G
garrettod
Guest
Carpetbagging has generated additional income for many thousands of families in Ireland, over the past 5-10 years.
We have seen the conversion of such mutual societies as:
* First Active
* Irish Permanent
* Canada Life
- all companies having succeeded in generating additional profits for their shareholders, many of whom were previously their members.
Within the Republic of Ireland, not many mutuals remain in the financial services industry ... those that do remain, slip down the ratings each year - when compared with non-mutuals offering the same/similar services.
Look at the performance of:
<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> EBS & INBS<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> for example, both are failing to provide cheaper mortgages for their customers in recent years, while their savings products are also failing to compete, offering poorer interest rates than other deposit takers in recent years.
Then take a view of the Life Assurance market, where only:
<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Standard Life, Royal Liver & Equitable Life<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> continue as mutuals in Ireland.
Equitable Life's troubles have been well documented over the past 12-months, with no firm action by the Irish Government to aid its nationals. This company no longer writes new business and the picture is looking less than pleasant for those members remaining with the society.Would it not have been better to liquidate the assets of this company & disolve the business .... before share values dropped etc?
Then look at Royal Liver ... this old mutual has struggled to gain new customers in recent years and has now come to the conclusion that its best opportunity is to offer products under a new brandname in Ireland, Caledonian Life .... I wonder how much value this adds to our old mutual, Royal Liver ?
Furthermore, Royal Liver has traditionally shown a poor performance with regards to growth and has not always been the cheapest, when it comes to charges. Would the assets of this company not be better used, if they were shared amongst its members ?
Then we come to Standard Life - one of the largest Life Assurance Companies in Europe & still a mutual.
Standard Life has had a bumpy ride ever since it reluctantly agreed to allow a vote on its future. Despite Fred Wollard's efforts to illustrate to Standard Life's members just how much Standard Life would be worth to them, were it to demutualise .... we continue to read articles of people claiming that Standard Life gave it false information, claiming that Standard Life spend approx. GBP£10M. on a campaign to fight demutualisation, with almost nothing spent on telling its members what benefits there would be for them, if the company demutualised. Was it all a fix some ask ?
Carpetbaggers are not an illegal group, they do not break the law, they see opportunities to make financial gain and take full advantage of them.
The fact that members of a mutual society want it to demutualise does not mean they want people to loose their jobs, or for the business to cease trading. Quite the opposite, the majority of carpetbaggers want:-
A large proportion of the companies reserves distributed between members of the society, providing them with a distinct benefit, over all non-members of the society.
Most Carpetbaggers want to see their business continue to trade, become more successful & grow ... generating continued and increased profits for shareholders (many of whom would previously have been members of the same business, when it was a mutual).
Most Carpetbaggers want to see more competitive products / services provided by their company & the past 5 years experience has shown that the most competitive products /services are now provided by Public Limited Companies, not Mutual Societies with limited ability to grow.
So I ask you all, what does the future hold for Irish Carpetbaggers ?
.... In my humble opinion, the future holds what we want it to hold.
We have seen the conversion of such mutual societies as:
* First Active
* Irish Permanent
* Canada Life
- all companies having succeeded in generating additional profits for their shareholders, many of whom were previously their members.
Within the Republic of Ireland, not many mutuals remain in the financial services industry ... those that do remain, slip down the ratings each year - when compared with non-mutuals offering the same/similar services.
Look at the performance of:
<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> EBS & INBS<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> for example, both are failing to provide cheaper mortgages for their customers in recent years, while their savings products are also failing to compete, offering poorer interest rates than other deposit takers in recent years.
Then take a view of the Life Assurance market, where only:
<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Standard Life, Royal Liver & Equitable Life<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> continue as mutuals in Ireland.
Equitable Life's troubles have been well documented over the past 12-months, with no firm action by the Irish Government to aid its nationals. This company no longer writes new business and the picture is looking less than pleasant for those members remaining with the society.Would it not have been better to liquidate the assets of this company & disolve the business .... before share values dropped etc?
Then look at Royal Liver ... this old mutual has struggled to gain new customers in recent years and has now come to the conclusion that its best opportunity is to offer products under a new brandname in Ireland, Caledonian Life .... I wonder how much value this adds to our old mutual, Royal Liver ?
Furthermore, Royal Liver has traditionally shown a poor performance with regards to growth and has not always been the cheapest, when it comes to charges. Would the assets of this company not be better used, if they were shared amongst its members ?
Then we come to Standard Life - one of the largest Life Assurance Companies in Europe & still a mutual.
Standard Life has had a bumpy ride ever since it reluctantly agreed to allow a vote on its future. Despite Fred Wollard's efforts to illustrate to Standard Life's members just how much Standard Life would be worth to them, were it to demutualise .... we continue to read articles of people claiming that Standard Life gave it false information, claiming that Standard Life spend approx. GBP£10M. on a campaign to fight demutualisation, with almost nothing spent on telling its members what benefits there would be for them, if the company demutualised. Was it all a fix some ask ?
Carpetbaggers are not an illegal group, they do not break the law, they see opportunities to make financial gain and take full advantage of them.
The fact that members of a mutual society want it to demutualise does not mean they want people to loose their jobs, or for the business to cease trading. Quite the opposite, the majority of carpetbaggers want:-
A large proportion of the companies reserves distributed between members of the society, providing them with a distinct benefit, over all non-members of the society.
Most Carpetbaggers want to see their business continue to trade, become more successful & grow ... generating continued and increased profits for shareholders (many of whom would previously have been members of the same business, when it was a mutual).
Most Carpetbaggers want to see more competitive products / services provided by their company & the past 5 years experience has shown that the most competitive products /services are now provided by Public Limited Companies, not Mutual Societies with limited ability to grow.
So I ask you all, what does the future hold for Irish Carpetbaggers ?
.... In my humble opinion, the future holds what we want it to hold.