l'Etat britannique au secours de ses banques

[shadoko]

Même s'il s'en défend, le gouvernement anglais est aujourd'hui en train de prendre des mesures de nationalisation et de rachat des banques. En gros, le gouvernement achète une part des banques en difficulté, pour les renflouer. Ils disent aussi qu'il est probable que d'autres pays en Europe agissent de même prochainement. Comme quoi, la fable des méchants socialistes qui nationalisent pour voler les pauvres capitalistes du produit de leur dur labeur, j'espère qu'on ne va plus trop l'entendre pendant quelque temps.

Brown targets fat cat pay after nationalising banks in £37 billion bailout
Gordon Brown called an end to the days of overblown City salaries today as he pumped £37 billion of taxpayers' money into the partial nationalisation of three of the country's biggest banks.

Under the emergency refinancing, the three banks participating in the scheme – Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), HBOS and Lloyds TSB – have agreed to scrap boardroom bonuses for the current year and tie future rewards to performance. Nor will they pay out any dividends until the Government's interest in preference shares has been fully repaid.

"Our action is driven by our values," the Prime Minister said today. "For this Government, and I believe the whole country, the guiding idea is fair reward for hard work, effort and enterprise, not incentives for irresponsibility or excessive risk-taking for which the rest of us have paid."

Shares in London rebounded sharply, with the FTSE 100 index of leading companies soaring by more than 200 points, or over 5 per cent, after last week's catastrophic trading. The major European bourses were even more buoyant after yesterday's agreement.

Wall Street stocks also rose sharply on the back the news from Europe. The Dow Jones industrial average rose by 410 points to 8,861.06 in early trading, after falling 18 per cent last week.

This morning's operation came just five days after the Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, announced that up to £50 billion of public money would be spent shoring up stricken banks, with £450 billion more spent on liquidity funding and loan guarantees.

Eurozone leaders agreed to adopt a similar approach at a weekend summit and Chancellor Merkel today confirmed a €480 billion (£378 billion) package to save German banks from collapse. The plan mirrors the UK scheme in providing both fresh capital and loan guarantees.

Announcing the package, Mrs Merkel complained of market excesses and called for firmer regulation of financial markets, a move echoed by the Prime Minister as he promised to push for "a new Bretton Woods" – the 1944 conference which set the framework for international trade and finance after the Second World War.

But even if he was conscious of the historic nature of the bailout, Mr Brown insisted that the injection of government cash into the banks did not amount to nationalisation of the kind seen in other industries in the post-War period.

"This is not standard public ownership," he said. "This is the Government buying shares, allowing the banks to be run commercially, making sure that we can encourage other investors into the banking system, then – because our holdings are temporary – being ready to sell them when the banks are strengthened.

"I think you will find over the rest of Europe over the next few days exactly the same thing will happen."The Treasury is injecting £20 billion into RBS, giving it a 63-per cent stake in the bank, and pumping a combined £17 billion into Lloyds TSB and HBOS, which have agreed to revise their merger terms.

HBOS is raising £11.5 billion from the Government, and Lloyds TSB an additional £5.5 billion at 173.3p. As a result of the recapitalisation, the Treasury is likely to hold a 43.5 per cent stake in the enlarged bank on the completion of the merger.

Barclays is raising an additional £6.5 billion to bolster its reserves and scrapping its dividend.

The bank said it hopes to raise the money through its investors, not via the Government, although the deal is underwritten by the State, so the Treasury could take a stake if existing investors do not cough up.

In total, including money saved from not paying its dividend and other cost cutting measures, Barclays, hopes to pull together £10 billion to boost its funding. Both RBS and HBoS shares slumped as investors digested the terms of the bailout and Lloyds announced it was rewriting the terms of the merger.

"There is potentially very substantial dilution there," James Hamilton, banks analyst at Numis Securities, said of the rescue deal. "This is the end of chapter 2 of the horror story, but unfortunately chapter 3 – the recession – is on the way."

George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, added: "To regard today as a triumph, as some in Government seem to do, is bizarre. And it misjudges the public mood. For this is no triumph. It is a necessary but desperate last-ditch attempt to prevent catastrophe."

Today’s bailout has claimed the scalps of some of the most senior chiefs in the banking sector.

RBS’s chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, and its chairman, Sir Tom McKillop, are set to leave the bank. HBOS’s chief executive, Andy Hornby and its chairman, Dennis Stevenson, are also stepping down.

Mr Brown said that he understood Sir Fred would be turning down any severance payment. It had been reported that he was due to receive at least £1.2 million.

It also emerged today that the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the City watchdog, is intervening directly for the first time in how much banks are allowed to pay their staff, in an attempt to crack down on "inappropriate remuneration schemes".

A hard-hitting letter has gone out to the chief executives of all British banks and building societies whose capital requirements are governed by the FSA telling them they will all be visited and asked to explain their pay and bonus structure.

Mr Brown declined to say how the Government would pay for the rescue but said this morning that details on national debt would be revealed in the pre-Budget report.

The deal also obliges the banks to maintain the availability of mortgage lending and loans to small businesses at 2007 levels at least.

Sir Fred, who had led RBS for eight years, will be replaced by British Land's Stephen Hester while Sir Tom will step down as chairman at the bank's AGM next year. RBS said today it will scrap its 2008 bonuses for all board members and pay any future bonuses in shares.

The Government will have the right to agree the appointment of new independent non-executives on the boards of banks who are borrowing money.

The Treasury also announced that banks must commit to helping people struggling with mortgage payments to stay in their homes.

In a statement, the Government said: "The recapitalisations are designed to enable participating banks to achieve prudent but efficient capital structures.

"The Government intends to create a new arms length body to manage the Government's shareholdings in recapitalised institutions on a professional and wholly commercial basis, and seek to effectively realise value to the taxpayer."

As part of the cash injection, RBS has agreed to maintain its mortgage lending and lending to small businesses "at least" at 2007 levels – a condition stipulated by the Government to all banks taking part in the scheme. In addition, Johnny Cameron, the chairman of RBS’s global markets division, will step down from the board.

Sir Tom said: "The steps we have announced today, taken in conjunction with the Government, secure a stronger future for the RBS Group. We regret having to raise new capital but believe that decisive action is necessary in this unprecedented market environment".