Scotland Yes Vote Means No Pound

Scotland Yes Vote Means No Pound.

An announcement by Chancellor, George Osborne, has revealed if the Scottish people vote yes to Scottish independence they will not be allowed to keep the pound. 

Mr Osborne also claimed that the decision to not share the pound was supported by the Bank of England and the other two major political parties, the Liberals and Labour.

Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister suggested that these were bullying tactics and designed to dissuade Scottish voters ahead of the Independence Referendum on 18 September.

It was revealed that the decision was made following an open, public letter from the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, to the Chancellor.

Comment

We believe there are so many unanswered questions regarding State pensions, the National Debt, currency exchange and more.

Politics aside, if Scotland votes to leave the United Kingdom and becomes an independent State, then the argument that the surviving UK members should underwrite Scotland’s economy and more importantly Scotland’s hugely indebted banking system, is asking a lot of the remaining UK.

Independence for Scotland and the right to govern is right, if her people want it, but Scotland should stand on its own two feet, with its own currency.  It would appear the classic case of “you want your cake and eat it too”.

Given the huge Scottish financial services industry with huge brands such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Life and Prudential all being based in Scotland, where the turnover of these companies both individually and combined are bigger than Scotland’s gross domestic product (GDP), the question of currency and retailing financial services products cross border via EU Market Directives, ‘Financial Services EU Passporting’ for brokers and indeed currency exchange risk if they lose the pound, puts a lot of unanswered questions in the Scottish Independence camp.

If you have a Standard Life or Prudential pension or investment, it would comparable to you having the same schemes in Ireland, Portugal or France unless those providers establish “new UK” authorised businesses such as Axa does with Axa France, Axa UK etc. 

We will of course monitor developments to ensure our investing clients are clear as to your options and what investor protection schemes are in place to protect your money.