I had the pleasure of speaking at an event
last night with Lawrence Tomlinson, the author of the Tomlinson report into
practises at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Lawrence was at pains all night
to ensure that every time he mentioned RBS he also named Ulster Bank. Ulster
Bank have for some time maintained that the remit of Lawrence’s report did not
extend to their organisation. This was repeatedly rubbished by Lawrence who
pointed out that many of the original complaints into the Global Restructuring Group
(GRG) were from businesses in Northern Ireland and related specifically to the
GRG arm of Ulster Bank.
For those of us dealing with these issues
on a daily basis, it reaffirmed what we already knew. The abuses are systematic
and institutional and relate directly to activities at Ulster Bank. Ulster and
RBS are still adopting the policy of denial, hoping that either Lawrence or the
allegations will eventually go away but hopefully the tidal swell of injustice
will insure that this doesn’t happen. Lawrence can do little more, he has very
bravely brought these matters to the attention of the government but we now
need to demand action from that same government.
Business Support Units are now treated as
profit centres within RBS. Those people put in place to help and support are
now clearly profiteering from your demise. Nowhere is this more apparent than
with the use of the rather opaque West Register. We heard of one young banker
in GRG who had forty five cases under his control – the norm to restructure would
be six or seven but these businesses were only heading one way with his help –
bankruptcy, so there was no need for care and attention. None of the forty five
cases ever exited GRG. Demoralised, he has thankfully now found something
better to do with his life. The statistics are astounding – Of all the
business’ that enter GRG, only 6% re-emerge into a performing portfolio. For a department that is supposed to help,
support and restructure that is some appalling success rate. But who wants
success when you can generate multiples of fees in distressing the business
further and sharing in the ultimate fee fest.
Where will it all end. As with pretty much
every financial scandal that I’ve seen, there will be a scapegoat. Either a
person or a part of the business that will be thrown to the wolves and the
baying media. Either somebody or a unit of the bank will be found to have acted
outside of the general ethos and ethics of the bank and will be sacked or
closed down. I suggest, in time that it will be GRG itself. It will neither be
fair or equitable. RBS will set aside more of the taxpayers money to pay the
inevitable complaints, I am reliably informed that they already have lawyers
looking at possible civil suits and someone will churn out the usual rhetoric
that it was somebody acting alone, is not representative of the bank as a whole
and it has been dealt it.
I’ve seen it, heard it a hundred times. I
will no more believe it than I did the first time!
The Tomlinson Report is a must read for
everyone. Anyone with complaints against RBS or Ulster should keep the wheels
in motion and contact either Lawrence or the Financial Complaints Authority
(FCA) with their complaint. Banks such as RBS have become too big to fail, they
are bullies and we need to stand up to bullies. There is a golden opportunity
to break up the bigger banks into more manageable secure units. That time is
now and we cannot let the opportunity pass.
Nick Leeson
Anyone with banking challenges can contact
us at info@gdpni.com
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