December 28th, 2010 I’ve long suspected that, at least where banking and financial sector clients are concerned, the ‘Big Four’ audit firms now see their role as being to pull the wool over investors’ eyes. The theory is about to be tested in the US courts, where Ernst & Young stands accused of fraud over [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: December 26th, 2010 Ever since Gordon Brown bailed out Britain’s banks in October 2008, the saga of bonuses has become one of the longest-running and most contentious in British public life. Politicians have been scrabbling for ways to respond to public anger and persuade the bankers to show [...]
December 21st, 2010 Today’s biggest financial news story was that the New York attorney-general is suing the accountancy firm Ernst & Young for fraud following its alleged role in the cooking the Lehman Brothers books in the years prior to the investment bank’s September 2008 demise. I’d like to focus here on the way in [...]
December 21st, 2010 In this remarkable interview, Stanford University’s professor Joseph A. Grundfest talks Charlie T. Munger, vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. It might be an old interview (I think it dates from about December 2008) but it remains a truly remarkable piece and, in my view, it is a must watch. Munger puts his finger [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: December 19th, 2010 Dutch asset management group Mn Services is preparing to sue the Royal Bank of Scotland for damages after the Edinburgh-based bank failed to disclose its true exposure to subprime toxic loans ahead of its October 2008 implosion. The €69 billion (£59 billion) asset management group [...]
December 17th, 2010 This is from today’s Financial Times:- Eric Daniels, come on down! Unabashed by public fury against banks, the Lloyds boss recently called on the government to protect a complex monopoly in UK banking detrimental to consumers and small businesses (I paraphrase somewhat). Mr Daniels has much in common with a French aristocrat, [...]
December 16th, 2010 The saga of the Financial Services Authority supposed “review” of Royal Bank of Scotland’s pre-implosion behaviour is getting more ridiculous by the day. After two weeks of more or less continuous u-turns and farcical claims, the regulator yesterday succumbed to growing fury from politicians and others and agreed to publish some sort [...]
December 16th, 2010 As they scramble to shore up their balance sheets, Britain’s banks are treating some of their small and mid-corporate customers with barely disguised contempt. A tactic commonly used once they’ve reneged on pre-crisis lending agreements and decided to turn against a customer is to try and wear down their opponents. They do [...]
December 14th, 2010 Here is a clip from Dylan Rattigan’s show on MCNBC. In it Charles Ferguson, director of the forthcoming movie “Inside Job” and William K Black, associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, explain why the US authorities have turned a blind eye to widespread [...]
December 14th, 2010 A cable published by WikiLeaks and the Guardian suggests that, contrary to the recent “review” (or “whitewash”?) of the Royal Bank of Scotland by the Financial Services Authority, there were corporate governance failures at RBS. According to a US Embassy Cable dated September 11th, 2009 Lord Turner, chairman of the FSA, told [...]