In one of our stories today (see Barclays and Credit Suisse are fined over US ‘dark pools’ filed under PUBLISHER’S CHOICE] it gives an explanation of Banks “Dark Pool”:

“The “dark” in “dark pools” is supposed to be a good thing. If you want to buy and sell shares – especially a large amount of them – transparency’s a disadvantage. You could lose big money.

“Say you’re a pension fund and you’re planning to buy 10 million shares in Tesco – a big order that’s bound to push the price up.

“You place your order with a stockbroker – then watch with dismay as the Tesco share price rises before your broker can actually buy them.

“You lose: the shares will now cost more to buy. And your unknown nemesis out there on the market wins because they bought their shares before you could buy the shares yourself – and can now sell them at a higher price – to you.

“In the old days you might suspect insider trading: your broker, or someone else with insider knowledge, has illegally tipped off a mate.

“But these days your nemesis is just as likely to be a high frequency trader. When the order is made public, a computer programmed with the right algorithm can see the order before any human trader and buy the shares at near light-speed, long before any old-fashioned human trader can even register the information in their brain – let alone press the “buy” key.

“Dark pools were meant to address that – alternative trading systems that let investors place buy and sell orders out of sight.

“The appeal was that they kept the high-frequency traders out. Instead the traders found a way in – and were even welcomed.”

And the Banks, notably Barclays and Credit Suisse “mislead” their customers. They actually didn’t “mislead” them they LIED to them.

And the actual bankers who did this are not punished. No trial. Zero.

And if a lowly bank teller helps him or herself to $10 from the till ……!!!

And even the fines handed out to the banks themselves are in the words of Ralph Silva, banking analyst from SRN, “The fines are a message, not a punishment. The levels are insignificant compared to the profits in this line of business.”

And the US President Barak Obama and Hilary Clinton loudly blasting the infamous Cayman Islands with all their secret accounts for tax evaders and even worse they should be closed down according to a BBC TV documentary recently aired.

Tom Ashbrook’s website “On the Point” has an article entitled “The New Global Tax Shelter Is Closer Than You Might Imagine”.

Ashbrook says:

“Is the United States the next, new, big hidden-money tax haven? Money is moving from Switzerland and the Cayman Islands to the U.S.A.

“A few years back, the US threw a fit about overseas tax havens hiding American fortunes away from chipping in their fair share. Switzerland, the Cayman Islands and more took a lot of heat, and signed on to more transparent protocols. Guess who didn’t? Bahrain, Nauru, Vanuatu and the United States. The U.S. is now being called the biggest tax haven in the world. Wyoming, South Dakota wooing hidden money away from Zurich. This hour On Point, dark banker to the world -– the U.S.A.”

It is all talk isn’t it?

Banks are not your friends. They employ people who look upon their customers as ways to make money for themselves. Talk a good tune. It doesn’t matter if you lie because no one will call it that. And you won’t be charged with fraud or theft.

And if you are small country in the Caribbean you can be called every name for the secret deals you allow to carry on in your dark pool surrounded by the sea.

But don’t look in our dark pool in our country. It’s full of banks.