Monday, January 19, 2009

RBS Bank Shares what if they go lower?

Royal Bank of Scotland shares today closed at 11.60. that's pence . not pounds. This got me thinking, if they go any lower then what happens? Clearly there is almost no shareholder value left in this bank. It's become essentially a penny share and in effect that flags that this is a worthless company.

Are we on the verge of seeing this bank effectively nationalised? The only other option is to continue to pump millions into a company that the market clearly sees as valueless. It can't simply be allowed to collapse completely because there are people who still have accounts with RBS, there are decent mortgage payers, people with savings etc etc who cant be allowed to get swept away as this institution collapses.

Letting it collapse would also run the risk that it would trigger a series of runs on other banks and we would be back were we were late last year. It seems that RBS may yet join Northern Rock as a taxpayer owned company.

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