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Rumor Of Swedbank Failure Results In Second Latvian Bank Run In One Month
Two weeks ago we presented pictures of a bank run in Latvia after one local bank had been found to do just what MF Global is alleged of doing - gross commingling. To wit: "If anyone is wondering why the collapse of MF Global after the discovery of its commingling and theft of client funds was the single worst thing that could happen to market confidence, then look no further than the small Baltic country of Latvia where precisely what Jon Corzine's firm did to its clients, has happened at the bank level. Businessweek reports: "Lithuanian prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas who are former shareholders of Bankas Snoras AB. Both men are suspected of embezzlement and document forgery, the Prosecutor General said in a statement on its website today. Baranauskas is also suspected of accounting fraud and abuse of authority, it said." Kinda like Jon Corzine, if not by the actual authorities, then by everybody else....Depositors can withdraw 50 lati a day beginning today for the rest of the week, said Krumane at a pressconference." At today's rate this is about $95. Which is why what happened next, as shown in the pictures below, was to be completely expected, and is a perfect indicator of the collapse in liquidity and credibility of our own system where commingling, unlike in Latvia, goes unpunished." Sure enough, as nothing has changed, either in Latvia or the US, things just got worse. Following a rumor in Latvia that the large Swedish bank Swedbank is about to collapse, Latvia has just experienced its second bank run in under a month.
Video of people lining up at ATM and branches:
Google translated from E24.no
Latvian customers of the Swedish large bank Swedbank has through the weekend emptied ATMs in several areas. This after rumors that the bank is about to collapse.
This confirms several sources in Latvia to E24, as well as communications director Thomas Backteman in Swedbank.
- Yes, it is true that there is greater activity against ATMs in some regions of Latvia, said Backtemann to E24 Sunday evening.
The Swedish bank Swedbank is one of Europe's largest banks, and in Norway owns the brokerage, First Securities.
When customers begin to withdraw savings from a bank, this is called a bank run . Since a bank can not muster all the money that is on savings accounts at short notice, is a silk incident very dramatic for a bank.
There are conflicts view about the severity of the actual run:
Backtemann think what happens is very undramatic:
- I would not call it a bank run. We are talking about small amounts in a few regions in Latvia, but not in Riga.
This disproves the Norwegian Tor Bernhard Slaathaug, who works and lives in Riga:
- ATMs of Swedbank around the corner from me is empty, and there is no congestion at other ATMs in the area, he says to E24.
Slaathaug has posted pictures of empty Swedbank ATMs here , and here and here and here .
- People are worried, after Krajbanka emptied bank guarantee fund, and thus is of course the people concerned. If a new bank tipped over, it will have serious consequences, says Slaathaug to E24.
Regardless of just how severe the event ends up being, isolated incidents like these occuring increasingly more frequently will do nothing to reinforce the public's confidence that the financial system is actually stable. And all it will take is one such rumor and/or one bank run in a major "developed nation" for things to begin unwinding.Unfortunately, with the global financial regime only focused on the symptoms and never the underlying causes of the problem, more such pictures of empty ATMs in the near future are virtually assured.
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Swedish Meatballs bitcheZ
When there's a maggot, expect a whole bunch of them.
Oh yeah, and a fucking dead decomposing carcass.
If US politicians want to get re-elected and can't arrest the bankers because they control the courts then may I suggest they use the National Defense Authorization Act to put the financial terrorists away. That would secure their election although they might have to find a new source for their campaign contributions.
They might solicite the big yellow headed hermaphrodite that runs back and forth in the tunnels beneath Brown Brothers Harriman. Well Fargo and the New York Fed. I believe the creature is about to turn tail on the bankers.
http://images.wikia.com/villains/images/3/34/BASTARD.jpg
The Biggest Dirtiest Carcasses are still in the USa...
They have a big Tarp over them, but they are stinking Carcasses nontheless ...
Um, point of information, Latvia (Capital Riga)is a different country to Lithuania (Capital Vilnius) although they are both "Balltic States" and are neighbours.
@ q99x2 I suggest taking away their citizenship.
"If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive, or retain any title of nobility or honour, or accept and retain any present, pension,office, or emolument of any kind whatever,from any emperor, king, prince, foreign power, or secret society, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them." tona2009 dot com.Would that apply to the Nobel Peace Prize awarded by the King of Sweden?
Dr Ron Paul doesn't need campaign contributions from those scum, nor would he ever use that piece of shit legislation.
Physical PM holders; prepare..
"I would not call it a bank run. We are talking about small amounts in a few regions in Latvia, but not in Riga."
...yet. I wonder what the sunrise will bring.
It's coming!
-John
http://www.youtube.com/CarMarketer
Dominoe dancing
Newsflash. Peruvian government collapses as Primer Ministro resigns and with him the entire cabinet.
The reason? Conflict has erupted over a GOLD mining project in Peru. State of emergency has been declared.
http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/politik/international/regierungskrise_in_p...
This is big news. I remember earlier this year, small (individuals) native populations in Columbia ran afoul of the US occupied PTB there, when they were mining in their native lands. The gov proclaimed these native peeps were backing FARC and started driving off the people and giving the land to corporations. This has been going on for awhile now, throughout mining regions in SA. But toppling a "friendly" government? WOW, things are getting close to all out chaos.
Do Chen, you have any info?
These guys do that every December to consolidate power. Nothing to see here. By Peruvian law once one minister resigns the gov. gets reshuffled.
Could it be that "El Chino" is behind this latest "uprising"?
Trying to verify now. Waiting for response. The frictions with the govs and gold mines is an old one, is same with small govs anywhere who have something of value the PTB wants. Who gets to benefit from the mine? Recently, many govs have been trying to get a better deal for their citizens. We all know who doesn't want that to happen. Is why many pols get tossed aside like used toilet paper. If they try to change the tune, a "revolution" happens and the new, more "cooperative" gov gets installed.
Everything is possible in S.A. The CIA may reinstall him yes. Why would he leave a perfectly safe harbour in Japan?
dominoes all in a row.........
Pig-Lat-vian
$95 a day? That sucks!
A lati is worth more than a dollar!? Man, we need to end the Fed.
A latte is certainly more than a dollar. Specially if it's a venti.
What, so he can get a hooker and some tequila?
Get your paper before it burns! Then buy Au and Ag because they never do!
well, at least here in the states, green monday will be a huge success, following, will be this coming, frantic friday!
It can start with a small, seemingly insignificant financial institution...There's never just one weed in the garden
Yes, EZ banks margins must be sick and close to death. I would have though Scandinavian banks were relatively healthy. But, overall they bought up huge amounts of Greek toxic sh*t. Therefor I think that the Bond auctions this week for Italy and Spain will be very poor on banks unloading EU debt again...the weakness (total EZ bank insolvency) could be the begining of EZ CDS nightmare.
Should see some EZ liquidation.
Nasty.
Green Shoots
Arrest warrants?
We will never see those in America for bankers.
gotta get this game!!!
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-2011-rainbow-six/724825
According to a CNBC report on NBC News tonight, tomorrow will be the biggest shipping day in history, and this will be the biggest holiday season ever. I dread going out during holidays because of traffic, but I drove by a usually busy Walmart around 12:30 today. It didn't look any busier than any other non-holiday day.
That means benny's helicopters will start raining 1000 dollah bills with a smiling Ogolfer on the obverse and "HOPE AND CHANGE" on the reverse.
...and in very small print: "THIS NOTE LEGALLY OBLIGES YOU FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE"
When will we get circulating $1,000 USD Bills? It's easier walking around with a Gold Eagle in a pocket than 17 $100 bills.
They want you using a debit card, slave.
Mount Mises is 500 feet deep in snow at Crack-Up Boom Point, and yet these wondrous little snowflakes continue to delicately land and pile higher somehow. But, that's not Benny B on the horizon in the helicopter flying above looking to drop crates of 100s, it's Poincare looking to strategically drop a stick of dynamite.
Lets import a few prosecutors from Latvia...get things done!
Hey, Caerus, you out there? Got a question for you if you read this. Take a look at the Nike chart and see if it looks interesting for any reason. Thanks.
Your pal and protege,
Dawg
brokers no longer sell assets to help increase investor wealth. These days brokers sell, so they can survive to the next market day. Which means, they will assets they know are toxic.
It's a game of survival now. VAR models will break. Do not be the one left holding the bag.
Rindas pie Bankomatiem bitchiaz
3 years ago Parex bank in Latvia collapsed
just two weeks ago latvian Krajbank collapsed (together with its parent bank Snoras in neighbouring Lithuania)
People there completely lost their trust in the banking system.
Will be interesting to see what will happen on Monday when the bank offices open
http://www.db.lv/finanses/bankas/swedbank-klienti-panika-daudzviet-banko...
http://www.db.lv/citas-zinas/swedbank-aktivi-papildinam-bankomatus-bauma...
Isn't Lavtia where Santa Claus and his merry band of drunken little leprechauns are established?
You're thinking Lappland, a little farther north with more reindeer.
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-2011-rainbow-six/724825
That simply cannot be happening...not now. I don't believe it.
We are in recovery. The season of shopping is upon us, and retails sales have been "beating expectations." There is "cash on the sidelines" and it cannot wait to jump in. Why, for two straight weeks now, "investors" have been so anxious to buy stocks, they buy them up 1 and 2% when the opening bell rings. Even Santa is coming to town, a great big rally in his bag, handing out equity mark ups to all the brokers, as America miraculously "decouples" from the European issues. /sarc off
And while the American people suffer the highest rate of unemployment this country has seen since the Great Depression I, and as the Federal Reserve bank erodes their purchasing power through money printing, and European sovereigns are sporting interest rates at 15 year highs, and interbank lending is freezing up, and bank runs are beginning, and global investment houses announce bankruptcy...all with the US Congress in debt to the tune of $15.1 trillion smackers.
Wall Street needs some new front men, I think. This nonmarket and this absurd happy story line, when seen in the context of the actual news [hat tip Tyler], is making the current crop of criminal syndicate Wall Street brokers and the stooges in the MSM look unqualified to sell shoes at Foot Locker.
But, but no one saw it coming.
It's different this time
Bank runs are just transitory phenomena...
I can't wait to see what arcane multisyllabic financial or government shennanigan will befall us next. I mean, rehypothification? Really? Why not shnitflotzmonactitation? See, I can do it too! I just don't have the underhanded motive and cold black heart, or the cancerous crony network, or the fake reconstipated funds to execute the plan.
This whole thing is devolving into some bizzare scrabble game where the final winnng word will mean "The mandatory process whereby all sheeple are ordered to report to the processing station to be turned into tasty food wafers for the Bernakatons." If I didn't know better, I'd think I was trapped in a Warner Bros cartoon, waiting for bugs to get a fresh supply of portable holes and instant giants to save us from Marvin the Martian or Elmer Fudd.
We're so F'd... Oh, wait we're not! The futures just turned green! We're going to be ok for another millisecond! Woohoo, put me down for an iPad and a big box of Godiva chocolates, Let's party like it's 1929!
Sheesh. If it weren't for TD and the gang here at ZH I'd probably start believing that the captors made a lot of sense and start wending my way towards the processing station.
Do not fear everyone. I am perfectly confident all this news will lead to another 200 point rally tomorrow. My shorts are shot.
That rally should have happened, didn't. EU crazies are going to get a wake up call when Italian/Spanish auctions flop this week and EZ banks start liquidation assets. Their nightmare... just in time for Christmas.
I hear you. If the market doesn't dive tomorrow, I'll be selling some puts at a loss. Bought some puts just before the close on Wednesday, and thought I was a genius on Thursday. Then Friday, not so much. Oh well, it happens sometimes when you swing for the fence. Just don't bet more than you can afford to lose, and keep some dry powder for the imminent crash.
Thats the markets for you. I was waiting for a mega rally after the EU meeting, didn't happen. So now I am going to short from the top ranges. Watching Asia now and it looks heavy, US markets will react 100% to European psychosis. Kinda betting that the Italian/Spanish auction will flop. The ECB we know buys in all markets albeit covertly, but it may not be able to off set yields going upward again. After reading this ZH post, looks like EZ banks may liquidate again to cover margins. So that means dumping EZ AAA less debt and CDS's.
Also Asia are buying up USDs again.
F*cking mess, but bets on we see some selling...
Sovereign debt is likely to show impressive strength next few weeks.
It is repo-able.
I will trade whatever the market direction chooses. Not before. Not after. In out. Cash and PMs in hand at close. Learned my lesson the hard way. He who holds the cash and gold holds the power. Don't hand it over to overpaid leeches.
Do ATMs work differently in Latvia? I mean, if my bank's ATM is out of cash, I go to the other bank's ATM and pay like $3 ($1.50 to each bank) and take my money out there. Not ideal, but if you need cash, it's a solution.
I took most of my cash out of the banking system.
Sure it's fiat, but so far it still buys things like food and gas.
I now sleep well at night.
If you have family that lived through the Depression, talk to them.
History does repeat itself.
"It can't happen here." Well, talk to the Jew survivors of Nazi Europe to find out what can really happen when your government goes full retard.
I used to go to a lot of Fed functions. They always liked to talk about confidence in the banking system - perception is reality - 'you're an idiot for not trusting us.'
Well the reality is the banks are crooks engaged in wholesale fraud on every level and our government (which grows more illegitimate with each passing month) does nothing about it - in fact (they) encourage more bad behavior.
There is no reason to go hysterical, but there is no penalty in having "A Plan."
Good luck to everyone.
I agree in this climate it's a good idea to have a substantial wad of cash outside the system, just in case. Recently I tried to withdraw a large sum and was kind of surprised by how inconvenient it was, here in the US, on an average, nothing-special Friday.
I bank at Schwab Bank because it's not too big to fail and because they don't charge me any rip-off fees to transfer funds in and out of my brokerage account. But it's basically an internet bank without its own ATMs. You can go to any ATM worldwide for money, and they'll reimburse the fees, which is great if you travel. But when you need more than an ATM can give, you have to call Schwab for an authorization for whatever amount you want, then take your debit card to any bank for a cash advance.
So I decide to go to Chase because it's convenient. I spend almost half an hour in front of the teller as they try to figure out if they can do this thing. They talk to each other, call some people, then come back and say they can't help me because they don't have a banking relationship with me. I say, but my bank has authorized this, just do a cash advance on my Visa debit card, call Schwab if you like, what's the big deal? (I was looking for $8K, so I guess that was a big deal). Then I say look, I have two credit cards with you, I have a relationship. So they go back and call some more people and say sure, we'll advance you on the credit cards, but not the Schwab Visa card because they have no protection if something goes wrong. I say no thanks, forget it, I'll go somewhere else. (Geez, Chase must be hurting for cash or these banks just don't trust each other or maybe both...)
So I go to Wells Fargo because I have a small business account there. They also seem to want evidence of my banking relationship with them, but they do ultimately provide the cash advance on the Schwab card and it only takes 15 minutes.
All-in-all, I wasted an hour of time going to two different places trying to get a measily $8K of my own personal money out of the banking system on a perfectly normal day. Can you imagine what it would be like trying withdraw $300K in a bank run? There's no way, every bank in town would probably be out of cash in 45 minutes! Yet another reason to have some physical assets on hand... gold, silver and plenty of cash.
Thanks for the story.
I think its important to people to relay their first hand experiences going forward.
I like the whole "internet bank thing" but you can see that nobody is going to give you minimal service in tough times.
I keep scratching my head about what kind of disaster would necessitate a "bank holiday" and or conceal massive wall street fraud.
I keep coming up with some crazy "EMP attack on wall street." Blame Iran even.
If you asked me before MF Gobal I would say something like that is impossible, but how can anyone explain all that missing MFG money? And the unreported story is it impact on farmers - food business. The only way to conceal that kind of crime is to zorch-out the electronic money. A real reset button. This makes things like internet banking with no ATMs even more vulnerable. The banks and exchanges all have backups, but disaster recovery is not a 100% accurate or speedy process.
It might just take 6 months to sort out.
Remember Andy Grove's book title; Only the Paranoid Survive.
*
CASH is nothing more than a T-Bill but non-interest-bearing - a NIBEL
"There is no reason to go hysterical, but there is no penalty in having "A Plan."
Plus up on this!
Actually all ATMs here in Latvia are empty now, not just Swedbank ones but all which allow transactions with Swedbank payment cards.
The main question is whether Swedbank in Sweden is willing to save another bank in another country which carries the same name. "Swedbank Latvia" is completely different company and it's not a local branch of Swedish Swedbank.
So I think the mothership can easily abandon this Latvian offspring blaming on whatever they want. Swedbank Latvia has only 3 billion euros which will be withdrawn tomorrow easily.
Most likely Swedbank main offices transfered dumped all their toxic shit onto their Latvian branch.
Let the Latvian taxpayers pick up the tab.
This practice will be replicated the world over by wanksters.
In that case, Canadian Banks are unstoppable. They can just transfer all their toxic crap to their Carribbean subsidiaries and maintain spotless balance sheets domestically.
Tyler,
I read that the bank raised user fee 2000% from 5 to 100.
Any confirm on this?
The rumours about Swedbank are most likely unfounded. That bank is doing no worse than the other Swedish banks, and better than those banks unlucky enough to be based in the eurozone. It will therefore be very interesting to see what happens in the coming days. Is a bank run in a very small country against a big, perfectly solvent bank enough to cause serious damage? If it is, then that will tell us something about just how vulnerable the whole system is.
It doesn't matter if rumors are unfounded or not. Bank runs can break any healthy bank. Every time people realize that there is never enough money for their deposits in the whole system, they may panic or not.
Fucking hilarious, few fear mongered people and we got a "bank run", some day I'll just LMAO, literally :))))))!
Swedish Banking = IKrapa...
Yet another piece of news
Which will be totally ignored. Another reason for investors to pile into:
1) Muni-bonds
2) Treasuries
3) Retail stocks
4) REITs
5) The IBD Top 50
What positions do you currently hold? Or do you give advice you yourself would never actually act upon?
6) NFLX
Why not? Dincha hear Google or Amazon might, possibly, in the future at some murky point, acquire them?
More proof we should adapt other countries justice and laws for breaking laws against every day people...it's time to
-recapture america
It is interesting that zero hedge has unwittingly become the political arm of the resistance.
There are quite a few things we have in common, tea party, ows, libertarians, and the tinfoil hat crowd that comes over from survival blog which probably is thirty percent of readership.
However the socialists and ows crowd probably wont let us hang the oligarchs and their political accomplices. Maybe they will let us slide a few past them, those goody two-shoes.
I suspect if there is a collapse it will lead to open rebellion and return of the tenth amendment and doctrine of STATE preemption of federal rules.
God gave bankers and politicians necks for a reason!
Not all of us are on board. I for one wish ZH would cut out the commie, anti-capitalism and gold buggery and go back to focusing on breaking real news and providing real analysis.
Sometimes I feel ill after reading the comments here, people talking about loading up on guns, ammo and PMs and rooting for the world to end. It's like 1,000 little Harold Campings all joined that perverted church that boycotts soldier funerals.
I for one am a proud capitalist. I realize that the system has gotten pretty screwed up and needs a good purge. I also hate most of our politics. But at the end of the day I still like our system a hell of a lot better then the alternatives, particullarly having to go back to weighing and shaving pieces of gold to buy basic necessities, because if/when that happens we will loose most of the modern comforts we have today.
I'm all for analyzing things and reacting to what the data says is likely to happen. That tells me that we are going to see some deflation as we purge a bunch of debt that never should have been issued. It doesn't tell me the world is going to end, or that all bankers and investors are evil criminals engaged in some kind of pre-planned scheme to take over the world.
Hey roadkill, don't take all the fun out of it. First of all, ZH still does breaking real news and analysis - condider all the takes on MF Global, just for openers.
The undeniable fact that the comment section sometimes 'doth go astray' is all part of the weird charm of the place - Tyler Durdan was not a random name choice...sheesh.
Me, I'm an un-proud capitalist - the present system is not just screwed up, it has become fundamentally corrupt - there is a difference.
The present topic is about bank runs and trust. What is happening in Latvia is like a tiny preview of what could happen here (again) if the trust in the system by the bulk of people (I hate the 'sheeple' word) goes south. If a shopper will use pepper spray to get her electronic toy, imagine the fun in the ATM line, especially when it comes up empty. Like the man said above, you don't have to be hysterical to have a plan...and the plan does not need to include guns and gold; but I would be hard pressed to say that it is a bad idea if they are included...
And I agree with you that TPTB ain't smart enough to *plan* this mess, but they *are* in postition to profit from it however it turns out, and face it, justice ain't being served - Corizon is not even out on bail, because he hasn't been busted, and may not be. So obviously, some folks gonna start talking ropes and stuff.
And yet so few have physical gold and silver. Beyond words.
This will be interesting.
Trust, liquidity, and leverage are all related, but liquidity disappears and leverage becomes unstable when trust goes down.
The blind trust and huge gains in liquidity and leverage in the nineties was a once in a lifetime experience. Trust lost is not easily regained.
Lack of trust is hugely deflationary.
looks like the local starbucks
except they're not all in cars
We normally have queues of sober people at our ATMs at 3am.
What Bank Run?
Every time I pass through Swedbank, it feels like I'm at the unemployment office. The clientele look like unemployed immigrants with no hopium, and the tellers look like agents of the government with no souls.
Vladimir Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas.......aren't these the two characters that were trying to fund a buyout of Saab AB now knows as Swedish Automobile but were blocked because of alleged Russian Mafia connections ? Though didn't the British prove less diligent in letting them buy Portsmouth FC soccer club ?
No doubt they will jump bail and head back to Russia rodina
Do you mean Portsmouth Football Club that are now in receivership?
Probably one and the same.
Latvia is greatest country in ze world !
Your financal minister talking on Bloomberg aabout 10 billon $ money help from IMF, funny, gret engrish
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhyJW65h-BU