In a land
far away from NoT, there lives a little man called Dave. Today, he has been all
over the airwaves, talking about the second part of a documentary, showing as I
type on Channel 4. Dave, in my most humble opinion, is a genius. Let me tell
you why….
Last July,
Dave featured in a two-part documentary. Having made a fortune from his own
business, selling minibuses, Dave decided that he wanted to put something back
into his community. His community is in Burnley. Which is, it has to be said,
hardly the banking and investment capital of the UK. Or it wasn’t.
For Dave
had a dream, and the guts, determination and sheer bloody-mindedness to carry
it out. He could not believe what was happening to the UK’s banking system, and
he believed that he could set up a community bank. So he did.
Dave’s bank
has a two-year waiting list of investors waiting to put money IN….
The FSA has
tried (unsuccessfully) to close down the Bank of Dave. His business model,
which relies simply on recruiting savers, using their money to make loans to
local businesses, paying the savers 5% interest and donating any surplus to
local charities, is apparently considered “risky”. Dave’s bank is not losing
money. On the contrary, it has donated over £20,000 in profits to charity since
its inception. Compare and contrast to today’s reported losses of over £5
BILLION by RBS.
This
evening, Dave’s story is featured in a follow-up programme on Channel 4. I
would quite like to marry him. He’s a
genius.
Read more
about him here:
There hasn’t
been a more heart-warming story from the banking world since…..No, no “since”.
There hasn’t. Ever.
I was in France when the fist documentary was shown, so I hadn't heard of Dave until Channel 4 started to advertise the follow-up programme. DH and I watched it last night and I was blown away by the sheer genius of the idea (like a credit union but bigger) and completely enchanted by Dave's exuberant dedication to his bank and his sheer bloody-mindedness.
ReplyDeleteI need a thumbs-up smiley. :-)
The thing is, Perpetua, that he seems to be such a genuinely nice, straightforward and down-to-earth person. In the first two programmes, he was shown giving loans to several people, and his criteria were simply based on visiting the individual at their business, having a chat, asking them about their intentions, and, if he liked the person and the idea and felt he could trust them, he would make the loan. From what he has said during his many interviews recently and in last night's programme, nobody has defaulted on one of his loans, and if people have missed a payment, they've caught up. He's written a book. I may read it.
DeleteAnd of course he's a successful businessman, not a bonus-chasing banker with one eye on the shareholders and the other on his own bank account. Watching him visit a couple of new start-up businesses and seeing how little money they needed to get going just points up the idiocy of the banks' refusal to make small loans, which will presumably not make them much profit.
DeleteA bit like DH and I not being able to get credit when buying our new kitchen, because we've successfully lived all our lives without needing credit before. :-)
Exactly! And like me finding I am almost definitely doomed to spend the rest of my life with my current bank, because I'm self-employed and therefore can't guarantee to deposit a guaranteed sum in my current account each month....
DeleteI would have missed this - Thanks, I find it on C4OD.
ReplyDeleteHope you can watch and enjoy it, BtoB. Amidst all the doom and gloom, I find it strangely and refreshingly uplifting.
DeleteI'll see if I can find these programmes.
ReplyDeleteBeing a successful businessman himself he would be much more likely to correctly gauge someone else's business than a bank worker with no experience outside his own job.
When my husband was in business his various bank managers kept telling him that his business was too risky....and that was just for providing a bond on good security.
As he said..thank goodness he did not need to ask for a loan!
If you do, Helen, I hope you enjoy them. I, who have a PhD in cynicism, was really moved by his honesty and good sense. and his refreshing belief that there's no need for a massive bonus for a job well done. Being able to do real good with any profits is so refreshing after reading endless stories of fat cat bonuses.
Delete