Government bullies small investors to agree to £37bn bank plan

Small investors who own shares in Britain’s banks are outraged with the government’s decision to part-nationalise the banks, accusing the government of using bullying tactics and allowing political operations to get in the way of sound commerce.

The directors of the UK shareholders Association (UKSA) Roger Lawson clarified how unhappy the shareholder are of the Treasury’s plans to part-nationalise HBOS who also own Halifax, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB. There has also been shareholder action groups set so the voice of the small bank investors can be heard, Mr Lawson said that the term ‘Privatisation’ has upset many shareholders.

Mr Lawson said “I’m very much against these proposals now that we know the details. The Government has bullied these companies into taking on extra capital, when some of them didn’t need to.” he then went onto say “The terms are very onerous and are designed to make a massive profit for the Government at the expense of shareholders.”

Out of the £37 billion the government will pump into RBS, HBOS and Lloyds TSB £9 billion will go on preference shares, the Treasury will get an annual interest rate of 12 percent on these shares, the shareholders are up in arms because no dividends will be paid until the capital is paid off in full, financial experts have said that this could be several years.

Source: timesonline