Hsbc Closing Down On Iom?

[oldmanxfella]

Dubai looks nice.

 

Maybe not.

 

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle5663618.ece

[Animal]

So in all seriousness then - what exactly is happening here at the moment?

 

There's a massive global recession, as far as I can tell no economy has been left untouched, be it the big 'consuming' economies such as the USA and Western Europe, and the 'producing' economies such as China ('cause we're not buying so much of their stuff), and everything in the middle too.

 

I kind of figured that up to now we were faring pretty well, but the job losses do seem to be coming through now, and I suppose that was inevitable but it doesn't detract from the absolutely seismic shock that this can represent, both to the economy as a whole but also (and more significantly) to the individuals and families concerned. (I think what most troubles me about some of the comments in this thread is the near delirious 'Ha ha ha I told you so!' when we're actually talking about people's lives and homes being swept away as part of what's going on, grow a fucking heart for christ's sake.)

 

I've never really understood what it is the finance sector 'does' on the IOM, I understand that getting onto the OECD whitelist is a good thing, but I don't really understand why.

 

How much do we need the finance sector? What else do we have? Much has been made of other industries on the IOM, how viable are they? Can they take up the slack? Will the unemployed be able to find new work on similar salaries to what they left behind?

 

Ultimately, how is the IOM likely to fare in the months and years to come? The beloved chancellor of the bankrupt exchequer in the UK can call us a 'tax haven sitting in the Irish Sea' as much as he likes (which is probably quite a lot in an attempt to deflect attention from his own grievous failings), but the fact of the matter is that most people living on the IOM are normal, decent, honest working people - neither especially rich or especially poor, just trying to do the best in life that they can for themselves and their families.

 

I know we're kind of looking at the bigger picture here, but of course the bigger picture runs down to the smaller picture, and that's the men and women trying to bring a wage in and pay their mortgages and provide for their families. 50 job losses or 100 job losses just look like numbers on a screen, but every increment of 1 represents a real person and real lives, and I'm just trying to understand what it is that's going on, and how the IOM and the people who live here are likely to get on through what's happening at the moment, and into the future.

[Gladys]

Me too.

[Tugger]

How much do we need the finance sector? What else do we have?

 

A lot. Only banks and landlords pay corporation tax

[spermann]

With Abbey apparently ditching 3.5Billion off the Island (to add to the potential RBS)... I think its time to ditch the Isle of Man as a Finance sector and look elsewhere for work. Dubai looks nice.

 

Dubai is fucked, the iom is not in recession, we have economic growth.

[bishbashbosh]

With Abbey apparently ditching 3.5Billion off the Island (to add to the potential RBS)... I think its time to ditch the Isle of Man as a Finance sector and look elsewhere for work. Dubai looks nice.

 

Dubai is fucked, the iom is not in recession, we have economic growth.

 

Not really, it's set itself up nicely for the future me thinks.

[Albert Tatlock]

(I think what most troubles me about some of the comments in this thread is the near delirious 'Ha ha ha I told you so!' when we're actually talking about people's lives and homes being swept away as part of what's going on, grow a fucking heart for christ's sake.)

Not in all cases, many of the same people that have warned about the forthcoming (here now) crash are affected too. You can't talk realistically about a system unless you're part of it.

 

The real issue IMO is what can we do now about it? Us on here, probably little...but government...well there are lots of things they could do, such as change the rules in our favour in some ways...the how they go about that, needs debating.

[bluemonday]

I can remember early last year as one local minister stated ' It won't affect us'

After banks around the world started going tits up, it became 'keeping a close eye on events'

 

The usual stupid fuckwit 'we're the IOM ' mindest when it should have been apparent to a retarded hedgehog that the IOM is a small cork on storm tossed ocean and world events would impinge on us.

 

As either Malarky or Karran said the other day, the Manx gov is re - active not pro-active.

 

It was mind blowingly obvious there were going to be consequences even here in La La land.

 

No-ones crowing about it and laughing at local jobs lost but those who posted well previously saying trouble was coming were right. At the time they were vilified and all sorts of figures were rolled out to contradict them.

 

The real issue IMO is what can we do now about it? Us on here, probably little...but government...well there are lots of things they could do, such as change the rules in our favour in some ways...the how they go about that, needs debating.

 

Yep all the eggs in one basket are cracking.

 

It's how 'leaders' react to/in a crisis that shows their capability/abilities.

 

Still we can always fall back on tourism .................

[Slim]

Yep all the eggs in one basket are cracking.

 

It's how 'leaders' react to/in a crisis that shows their capability/abilities.

 

Still we can always fall back on tourism .................

 

What's the alternative? You think it's a coincidence that the other offshore islands are in the same boat?

[WTF]

we don't have any leaders, just followers of UK policy, and as such our hopes lie with clarksons one eyed scottish mate. as frazier said on dads army, 'we're dooomed'.

[Mutley]

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Manx-HSBC-w...o-be.5149517.jp

 

Sigh.... whitelist my arse. Not worth a shiny shite.

[gazza]

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Manx-HSBC-w...o-be.5149517.jp

 

Sigh.... whitelist my arse. Not worth a shiny shite.

 

but the white list will save us all,

[pongo]

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Manx-HSBC-w...o-be.5149517.jp

 

Sigh.... whitelist my arse. Not worth a shiny shite.

 

On the other hand:

 

1. There is no telling how much other business might have been lost in the future had the IOM not made the 'whitelist'. So there is no objective way of estimating the short term losses vs the long term gains of conformity.

2. Luxembourg will ultimately have to conform anyhow. Everywhere which wants to do business internationally will have to conform. So better now than later.

3. The newspaper item says 'some' of the lost jobs will transfer to Luxembourg. It does not say how many.

 

Jobs are being lost in finance sector industries everywhere as the industry contracts and consolidates. So jobs losses here are inevitable. We are going to notice that more because the island is relatively over - dependent on the financial services industries. Compared with, say, a similarly sized county in Britain.

 

Most similarly sized areas of land and population are not attempting to be semi antonymous nations with independent (and therefore fragile) economies. That's the issue.

 

PS - There is at least one very well known Luxembourgian/Luxembourgish businesses which is based on the IOM to some degree. So the island must also offer something which they do not currently.

[moll]

I fell very sorry for those that have lost jobs and hope they find alternative employment soon. However, this is another outcome of the contraction of the fund management business; I heard tell of another reasonable large player in the field laying off quite a number of people some weeks ago. That was not reported anywhere.

 

If you are reffering to Caledonian Fund Services - the interesting thing is that they made an experienced fund accountant (expensive) redundant and are now advertising for a trainee fund accountant (cheap).