Evil Diaries: Fools In Action

I am not sure how these intensely silly people get promoted in banks. But they do (think NatWest’s Coutts and Nigel Farage). But take the advice by the management of Scottish Widows, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds Bank. These idiots wish to change the name from Scottish Widows to Scottish Separated since, they claim, the former name “will trigger memories of trauma and upsetting situations”. I trust sufficient policyholders of Scottish Widows will point out to these fools the error and stupidity of their ways and this change of name nonsense stops right now.

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Eventually, the law courts and the FCA destroyed Amigo Holdings (AMGO) by compelling this unhappy company to have to go on incurring massive overheads whilst no business was being generated. Thus, when Close Brothers (CBG) advised that they would cancel the dividend I wondered whether another bout of abject and ultimately pointless waste initiated and imposed by the authorities would occur. But yesterday CBG announced that they would reserve £400m and bat their way out. I am tolerably sure that CBG have over-reserved since there is little to be achieved by under-reserving.

Today’s Daily Mail majors with “How 7 million drivers could be in line for payouts….”. My bet is that this sensationalism is wide of the mark since many borrowers from CBG in the matter of their car purchase finance may have been entitled to proper advice given their consumer protection rights but decide that it was all so long ago and that they had given their word that they would repay on the terms that they agreed. Pride would cause them to hold back. Further, it is not as though the interest charged will be cancelled in entirety unless FCA madness sets in yet again. And on this basis any refund will be fairly modest.

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Finally, my attention has been drawn to Thruvision (THRU on AIM). It has developed and now installed machinery which assesses whether employees of (say) Amazon are seeking to steal their employer’s goods. The shares stand at about 20p and are fully supported by cash. THRU is a very low-capitalised company.

However, it seems that the US border force will adopt this kit and, if so, regardless of who wins the US presidential election, THRU could harvest a bonanza. There does not seem to be much downside and the upside could be sensational.