I am sure there cant be many people who have been able to avoid all the latest news about the banking crisis and in particular the run on HBOS (most likely caused by hedge funds shorting them).

In times such as these with depositors and investors with heightened concerns about their investments, the natural reaction is to start to look around for information on what is going on.

For me personally with deposits at HBOS, I started with the Radio 4 Today programme (lots of sport and not much news), then to the BBC website, the HBOS site itself, Reuters and Interactive Investor. Clearly events are moving quickly and the press havent had time to respond to events so for a period of time, one is in an information vacuum.

As a keen advocate of the power of the web, I am then tempted to look to the web and blogs to get the latest information. In this case, it seems that events are moving too fast even for the blogosphere as I can find no relevant blogs (at least by 910 am).

By 9:31, the latest information (other than a sea of red falling prices on Interactive Investor) is a story on the BBC that Lloyds are in talks to buy HBOS at levels of around £3 a share:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7620483.stm

Whether this is true or not is clearly up for debate - its rumour at this stage and you wonder whether it is a story put out there to stabilise the market.

What occurs to me through all this is the information vacuum and you wonder whether the use of blogging and the web could help fill this information vacuum and help to re-assure depositors and investors around what is going on. I looked at the HBOS site on the Investor Relations page just now and could see no updates or re-assurance.

Clearly, I appreciate this has just happened to them and they are I am sure busy working out how to respond.

Surely though, in these troubled times, these are the eventualities that the Investor Relations and Communcations teams consider. Why not engage through everyones primary channel these days ie the web and keep concerned investors and depositors updated through a blog, information updates and so on.

The danger otherwise is that people in search of information turn to less reliable sources on the web - nothing could possibly fan the flames of concern faster than a number of blogs spreading rumour and fear …especially if hedge funds and the like were to get behind them

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