Bridging expert: “The banks have broken our future”

Bridging expert: “The banks have broken our future”




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“This is no ‘V’ depression,” Eugene Esterkin, the chief executive of leading bridging finance company Affirmative Finance warns. “This is a much stronger animal.” 

With years of experience in the financial sector, Mr Esterkin has seen both the good times and the bad, but is particularly concerned about the way economic events are unfolding at present. “The downturn has been quick to come upon us and it will dig a deep hole out of which to clamber.” He says.

 

Like most people, Mr Esterkin believes that banks must take a sizeable share of the blame for the current conditions. “The banks of the world let their greed lead them into temptation. Bankers bank, they lend and they ought to invest their depositors’ money as if it were their own: cautiously and with their prime concern being the safety of that fiduciary concern. Now the lender is seen as a non-thinking, cavalier businessman.” 

 

However, the Government should also be held accountable for the downturn, Mr Esterkin says. “This country has nowhere to go if more cash is required to stimulate the economy. We have unprecedented levels of debt and little prospect of sustained economic growth.”

 

Although the outlook appears bleak, Mr Esterkin foresees the infamous green shoots of recovery sprouting in the following year, but warns that any revival will be a slow one.

 

“The landscape has changed and will not recover for many years.” He says. “Worse still, the landscape has yet to finish changing and by the time it does stop, a lot of household names will no longer be there. However, by then the caution that has been so absent from our lending institutions will be present and plentiful.”  

 

Mr Esterkin predicts that 100% loans from 1st mortgages will be left behind, and 85% or 90% will most likely disappear as well.

 

And as for the architects of this financial disaster? “Both banks and the Government have acted foolishly and reprehensibly and frankly the directors and ministers deserve no more than to lose their positions as leaders of this country, so that more capable individuals can have a go at repairing the damage.” Mr Esterkin concludes.

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