Archbishop Labels HBOS short sellers as "Bank Robbers"

Addressing the annual dinner of the Institute of Worshipful Company of International Bankers at Drapers Hall in the City of London, Dr. Sentamu said:

"To a bystander like me, those who made £190million deliberately underselling the shares of HBOS, in spite of its very strong capital base, and drove it into the bosom of Lloyds TSB Bank, are clearly bank robbers and asset strippers.

"We find ourselves in a market system which seems to have taken its rules of trade from Alice in Wonderland, where the share value of a bank is no longer dependent on the strength of its performance but rather on the willingness of the Government to bail it out, or rather on whether the Government has announced its intentions so to do."

The Archbishop also spoke of the contrast between the bail outs being proposed for banks and the lack of funding for the Millennium Development Goals which are due to be discussed at the United Nations tomorrow.

Dr. Sentamu said: "Tomorrow morning I will attend a meeting to launch a campaign of 'Education for All' as part of the global effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including the eradication of global poverty by 2015. Of course for such a target to be achieved there needs to be stable financial systems. There needs to be stable financial systems. Without a solid global economic base to work from, the eradication of world poverty would be an even greater task. But as one columnist recently noted, "the President of the United States recently announced a $700 billion bailout plans for banks and financial institutions. One of the ironies about this financial crisis is that it makes action on poverty look utterly achievable. It would cost $5 billion to save six million children's lives. World leaders could find 140 times that amount for the banking system in a week. How can they now tell us that action for the poorest on the planet is too expensive?"

Dr. Sentamu also drew attention to the plight of those outside the financial industry who would benefit from Government assistance at a time of need, highlighting the case of one particular farmer in North Yorkshire:

"Let me tell you about Richard, a Yorkshire farmer I know, who specialises in potato farming. He also grows wheat. We may have not enjoyed the wet summer, but it has proved disastrous for Richard and many other farmers, many of whom have lost about a third of their earnings. The harvest is late, there is a huge cost in drying out the crops, and sowing for next season is late.

In this current situation I hope that the government responds to the call from the Rural Advocate to bring forward payment of subsidies.

If they can find $700 billion to support the market, will the Government - and bankers – help bail out our farmers? Farmers are facing ruin not because of bad investment, or speculation. Can we help secure the vital food security they provide?"

The Archbishop ended his speech with an appeal for the "Deposit the Difference" scheme launched recently by the Global Exchange for Social Investment:

"The world's poor are waiting. And there is something that you can do to help. In fact it's something everyone can do to help. What is it? - It's 'Topping Up for the world's poor", giving a little with every transaction to a scheme called Deposit the Difference.... imagine that every time you bought something, you could arrange to top up your bills by a few pennies to the nearest pound above, and deposit the difference into a fund for educating the poor children of the world. Then imagine that each month you could arrange that any spare pence above the last pound of your total salaries be taken off and you could deposit the difference in the same fund. Next, imagine that your example was taken up by everyone in the country – and that together we could help ensure that all those extra pennies could be channelled into areas of need – especially into Education and Health for the word's poor."