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    RBS chiefs accused of being ‘wilfully obtuse’ over evidence to MPs

RBS chiefs accused of being ‘wilfully obtuse’ over evidence to MPs

By |July 27th, 2014

Allegations about the way Royal Bank of Scotland treats its small businesses have resurfaced after senior executives from the bailed-out bank were accused of being “wilfully obtuse” when giving evidence to MPs.
Andrew Tyrie, the chair of the Treasury select committee, issued a damning verdict on the evidence provided last month by two of the most senior directors of the 81% taxpayer-owned bank, which has been scrambling to defend its stance towards small business customers.
Chris Sullivan, deputy chief executive of […]

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Banking sector slow to increase competition after new rules

By |July 13th, 2014

A relaxation in the rules governing the creation of new banks is yet to lead to a dramatic increase in the number of new high street players being authorised by the City regulator.
Figures published by the Bank of England show little change in the annual approval rate for new banks since the introduction of rules last year, which mean that new banks need less capital to get started than they did in the past.
Five banks were authorised in the […]

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Fred Goodwin legal bill costs taxpayers nearly £500k

By |July 13th, 2014

TAXPAYERS have paid almost £500,000 in legal fees to defend disgraced former bank boss Fred Goodwin in a case which has not even come to court yet.
Law firms representing four former directors of Royal Bank of Scotland have already racked up £400,000 in defence costs over a lawsuit brought by shareholders.
And if the case does reach the courts, the final bill is expected to total tens of millions of pounds.
Mr Goodwin’s legal fees are being paid by the bank […]

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RBS job advert casts doubt on the assertions of Sach

By |June 29th, 2014

The Royal Bank of Scotland seems to be rather confused over whether its infamous Global Restructuring Group is run as a “profit centre”.
A job advertisement placed by the bank in January 2014, clearly states that the “role purpose” of relationship managers within GRG is to be “a major contributor to the Group’s bottom line” (i.e. its profits). After this job advert was cited by shareholder Gavin Palmer at the bank’s annual general meeting yesterday as evidence the bank had […]

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    Tomlinson: RBS Evidence to MPs ‘particularly surprising’

Tomlinson: RBS Evidence to MPs ‘particularly surprising’

By |June 25th, 2014

The bank’s GRG unit has been an item of continued controversy for the bank. Derek Sach, head of the global restructuring group division, told MPs earlier this month that the unit was “absolutely not a profit centre” nor rough with its customers.
“Generally do believe we do good overall,” he told MPs on the Treasury select committee. Sach insisted that the bank “would never get any advantage from destroying a customer”, pointing out that GRG had lost £2.1 billion […]

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RBS Accused Of Covering Up For ‘Corporate Psychopaths’

By |June 25th, 2014

Protesters outside the RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) annual general meeting in Gogarburn, Scotland, as The World Development Movement call on the bank to stop investing in coal mining. | Danny Lawson/PA Wire
Royal Bank of Scotland executives have been reportedly accused by shareholders of “covering up” for “corporate psychopaths” in their controversial business support unit.
The furious attack came at the state-owned bank’s annual general meeting (AGM) today, following a report by entrepreneur Lawrence Tomlinson, who accused the bank of […]

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    Royal Bank of Scotland chief receives shares worth almost £1.5m

Royal Bank of Scotland chief receives shares worth almost £1.5m

By |June 24th, 2014

Ross McEwan, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, received shares worth almost £1.5m in the bailed-out bank.
The New Zealander was handed the shares as part of a signing-on deal when he was first hired from Commonwealth Bank of Australia to run the retail operations of the 81% taxpayer-owned institution in September 2012. He was promoted to chief executive last October after Stephen Hester quit and sold just under half of the 432,000 shares which were released to him […]

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Shredded – Inside RBS, The Bank That Broke Britain

By |June 22nd, 2014

BOOK REVIEW: This brilliant book is the definitive story of the hubris behind RBS’s fall, says Bill Jamieson
Surely now we know everything there is to know about the collapse of RBS and one of the biggest financial debacles for a century? Well, not quite.
The compelling power of this book – indeed, its monumental achievement – is to provide a definitive account, not only of the failure of what was briefly one of the world’s biggest banks, but also to […]

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  • 'George Osborne's housing controls… have been tried in New Zealand and Canada… and were inadequate.'
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    George Osborne at Mansion House: Muddled, Boastful and Upstaged

George Osborne at Mansion House: Muddled, Boastful and Upstaged

By |June 22nd, 2014

The chancellor offered only contradictions as he followed the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney.
When the chancellor of the exchequer made his annual speech at the lord mayor’s Mansion House dinner on Thursday evening, George Osborne was more than a little upstaged. The Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, had just given a dense and well-delivered speech, which included a surprise announcement about interest rates. Osborne’s address was the economics equivalent of Joe Pasquale taking the stage after Bill […]

  • 'George Osborne's housing controls… have been tried in New Zealand and Canada… and were inadequate.'
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    Derek Sach Head of RBS GRG insists it was not aggressive to customers

Derek Sach Head of RBS GRG insists it was not aggressive to customers

By |June 18th, 2014

Top executives from Royal Bank of Scotland on Tuesday defended the bailed-out bank from accusations that it deliberately forced customers into default to make a profit.
Derek Sach, head of the RBS global restructuring group which deals with companies facing collapse, insisted that the business he ran was not a profit centre, was not aggressive to its customers and had not threatened to remove overdrafts from small business customers.
Sach told MPs on the Treasury select committee: “Generally do believe […]

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    Government to slash SME red tape – and this time they mean it

Government to slash SME red tape – and this time they mean it

By |June 18th, 2014

On learning of another government initiative to ‘slash red tape’ for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it’s hard not to be a little sceptical.
After all, this worthy objective has been doing the rounds for several decades, along with ‘putting bobbies back on the beat’ and ‘cutting waste in Whitehall’.
But the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill – heralded in the Queen’s Speech on 4 June – really could make a significant difference to Britain’s entrepreneurs.
For the first time, ministers […]

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RBS Deputy CEO Says Bank Didn’t Push Firms Into Distress

By |June 18th, 2014

“There can’t be all this smoke without some fire,” said Andrew Tyrie, Treasury Committee chairman at the hearing. “There have been widespread concerns about RBS’s lending practices.”
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc Deputy Chief Executive Officer Chris Sullivan denied the bank profits from small-business customers in financial distress.

The bank’s Global Restructuring Group tries to help turnaround companies and is “absolutely not a profit center,” Sullivan told parliamentarians at a Treasury Committee hearing in London today. “Absolutely, unequivocally, I’m saying […]

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Chancellor announces Fair and Effective Markets Review

By |June 18th, 2014

A joint review by the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) into the way wholesale financial markets operate.

The government is announcing further steps to raise standards of conduct in the financial system with a joint review by the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) into the way wholesale financial markets operate. Strong and successful financial services that set the highest standards are an essential part of building a resilient […]

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Shareholders 4-year wait for RBS action verdict

By |June 16th, 2014

A VERDICT in the shareholder action against Royal Bank of Scotland is unlikely to emerge until 2017 or 2018 – a decade after the controversial rights issue at the centre of the claim.
Action groups suing the bank for billions of pounds in damages do not expect the case to come to the High Court until at least 2016 and some fear that there will be more ­delays.
Four separate groups allege RBS misled investors about its financial strength at the […]

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    Royal Bank of Scotland chief receives shares worth almost £1.5m

Royal Bank of Scotland chief receives shares worth almost £1.5m

By |June 9th, 2014

Ross McEwan handed shares as part of signing-on deal, as three of his executives take shares under bonus schemes.
The New Zealander was handed the shares as part of a signing-on deal when he was first hired from Commonwealth Bank of Australia to run the retail operations of the 81% taxpayer-owned institution in September 2012. He was promoted to chief executive last October after Stephen Hester quit and sold just under half of the 432,000 shares which were released to […]

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UK challenger banks in current accounts push

By |June 1st, 2014

By Sharlene Goff, Financial Times Retail Banking Correspondent 
The three biggest challengers in the current account market are on track to open at least 2m accounts this year as they step up their assault on the top four high-street banks.
Current accounts have become a key battleground for banks that are trying to take a bigger share of the overall retail financial products market. They believe it is easier to sell mortgages, savings accounts and credit cards to customers if they already have a current […]

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Mark Carney – Jailing bankers will not fix bad behaviour

By |June 1st, 2014

Jailing bankers for market manipulation or clawing back pay and bonuses will not be enough to curb future misbehaviour or restore public trust in the financial system, the Governor of the Bank of England has said.

Despite a new crackdown on reckless bankers, Mark Carney said fundamental flaws in the industry could only be resolved by changing how markets operate.

“Merely prosecuting the guilty to the full extent of the law will not be sufficient to address the issues raised,” Mr […]

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    RBS ‘£100bn black hole’ – taxpayers £45bn stake at Risk

RBS ‘£100bn black hole’ – taxpayers £45bn stake at Risk

By |June 1st, 2014

British taxpayers risk losing their entire £45bn stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which is in grave danger of failing within 10 years, according to an explosive new book.
A new study of the disgraced bank, which brought the UK to the brink of financial ruin, reveals RBS still has a £100bn “black hole” in its finances due to “five broad areas of alleged criminality and wrongdoing”.
They include the mis-selling of financial products such as payment protection insurance, the […]

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Big Four accountants under fire over bank audits

By |June 1st, 2014

The Big Four accountants that so dominate the bean-counting industry have come under fire from regulators for poor quality audits of big banks and building societies.
KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and EY all found themselves heavily criticised for failing to spot the oncoming of the 2007 credit crunch and subsequent economic crisis, when they ran the rule over the numbers of the country’s most crucial financial institutions.
In its 10th annual assessment of audit quality published today, the Financial Reporting Council found […]

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Gates remain open for scandals

By |May 26th, 2014

THE UK faces the risk of further banking scandals, unless action is taken to increase competition in the lending market for small and medium-sized businesses, according to a Government adviser.
Lawrence Tomlinson, the Yorkshire entrepreneur and Government adviser who compiled a dossier of complaints against RBS’s turnaround division, made the comments in response to reports that the Government is going to urge the big banks to increase the supply of SME (small-and-medium-sized business) loans.
The report in the Sunday Telegraph said […]

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