Only £1,500 worth of bank shares have been purchased in the last 6 months by the Chairmen and CEOs that help run them.
A new report has revealed a staggering 99.7% drop in the value of UK bank shares purchased by the Chairmen and CEOs responsible for running these financial institutions since the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September.
According to the report published by private investor portal, DigitalLook.com, the UK’s top banking executives have purchased just £1,500 worth of shares in the banks they help run over the last 6 months. This is down from a net total of £594,394 the 6 months previous, suggesting that it’s not just lay-investors that have lost confidence in the stability of the UK banking sector.
Moreover, the net value of shares purchased by all UK bank directors over the same 6 month period has fallen by an incredibly 91% from £1.1million to just £95,700.
The Chairmen and CEOs of Barclays, RBS and Standard Chartered are among those who have not purchased a single share in their banks during the last 6 months. However, others haven’t invested in their banks’ stock at all for over 12 months.
CEO of Lloyds Banking Group, Eric Daniels, and Chairman of HSBC, Stephen Green, were the only directors out of all of the UK banks’ CEOs and Chairmen who bought shares in their company in the 6 months since Lehman Brothers were into adminstration. However, this gives investors little reassurance as taken together their speculation totals a mere £750 each.
Commenting on these somewhat telling findings, Richard Leader of DigitalLook.com said:
"Up until Lehman Brothers, bank directors had been buying up their own shares at quite an aggressive rate. Lehman Brothers brought that buying to a juddering halt. Over the last six months absolutely none of the directors have made the kind of substantial share purchase that normally settles shareholder’s nerves."
