MP urges people who've lost money in PMS to get in touch
LOCAL
investors with the Presbyterian Mutual Society are among the thousands
of names on a petition which was presented to the House of Commons by
Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson recently.
Over 30,000 have signed the petition which highlighted the plight of savers with the PMS, after thousands of investors were affected when the Society went into Administration last November.
Mr Donaldson said that many of those affected are from the Lisburn area, with some having lost their entire life savings. "I've had a large number of letters, emails and telephone calls from local Presbyterians who had dealings with the Presbyterian Mutual Society" he said.
"These people are in very difficult financial circumstances as a result of the downfall of the PMS and are anxious about what is going to happen to their money.
A petition with over 30,000 signatures was recently presented to the House of Commons which called on the Government to intervene on behalf of the PMS as they have done with the UK Banks and most recently the Dunfermline Building Society. It is only fair that savers from the PMS are treated in the same way."
Mr Donaldson added that a meeting with the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has been organised to discuss the situation and to seek Government intervention to provide a similar governmental guarantee to UK mutual societies as banks.
"I am calling on local people who have savings with the PMS or who withdrew their savings prior to the collapse to get in touch with my office. We have heard reports that savers were approached by banks to withdraw their money from the PMS and put it into banks shortly before the collapse and we would like to hear from these people as we seek to gather evidence about this and achieve a guarantee scheme such as was provided to banks facing collapse. They can contact my office at 29 Castle Street, Lisburn or telephone 9266 8001.
"Some local savers have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds invested with the PMS, in some cases their life savings. Others have lost money they were saving for a new home or a wedding and they have had to put their plans on hold. We are trying to do what we can to help and we hope the Government will soon come to a decision."
Ulster Star
08/05/2009
