Another Bank Run Underway

[wayneL]

This time it's Hong Kong.

http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/24092008/140/hong-kong-bank-mobbed-savers.html

Wednesday September 24, 02:29 PM
Hong Kong Bank Mobbed By Savers

By Sky News

Thousands of savers mobbed branches of Hong Kong's third largest bank amid panic that exposure to fallen giants Lehman Brothers and AIG might bring the business down.

The Bank of East Asia, which has branches in London and Birmingham, looked
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in danger of becoming the latest casualty of the global financial crisis as crowds scrambled to withdraw their cash.

The drama came just days after the company revised its earnings downwards by almost 12% after it found that one of its workers had buried losses from an unauthorised trade.

Police were called in to control the crowds after text messages flashed across the city warning the bank was unstable as it held a large number of assets linked to the failed Wall Street bank and the troubled insurance firm.

But BEA and the city's financial authorities moved quickly to rebuff the accusations, insisting the bank was in a solid financial position.

"It has come to the notice of The Bank of East Asia (BEA)...that malicious rumours have been circulated questioning the stability of the bank," the bank said in a statement.

"The management of BEA hereby states in the strongest possible terms that such rumours have no basis in fact. The management further confirms that the bank's financial position is sound and stable."

Branches across the city were beset by throngs of customers.

Up to 400 savers, many of them elderly, had to be held back as they battled to get inside one branch of BEA in the south of Hong Kong island before it closed.

 

[chops_a_must]

Pics or it didn't happen!

 

[wayneL]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=photos&sid=as3TdrjmO0ag

 

[chops_a_must]

Haha.

What do you reckon would happen if I gathered about 30 people together, and started milling around outside a bank?

Would be a good social experiment right now I reckon.

 

[nomore4s]

Especially if it was Bankwest

 

[chops_a_must]

Especially if it was Bankwest

If only uni was in the city... it would be all too easy.

 

[GreatPig]

And just in case you doubt that's the Bank of East Asia, here's another photo. If you look carefully, you can see the same seal and picture of Tian Tan on the back wall.

Mind you, perhaps that was on a day when they advertised 12%pa term deposits OTC for that day only.

GP

 

[GreatPig]

Or maybe it actually is BankWest...

GP

 

[IFocus]

Especially if it was Bankwest

My brother causally phoned me up the other day and said he had his savings's in BW and asked what he should do.

I said You F**ken What?


I didn't know he was with BW so next day on open he headed down to the local branch to transfer his funds about $180K I think and joined the que he was saying the staff were stressed

 

[CAB SAV]

Haha.

What do you reckon would happen if I gathered about 30 people together, and started milling around outside a bank?

Would be a good social experiment right now I reckon.

Excellent. Send chas from the Chasers team an email & tell them to mill around NAB.

 

[disarray]

my old man closed his $150k bankwest account today as well and moved to commonwealth. interesting times.

 

[basilio]

This is not a good look folks.

Any bank, every bank can be closed down with a run. No bank has the liquidity to stand even a small lack of confidence.

I suggest there is enough trouble around without creating further destruction of confidence - even if it is a bad joke.

Cheers

 

[GreatPig]

my old man closed his $150k bankwest account today as well and moved to commonwealth.

Give it another few months and Commonwealth might own BankWest anyway.

GP

 

[Green08]

The Sydney Morning Herald - Weekend edition Sep 27 - 28 2008 Pg 28

"...Indeed, of 250,000 banks in the world, only 18 are rated a AA investments, and Australia's Big Four are amoung them."

 

[Julia]

The Sydney Morning Herald - Weekend edition Sep 27 - 28 2008 Pg 28

"...Indeed, of 250,000 banks in the world, only 18 are rated a AA investments, and Australia's Big Four are amoung them."

On the basis of the previous performance of the ratings agencies, I have to say I find that less than reassuring.

 

[grace]

On the basis of the previous performance of the ratings agencies, I have to say I find that less than reassuring.

To my knowledge, Rabobank has the only, and highest AAA rating in Australia. We have some money invested with them. The pillars are AA+, and so on down the line from memory.

However, if you look what citi, UBS etc had prior to this year, one must really look behind the rating. The problem is, we don't really know what our banks have been involved in......

 

[BBand]

Rabobank AA+
Robabank AAA?

 

[finnsk]

Dont know if it means anything but last Friday I was at the local Westpac bank early afternoon and the teller told me that they was running out of money because they have had a large mount of withdrawals I did not have any problems but the guy next to me did not look too happy.

 

[white_goodman]

Dont know if it means anything but last Friday I was at the local Westpac bank early afternoon and the teller told me that they was running out of money because they have had a large mount of withdrawals I did not have any problems but the guy next to me did not look too happy.

pffft thats rumour mongering if ive ever seen it

 

[mayk]

In light of the above discussion. How much money is guaranteed by the federal govt. (or RBA) in case a bank does go under? 20,000?

I already have deposits in two separate banks. Needless to say they belong to the "big four".