In the Telegraph’s business section, Matthew Lynn writes about why Santander is thinking of leaving the UK:
Santander’s departure would certainly come as a crushing blow to Rachel Reeves’s ambition to turn the UK into the fastest growing economy in the G7. It emerged during the week that the Spanish bank, a familiar presence in the UK since it acquired Abbey National back in 2004, was considering getting out of the country.
It is not hard to understand why. The returns are pitiful, the regulations are a hassle, costs are rising all the time, and even if profitability does improve, there’s a risk the Government will accuse it of “profiteering” and confiscate whatever money it does manage to make with an extra windfall tax.
For a global bank such as Santander, there are better opportunities elsewhere. It has 76m customers already in South America, for example, and that would seem a better place to deploy its capital, not to mention management time, than the UK.
True, Botin [Santander’s executive chairman] moved quickly to dismiss the reports, telling a panel in Davos how much she loved the UK, and how the bank was committed to the British market for the long term. But then again, she would say that. Nothing will be confirmed until the day a final decision is made.
And yet the simple truth is this. It is a shocking indicator of how poor the prospects are in the UK market that a major corporation such as Santander is even thinking about leaving.
*If* Santander decides to leave Britain, or perhaps take on no more customers, would it be too much to ask that they don’t announce this late on a Friday afternoon or on a Bank Holiday but instead announce this a few hours before a major statement by the Chancellor or maybe the Labour Party conference?
“…Rachel Reeves’s ambition to turn the UK into the fastest growing economy in the G7.”
By applying the same socialist policies that have done the exact opposite anywhere and anytime they have been used? Everyone here could see what would happen, what remains of the productive section of the economy getting up and leaving, it’s hardly a surprise is it?
Santander’s native Spain is get afloat by money from the European Union (the Economist magazine pretends that is economic success) – but had the United Kingdom remained under European Union we would not have got such subsidies – on the contrary we would be paying for them.
The bitter truth about the United Kingdom is that since the coup against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (the sickening betrayal of Margaret Thatcher) in 1990, of Prime Ministers only Liz Truss has shown any interest in rolling back the state – and Liz Truss was Prime Minister for only a matter of weeks, leaving to the chant by mindless sheep (following the establishment media) “Liz Truss crashed the economy”.
All other Prime Ministers since Margaret Thatcher, starting with John Major, have gone along with the Collectivist agenda – either willingly or unwillingly, but they have all gone along with it.
Given the strength of the Collectivist establishment here, it is natural for business enterprises and wealthy individuals to leave – grim though that is for the rest of us.
As for where to go – the United States has incredibly serious problems of its own, problems that may be beyond the power of President Trump and Vice President Vance to deal with, in spite of their great efforts.
Perhaps, for an English speaker, New Zealand would be the place to go – if someone is wealthy or has important marketable skills.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GoEXthTGA-ZSx2jdUxiczahSGApXm2UP/view?usp=sharing
This morning’s news is that Rachel plans to copy Robert Maxwell’s pension destruction strategy.
The only trouble with the story is that Santander is not considering leaving the UK. An FT report got some “people familiar with the matter” to say “the bank is exploring a number of strategic options, one of which is exiting the UK market”. They added that no deal or announcement was imminent and that the review was at an early stage. Matthew Lynn at the Telegraph simply cribbed the “story” from the FT, he has no idea what is really going on because he didn’t speak to the “people familiar with the matter” and probably has no idea who they even are.
Santander is another Credit Bubble bank – all banks are now Credit Bubble banks and have been for quite some years.
It does not mostly deal in Real Savings (the actual sacrifice of consumption by Real Savers) – like all modern banks it mostly deals in Credit Money Expansion (bubble blowing), which, in the end, is backed up by government Central Banks such as the European Central Bank.
Please note – cities that depend on Credit Bubble “financial services” such as London and New York are going to do very badly, get far away from these places if you can.