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No, really, RBS and Lloyds are being bailed out by the EU
Tweet “I was just shouting at the Bank of England, that’s why I couldn’t take your call.” It was 2008, and the treasurer of a top five building society had just returned my call. I obviously asked him...
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The Bank of England is like a lifeguard who’s afraid of rubber rings
Tweet Suppose you were on the interview panel for a new lifeguard at your local swimming pool, and the interview inevitably comes round to the best technique of saving lives. There’s a pause, and the...
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Institutionalised prejudice against co-ops will delay economic recovery
Tweet The week of January 19th 2009 will go down as an important week in the history of UK banking. On the Monday, the government put in another £37 billion into the UK’s largest corporate failure,...
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Ulster Bank customers *still* affected by RBS IT fail
Tweet . It is now over two weeks since the Royal Bank of Scotland was forced to apologise after computer glitches caused many of its customers to be unable to access their accounts or make...
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Turn RBS into a network of community banks, based on the German model
TweetEarlier this year the think-tank Civitas came up with the eminently sensible idea that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) be turned into the equivalent of German Sparkassen – a form of community...
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The first place to start on bankers’ pay is that it needs to be lower
TweetLuke Hildyard is a researcher at the High Pay Centre We are becoming a more divided society as a result of the bonus culture in the banking industry. Speculators in the City of London snatch a...
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Forget challenger banks, Ed – and hand shares in RBS and Lloyds to the...
TweetToby Fenwick is a research associate of CentreForum, the liberal think tank It is easy to produce banker bashing sound bites in bonus season. But as Ed Miliband recently showed, it is rather...
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HSBC’s mammoth payouts show there is a real case for taxing bankers’ bonuses
TweetDavid Hillman is a spokesperson for the Robin Hood Tax campaign This week’s announcement by HSBC of the extent to which they are circumventing European Union rules limiting bankers’ bonuses...
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RBS – the accidental British bailout of the Irish state
TweetToday’s RBS results mean that a tiny bank at the edge of the RBS group – Ulster Bank – is responsible for the lion’s share of RBS’s losses. This enormous loss from bad lending in Ireland means...
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The banks are using their political influence to defend the interests of...
TweetIn a Guardian webchat a couple of weeks ago, RBS CEO Ross McEwan described himself as being ‘pragmatic’ with regard to pay for top bankers. He told the paper that “we would be in danger of losing...
View ArticleThe Sun spins Osborne’s £7bn loss into £14bn ‘profit’ in RBS sale coverage
The Sun has carefully maintained a pro-Conservative party sheen in reporting the government’s sell-off of its stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). The sale will leave the public, who bailed out...
View ArticleRBS: Osborne hands back control to the people who caused the financial crisis
The British public woke up yesterday morning to a loss. A £1 billion loss. It was not until 7am that the government announced the pitiful 330p share price at which it had sold 5.4 per cent of Royal...
View ArticleSix ways the UK’s financial regulation system is a protection racket for the...
There’s no easy way of saying it: political corruption is endemic in the UK. Regulatory bodies and government departments resemble protection rackets with one aim: to protect elites and corporations...
View ArticleIs this the beginning of the end for the £200bn PFI disaster? It’s been a...
“Carillion’s collapse means the outsourcing party is over”, Jon Trickett, Labour shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, will promise this afternoon, whilst opinions across the political spectrum are...
View ArticleThe RBS sell-off can’t hide the Tories’ failure to clean up its rotten culture
Banks have a long and rich history of malpractices and abuse. The 2007/8 bailouts should have provided opportunity to cleanse banking culture, and encourage responsible and ethical conduct. Yet the...
View ArticleWhy didn’t UK regulators spot the rot at the heart of British banks?
Anyone doubting the inevitability of another banking crash needs look no further than the rotten business culture at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). In case anyone needs their memory refreshed, RBS was...
View ArticleInside insolvency: Why it’s time to investigate the undertakers of the...
After years embroiled in conflict of interest scandals and facilitating tax dodging, accountants are under scrutiny for delivering poor audits. But it’s time our attention fell on the insolvency...
View ArticleLabour is right to oppose selling RBS on the cheap but the party should go...
As RBS bosses yesterday sat down to their AGM with a plan to speed up the bank’s privatisation, the Labour Party repeated their intentions to halt the government’s botched sell-off. Yesterday, Reuters...
View ArticleAs RBS reports double profits, the public is right to oppose a sell off
RBS has just posted a second annual profit fuelling speculation the government will take the opportunity to immediately press ahead with the sale of its 62 per cent stake in the bank. So why is the...
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