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Post by doug61 on Jul 10, 2023 15:05:02 GMT
Peter Oborne continues to show you can be a sane Tory.
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Post by politician2 on Jul 10, 2023 19:39:19 GMT
Slightly odd tack from Mr Oborne, inasmuch as he appears to take Mr Farage's claim that Coutts closed his account for political reasons at face value. For their part, Coutts maintain that they asked him to leave because he no longer met the minimum financial criteria to have an account, which is a million pounds under fund management or three million pounds deposited in cash.
Whilst I don't know for certain whose account is true, there's no doubt that Coutts has significantly changed its approach over the last decade, moving from being a bank that also offered wealth management to high net worth individuals to being a wealth manager that also offers banking services to ultra-high net worth individuals.
I moved my current account out of Coutts in London and consolidated it into the offshore division of NatWest (which already provided my mortgage, as Coutts did not offer offshore mortgages at that time) 13 years ago. In retrospect, I wish I hadn't, as the service at NatWest Offshore declined precipitously, to the point where I sacked them about five months ago and moved everything to HSBC Offshore, which offers a proper relationship management and wealth management service. Mind you, if those are Coutts' current criteria, they'd have kicked me out anyway, as I certainly don't keep a million pounds in cash – most of my money is in property and collectibles (i.e. my record collection).
As for Muslims being discriminated against by banks, there are two possible issues there. First, a lot of Muslims have names that read relatively similarly (at least to Western eyes), meaning that customers can be mistaken for people listed on sanctions/money laundering/suspected terrorist lists. Secondly, a mainstream bank may not meet all their financial needs, as devout Muslims are specifically forbidden from paying interest and therefore cannot take out conventional loans and mortgages, requiring specialist products to buy homes, cars, etc.
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Jul 11, 2023 7:40:41 GMT
The onus is firmly on the banks when it comes to money laundering with prison sentences for individuals found to have not complied so they understandably take an ultra cautious approach
The Farage case is interesting in that his cheerleaders at the Telegraph etc instantly accepted his version at face value and politicised the story, claiming "woke" banking policies
According to Coutts, and not refuted, Farage was offered a NatWest account but this part of the narrative was ignored at first and Farage's claim that he could not get a banking service taken at face value
The reality, as Pol says, is that he had insufficient funds to continue to qualify for a Coutts account
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Post by doug61 on Jul 11, 2023 11:27:05 GMT
More and more the "right" seems to have changed their political strategy from all the things they used to be able to claim as their "ground", such as law and order, immigration, the economy etc which they can no longer use, to the single "we are not woke" approach so beloved of the far right in the US. Most "woke" issues do not stand up beyond a single click bait headline such as "girl identifies as a cat" which turned out to be totally untrue, so they just jump on the headline rather than even pretend to check the validity of the claims. Desperate days for the UK right.
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Post by zeopold on Jul 11, 2023 21:11:02 GMT
most of my money is in property and collectibles (i.e. my record collection). Property is usually a good move but an ISA would prolly perform better than your records after the last dozen or so potential purchasers of obscure, unlistenable prog tosh have been laid to rest within the next 5-10 years.
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Post by politician2 on Jul 11, 2023 21:25:11 GMT
most of my money is in property and collectibles (i.e. my record collection). Property is usually a good move but an ISA would prolly perform better than your records after the last dozen or so potential purchasers of obscure, unlistenable prog tosh have been laid to rest within the next 5-10 years. If I were purely going for financial returns, I'd probably invest differently. But the joy of a record collection is that you can do something with it, which you can't with a unit trust or a share portfolio. Tastes changing and a large collection losing value is a fear of many collectors, but late sixties/early seventies music has a strong following among younger collectors. That isn't the case with fifties music, which has dropped precipitously – some Elvis Presley albums that used to be regarded as gold dust now have very little value. Younger collectors seem to have very little time for anything pre-rock (i.e. pre-Beatles) and in many ways I can understand why.
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Post by personunknown on Jul 12, 2023 7:21:46 GMT
As a record dealer, I no longer buy any used vinyl pre Beatles era. The original rock n roll market of the late fifties has eroded over the years, due to the collectors dying off. Record Collector still lists London and Coral tri centre labels in double to triple figure sums but in the real world, no one's interested.
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Jul 12, 2023 8:14:36 GMT
As a record dealer, I no longer buy any used vinyl pre Beatles era. The original rock n roll market of the late fifties has eroded over the years, due to the collectors dying off. Record Collector still lists London and Coral tri centre labels in double to triple figure sums but in the real world, no one's interested. Very interesting What about psych/freakbeat stuff? How collectible/valuable is that? And guessing Northern Soul still holds up?
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Post by zeopold on Jul 12, 2023 8:18:41 GMT
As a record dealer, I no longer buy any used vinyl pre Beatles era. The original rock n roll market of the late fifties has eroded over the years, due to the collectors dying off. Record Collector still lists London and Coral tri centre labels in double to triple figure sums but in the real world, no one's interested. And guessing Northern Soul still holds up? If an original pressing of 'Do I love You' turned up at a jumble sale for 50p it'd prolly still be worth a punt.
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Post by personunknown on Jul 12, 2023 9:15:37 GMT
As a record dealer, I no longer buy any used vinyl pre Beatles era. The original rock n roll market of the late fifties has eroded over the years, due to the collectors dying off. Record Collector still lists London and Coral tri centre labels in double to triple figure sums but in the real world, no one's interested. Very interesting What about psych/freakbeat stuff? How collectible/valuable is that? And guessing Northern Soul still holds up? I'm finding the genesis for modern music is still highly sought after. Sixties Psych roots are still influencing today's bands, witness Stuart Maconie's Freakzone, current artists and that of fifty years ago rubbing shoulders. Sold an original 68 Electric Prunes Mass in F Major to a twenty something at the weekend. Northern Soul floor fillers always sell, kids just wanna dance....
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Jul 12, 2023 14:46:06 GMT
Kids just wanna dance is right - I put myself in that category despite being in my 60th decade
Stuart Maconie's Freakzone is one of those shows that try to scoot through every week on BBC Sounds - always worth a listen
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Post by zeopold on Jul 12, 2023 15:34:23 GMT
I put myself in that category despite being in my 60th decade Keep taking the vitamins and you're set to give Methuselah a run for his money
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Post by doug61 on Jul 12, 2023 16:15:59 GMT
As a record dealer, I no longer buy any used vinyl pre Beatles era. The original rock n roll market of the late fifties has eroded over the years, due to the collectors dying off. Record Collector still lists London and Coral tri centre labels in double to triple figure sums but in the real world, no one's interested. as someone once said, it doesn't matter if it's rare if the people who will buy it are even rarer.
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Post by smogquixote on Jul 12, 2023 19:33:59 GMT
most of my money is in property and collectibles (i.e. my record collection). Property is usually a good move but an ISA would prolly perform better than your records after the last dozen or so potential purchasers of obscure, unlistenable prog tosh have been laid to rest within the next 5-10 years.
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Post by politician2 on Jul 20, 2023 17:42:22 GMT
More details have emerged of the Coutts/Farage incident, including the publication of about 40 pages of internal discussions by the bank as to whether to keep him as a client, which focus on his political views and pronouncements. As such, Farage's claims are not entirely unfounded.
In the documents, Coutts discuss the conclusion of Farage's mortgage next year, after which he would no longer meet their criteria. As such, their decision was to wind down the relationship in preparation, but they seem to have accelerated the process as they dislike his political views and public image.
Coutts does not emerge from this looking good. Irrespective of whether the real catalyst was his politics or the fact that they believed they had extracted all the possible value from the relationship, after which he was of little further value to them, this is another nail in their coffin; they'd already started to develop a bad reputation for loyalty and service, to the extent that a friend of mine who received a huge inheritance refused even to consider them as his bank.
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