Ivobank to close

The dedicated bank to the online gambling sector is to close down after its backers, the wealthy Sampoerna family, declined a request by the Financial Services Authority, the City regulator, to inject more funds to keep it solvent, according to eGaming Review, the magazine, as reported in The Times.

Since gaining its banking licence, Ivobank Limited has never made a profit, turning in losses of £5.2million for the year to 30th June 2006, £12.3million to 30th June 2007 and £17.5million to 30th June 2008 putting it one off the bottom of the Return on Capital league table and bottom of the Return on Assets league table.

74.75% interest rate

Vanquis Bank Ltd (Chairman: Mr Crook) is offering credit cards with an interest rate of 59.9% and cash transactions with an annual rate of 74.75%.

Is this a record for a UK regulated bank?

Spinning the Loss

MBNA Europe Bank Ltd made a pre-tax loss in the year to 31st December 2008 of £43,594,000. Not that the Director's report spells this out. Whilst it is usual to mention the pre-tax figure, this year MBNA has chosen to refer to the profit after tax, which amounts to a relatively modest £1,200,000, due to a large tax credit.

Provision for bad and doubtful debts for 2008 amounts to an eye-watering £1,061,635,000.

Is this a record?

Colleagues

HBoS publishes its latest report and accounts and it no longer has employees - they are now colleagues. Why?

Pre-tax Profit Table

Despite the well-publicised difficulties of some of our biggest banks, it is not doom and gloom everywhere. The latest edition of Bank League Tables shows that 119 banks made a profit whereas "only" 36 made a loss.

Well done Liverpool Victoria directors!

Every year for the last 5 years, Liverpool Victoria Banking Services Ltd has made pre-tax losses which, up to the end of 2008, top £115,000,000. With 2008 returning the greatest loss (at £30,393,000) it surpasses 2007's loss by over 18%. Despite this the highest paid director's remuneration went up by 10%. Nice work if you can get it.

The Biggest Annual Report

The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc's Annual Report and Accounts retains the prize as the report with the most number of pages. For 2008 there were 296 pages, up 19% from 2007.

New Edition

The new 2009 /10 edition of Bank League Tables is published today. Please email us at bankleaguetables@aol.com for a leaflet.

Financial Services Authority

In the good old days when banks were regulated by the Bank of England they were, in the main, regulated professionally and with an exceptional eye on the detail. A "bank" was well defined and a monthy List of Banks was published.

Not any more.

Since the FSA took over matters have taken a downward turn. First it stated that "...it is impossible to create a list of banks from the current system". Then it did create a List whilst complaining that "...the concept of a bank is now not as clear cut..."

Now we have a List again. However we sometimes wonder why they bother. After all, what use is a list if it is inaccurate? Most months there is something inaccurate and we have sent the FSA so many emails on this subject that now they don't even bother to reply.

Two examples from the latest list:

Tesco Personal Finance Plc and Standard Life Bank Plc are both listed as private companies despite the fact that they have both reregistered as PLCs: Tescos in December 2008 and Standard Life Bank a year ago.

Neither are matters of life and death but both are examples of the decline in standards since the FSA took over responsibility for regulation.