|
Independent Banking Advisory Service |
|
| Banking News & UK Comment 2012 Pressure growing for three more ex-RBS directors to be stripped of their knighthoods - John Mann, a Labour MP who sits on the Treasury Select Committee, said: “The precedent has been set. It wasn’t Fred Goodwin on his own who caused the problems. He was part of a team of people.” Eddy Weatherill, chairman of the Independent Banking Advisory Group, added: “These people were sleeping while Fred drove the car over the cliff. “You can’t blame one man. It’s like a football or cricket team. He may have been the captain but there were plenty of other players picking up their cheques.” Mr Weatherill is concerned the decision to strip Mr Goodwin of his title would act as a smokescreen. He said: “The danger is he becomes the scapegoat. There’s a bit of blood letting to satisfy the mob and then everyone can get back on the gravy train.” The Financial Services Authority report on the collapse of RBS, published in December, was highly critical of Mr Goodwin’s management style. While it stopped just short of labelling him a bully, it found him “cold, analytical and unsympathetic”. And it criticised the rest of the board for failing to challenge him, resulting in “strategic mistakes being made”. Sir Tom McKillop was chairman of RBS from 2006 until 2009. He failed to prevent the catastrophic takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro, which brought RBS to its knees. The 68-year-old was also a director of Lloyds Banking Group between 1999 and 2004. He was knighted in 2002, for services to the pharmaceuticals industry during his time at drugs company Zeneca. Sir Stephen Robson, an RBS board member between 2001 and 2009, also sat on his hands during the Goodwin goldrush. He was a senior civil servant until 2001, playing a key role in the privatisation of the railways. He was also instrumental in developing the public private finance initiatives which have landed taxpayers with mammoth bills for building and running hospitals. He is on the board of the Financial Reporting Council, which advises on the way firms should be run and best practice for reporting firms’ financial affairs. He is also a part-time director of Xstrata and chairman of the Public Interest Committee at accountants KPMG. Interestingly, his career details on the organisation’s website make no reference to his time at RBS. The third culprit is City grandee Sir Peter Sutherland, who sat on the RBS board for eight years until 2009 bail-out. A former Attorney General of Ireland, he was awarded an honorary knighthood in 2004. He served as chairman of BP until retiring in 2009 but remains chairman of Goldman Sachs International, part of the US investment bank. He was also made a director of the London School of Economics despite an online petition opposing his appointment. - Daily Mirror 02/02/12 IBAS Comment - Just what is wrong with UK 'Justice' and Law systems - how can any of us continue to tolerate such obvious double standards where banks and bankers are concerned? An email to us will obtain our speedy response - please tell us which bank is involved and the outline of the issues and what has already happened - so that we may respond. Call this justice? City banker steals £1.4m... no charge. Shop worker steals £10k... 9 months' jail - Vast payouts are clearly not the only bonus you get being a fatcat banker – you also apparently get away with fraud scot-free. A City firm was yesterday accused of protecting a financier who stole £1.4million so he would not go to jail. Ravi Sinha, 47, was fined nearly £3million by the City watchdog for fraud but escaped criminal prosecution after his company JC Flowers allegedly refused to help police nail him. In a shocking contrast exposing the double standards protecting the rich, a shop worker who allowed friends to steal £10,000 worth of goods – a fraction of what the banker took – was last year jailed for nine months. Eddie Weatherill, chairman of the Independent Banking Advisory group, was amazed Sinha was not being put before the courts. He said: “For some reason we often find there’s a real lack of determination to criminally prosecute bankers who have done wrong.” Tracey McDermott, of the FSA, said: “Sinha exploited his position of trust as CEO to fraudulently obtain significant sums for his personal benefit. “ He engaged in a dishonest, deliberate and sustained course of misconduct which lasted for several months. Such behaviour has no place in the financial services industry.” JC Flowers stressed it had found the problem itself and the FSA had not criticised its systems or controls. A spokesman said: “Neither the company that paid the invoices nor investors in the funds advised by JC Flowers have suffered any loss as a result of Mr Sinha’s actions,” Last year, Ikea worker Colin Kenny, 20, was jailed for nine months for allowing friends and relatives to leave the company’s Belfast store without paying for £10,000-worth of goods. - Daily Mirror 02/02/12 Should Fred Goodwin be stripped of his knighthood? - link to Question time answers to that question - IBAS Comment: Our answer is that of course Fred Goodwin should be stripped of his knighthood - and also without any further time loss (after 4 years already debating it). It's a complete nonsense that he has retained his knighthood and been allowed to 'trade off it' for his future employment. He was given the knighthood for services to banking - equally his conduct in leading a major bank onto the rocks evidences not only his but also his complete team's disservice to banking and the whole UK population. Common sense and forward thinking should mean that Government will make an example of Fred Goodwin and remove his knighthood in return for the conduct which has tipped the whole UK financial services into chaos. We doubt there is any UK business now forced to struggle in order to just maintain it's solvency - which would not support a Government motion that Fred Goodwin should now be stripped of his knighthood. - 21.01.12 Branson backtracks on his £60 bank fees after takeover of Northern Rock - Sir Richard Branson has dropped plans to impose compulsory fees of £60 a year on current accounts following Virgin Money’s takeover of Northern Rock. The U-turn comes after the proposed charges – even on customers who never stray into the red – were revealed by the Mail. Sir Richard now says his bank will offer the choice of free current accounts as well as the fee-charging accounts, which are likely to offer perks such as discounts on Virgin flights or gym memberships. Consumer groups say bank accounts offering these ‘benefits’ are usually poor value for money. Critics said that the billionaire’s back-tracking was a victory for the Mail. Eddy Weatherill, of the Independent Banking Advisory Service, said: ‘It is good news that the Daily Mail has been pushing on this. ‘At the moment nobody trusts bankers. We need good standards of service and ethical behaviour to change that.’ Campaigners had feared that Virgin Money’s move would lead its rivals to follow suit and stop offering free accounts. Sir Richard said it would be ‘very unwise’ to offer only fee-charging current accounts and that Virgin would give customers a choice. Virgin Money is taking over 75 Northern Rock branches, 21,000 staff and a £14billion mortgage book. The enlarged bank will have four million customers. – Daily Mail 11/01/12 IBAS Comment: A change of mind in the right direction is always good. UK Banking needs new and better entrants and Virgin's 'mission' statement does offer some promise for the future. Its interesting to see what we were saying about Virgin Money in 2007 which was that: Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group is planning to take a majority stake in Northern Rock, so the BBC has learned. Virgin Money has for some time been interested in banking and mortgages. Is Northern Rock going to be the foundation on which Virgin Money builds? Is Northern Rock's mortgage portfolio Virgin's entry point into creating a bank of it's own - or is this another PR exercise whilst the Government continues to 'shore' Northern Rock up until the most palatable solution is found? As they say - you couldn't make it up, could you? - at 12.10.07 Bank with Branson? That'll be £60 a year - IBAS Comment: We do not like current accounts which charge monthly fees - simply because they also provide the bank with a sales opportunity for all their own banking products and are therefore somewhat 'captive' to the bank's sales tactics - fair or otherwise. But the good news is that this is a new entrant to the High Street banking branch arena with a past track record of providing good customer service - which is a bench mark all and every bank should aspire to and which many do not provide. IBAS are hopeful this new entrant will provoke some original and better ideas, not just in marketing - but also in providing what they state 'on the tin'. We look forward with hope and trust we may provide a 'pat on the back' later - once we have assessed their contribution to this market! - 09.01.12 Clydesdale slips below Santander to bottom of the bank happiness league as First Direct dominates - First Direct, Co-op and Nationwide are Britain 's three favourite banks, according to a major new poll, but Clydesdale Bank has slipped below Santander to the foot of the rankings. This time around, First Direct scored 77%, the Co-op 73% and Nationwide 72% for satisfaction among the 3,899 person-strong survey. With Clydesdale Bank at the other end of the league table. The Scottish-based bank, owned by National Australia Bank, was third-bottom in 2010 but has crashed below Santander to foot the table this time around. IBAS Comment: Not too surprising from what we have seen during the last year. Clydesdale showed all the signs of a bank with internal issues and staff problems which also shows they need to learn important customer service lessons - and quickly. If new entrants Virgin and an enlarged Co-op live up to IBAS expectations - Clydesdale may have a lot to lose! Santander needs to improve more - but signs are there as the decision to bring call centers back into the UK and improving training with higher staff numbers begins to make an impression.- 09.01.12 David Cameron blasted over knighthood for man who made millions from Northern Rock collapse - David Cameron was under increasing pressure yesterday after a Tory donor – whose firm made at least £100million betting against Britain’s stricken banks – was knighted. Paul Ruddock’s gong in the New Year Honours List was condemned by politicians and campaigners. His hedge fund company Lansdowne Partners made around £100million by betting that Northern Rock’s share price would fall in 2007 and made millions more from moving shares in other troubled banks. Ruddock, 52, who has donated more than £500,000 to the Tories since 2003, was knighted for services to the arts.IBAS Comment: Anything that send out a message to the British public that greed is to be rewarded is completely wrong and also counter productive. Why should ordinary people accept they need to draw their 'belts in' and their children go without and also suffer hardship because of the dire state of UK banking and finance being unavailable at the right price to small businesses - when someone like this is rewarded for profiteering? The message and the reward are both wrong - nothing can make either right now ! - 02.01.12 Banking News & UK Comment 2011
|