for $1.9 billion.[7] Existing customers were immediately turned into JP Morgan Chase customers, without disruption in their ability to use their ATM cards or do banking at branches.[8] Such policies are designed to discourage bank runs that might cause economic damage on a wider scale.

“Bank panic” redirects here. For the video game, seeBank Panic.

American Union Bank, New York City. April 26, 1932.

Abank run(also known as arun on the bank) occurs when a large number of people withdraw their money from abank because they believe the bank may cease to function in the near future. In other words, it is when, in afractional-reserve bankingsystem (where banks normally only keep a small proportion of their assets as cash), a large number of customers withdraw cash fromdeposit accountswith a financial institution at the same time because they believe that the financial institution is, or might become,insolvent; they keep the cash or transfer it into other assets, such as government bonds,precious metalsorgemstones. When they transfer funds to another institution, it may be characterized as acapital flight. As a bank run progresses, it generates its own momentum: as more people withdraw cash, the likelihood of default increases, triggering further withdrawals. This can destabilize the bank to the point where it runs out of cash and thus faces suddenbankruptcy.^[1]To combat a bank run, a bank may limit how much cash each customer may withdraw, suspend withdrawals altogether, or promptly acquire more cash from other banks or from the central bank, besides other measures.

Abanking panicorbank panicis afinancial crisisthat occurs when many banks suffer runs at the same time, as people suddenly try to convert their threatened deposits into cash or try to get out of their domestic banking system altogether. Asystemic banking crisisis one where all or almost all of the banking capital in a country is wiped out.^[2]The resulting chain of bankruptcies can cause a longeconomic recessionas domestic businesses and consumers are starved of capital as the domestic banking system shuts down.^[3]According to former U.S. Federal Reserve chairmanBen Bernanke, theGreat Depression was caused by theFederal Reserve System,^[4]and much of the economic damage was caused directly by bank runs.^[5]The cost of cleaning up a systemic banking crisis can be huge, with fiscal costs averaging 13% ofGDPand economic output losses averaging 20% of GDP for important crises from 1970 to 2007.^[2]

Several techniques have been used to try to prevent bank runs or mitigate their effects. They have included a higherreserve requirement(requiring banks to keep more of their reserves as cash), governmentbailoutsof banks,supervision and regulationof commercial banks, the organization ofcentral banksthat act as alender of last resort, the protection ofdeposit insurancesystems such as the U.S.Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,^[1]and after a run has started, a temporary suspension of withdrawals.^[6]These techniques do not always work: for example, even with deposit insurance, depositors may still be motivated by beliefs they may lack immediate access to deposits during a bank reorganization.^[7]

Christians are in a parallel situation. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus have paid our sin debt to God. Now, as we have the opportunity, we can help others in need, particularly fellow believers, with loans that do not escalate their troubles. Jesus even gave a parable along these lines about two creditors and their attitude toward forgiveness (Matthew 18:23-35).

The Bible neither expressly forbids nor condones the borrowing of money. The wisdom of the Bible teaches us that it is usually not a good idea to go into debt. Debt essentially makes us a slave to the one who provides the loan. At the same time, in some situations going into debt is a “necessary evil.” As long as money is being handled wisely and the debt payments are manageable, a Christian can take on the burden of financial debt if it is absolutely necessary.

StevieRay Hansen
Editor, Bankster Crime

MY MISSION IS NOT TO CONVINCE YOU, ONLY TO INFORM…

#Fraud #Banks #Money #Corruption #Bankers