[bestofyou]

I know it isn't really exposed so much to the problems in Spain in the way that Banco Santander is and that I am still covered by the FSCS if the worst did happen.

However I still feel a little on edge about the whole thing.

I am tempted to go up today and open a Bank of Ireland account and transfer most of my money in there?

[David222]

No. If everybody did that there would be mayhem and it would make the problem much worse.

[bestofyou]

(Original post by David222)
No. If everybody did that there would be mayhem and it would make the problem much worse.

not the point. Should I be concerned about the bank is what I am saying

[Farseer]

The UK branch is seperate and your deposit is backed up regardless, there is no reason to be concerned.

[littlemissmidget123]

id say theres no reason to be worried.. my dad works with finance and hes literally just got off the phone to me talking about how he wants my mum to put money into some santander account.. and as the about poster says

(Original post by Farseer)
The UK branch is seperate and your deposit is backed up regardless, there is no reason to be concerned.

couldnt agree more.

[David222]

(Original post by bestofyou)
not the point. Should I be concerned about the bank is what I am saying

It IS the point. Nobody needs to be concerned until everybody takes their money out.

[cl_steele]

(Original post by bestofyou)
not the point. Should I be concerned about the bank is what I am saying

well from what the British arm of the bank say theyre more or less independant of the troubled Spanish banking arm and theres no need to worry plus as you said youre covered by the government scheme so it should be fine to leave it there

[murray29]

All the international branches of major banks are independent, so the losses will first be absorbed by the local branch (obviously they will affect the Holding company negatively).
But in general Banco Santander is one of the stronger spanish banks, and most of it's earnings and even loan book are based internationally

[laeof]

(Original post by bestofyou)
I know it isn't really exposed so much to the problems in Spain in the way that Banco Santander is and that I am still covered by the FSCS if the worst did happen.

However I still feel a little on edge about the whole thing.

I am tempted to go up today and open a Bank of Ireland account and transfer most of my money in there?

These are really not the best forums for asking money advice on.

I currently have money also in Santander and my Financial advisor has informed me funds are safeguarded up to £85k by the UK government. If you have more then that, move some of it to another bank.

Inspite of this information I am still personally unsure whether or not to move it because I''m thinking there may well be quite a fight from the UK government to get it. It will depend on how much you have in there however.

Sorry I cannot offer any more advice. I'd recommend speaking to a neutral party, the advisor I have for example needs me to do as well as possible so she does too.

[DanB1991]

(Original post by bestofyou)
I know it isn't really exposed so much to the problems in Spain in the way that Banco Santander is and that I am still covered by the FSCS if the worst did happen.

However I still feel a little on edge about the whole thing.

I am tempted to go up today and open a Bank of Ireland account and transfer most of my money in there?

I actually work for santander (been dealing with this myself for the last few weeks). Put simply they're ring fenced. This means if banco santander go bust (which is highly unlikely) the have to go through the FSA (financial service authority) to claim assets and the fsa would most likely not allow them as this would mean another uk bank going bust. Some reporter on sky was even like "omg i found out they're ring fenced" even though its been public knowledge ever since abbey changed its name to santander lol.

Also santander has its own banking license which mean banco santander in spain is kind of like the main shareholder and this means they don't really fund santander uk themselves and can only claim profit margins and even then that is still strictly regulated to make sure it does not affect the uk bank. Also seeing santander uk retrieves 90% of its assets from the uk (which is used purely for their funding) with only 1% in the euro zone there's nothing really to fear.

Saying that apart from the interest rates why anyone would ever want to bank with santander is beyond me......

[M4LLY]

Once it begins to make front page headlines that the banks going to go bust, i'd say that'd be the right time to take it out

[Kabloomybuzz]

Yes, more because there are better banks than anything though, my experience since Alliance & leicester went over to Santander has been awful...

[DanB1991]

Its mainly because most santander procedure and products are aimed at latin america, north america, spain and germany....

You have to keep in mind that the british public are notoriously rubbish at banking themselves and throw expectations onto the banks that there is no where else in the world. Even in american they won't expect banks do everything we take for granted such as reminding cust of interest rate drops, free instant transfers, doing everything under the sun over the phone etc. Santander kind of had a culture shock that they still have not adjusted to and doubt they will do any time soon.