While I have had an active bank watch list for some time to keep an eye on any value and shorting opportunities that spring up, many UK savers will have had a banking watch list for different reasons. The main cause of concern with UK savers is the security of their savings. Thankfully, savers need no longer worry, unless their savings are above the governments guarantee threshold.

Most savers are compiling their bank watch lists from ratings agencies like Standard and Poor’s. Considering that standard and Poor’s are supposed to be looking at the banks entire business, a curious anomaly can be noted. Banks in Ireland, like the Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish and Anglo Irish, which have an explicit guarantee on their savings accounts are rated as less strong that banks like HSBC and Barclays!

Since these Irish banks have the Irish government standing behind them, does this mean that Standard and Poor’s think that HSBC and Barclays are stronger than the Irish government? It’s a rhetorical question, because I, and most other commentators, don’t know how Standard and Poor’s come to their ratings in such an unusual situation like this. My suspicion is that Standard and Poor’s have not looked at government guarantees when rating banks…which I think surely misleads consumers into making poor choices.

Now, this doesn’t make any difference if you don’t have more than the £50,000 in deposit cash that the UK government is currently protecting against failure, but if you do have more than this, I think I would like to have it in an Irish bank rather than depend on Standard and Poor’s to be right this time. As far as bank watch lists are concerned, history shows that a ratings agency bank watch list could do with a little closer scrutiny!

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For More information on specific Banks use these links

• Alliance & Leicester
• Barclays
• Capital One
• Child Trust Fund
• First Direct
• HSBC
• Post Office
• Tesco Savings