By Ian Fraser Published: Daily Record Date: March 1st, 2013 Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester was yesterday touring the television studios trying to convince us that he is absolutely determined to make RBS into a “really good bank” once again. The fox-hunting laird of Gogarburn also told us that RBS staff will share [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: February 10th, 2013 It has been described as the biggest banking felony in history … yet no-one has been prosecuted for the Libor fixing scandal. Ian Fraser looks at the RBS sacrificial lambs. [An edited version of this article was published on pages 34-35 the Sunday Herald on [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: December 9th, 2012 Paul Moore, the whistleblower whose evidence was key to last week’s hearings of the parliamentary commission on banking, has accused his former HBOS boss Sir James Crosby of “trying to rewrite history” about Moore’s sacking from the Edinburgh-based bank. In an interview with the Sunday Herald, Moore [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Qfinance Date: December 3rd, 2012 Just in case the two men who were recently installed as China’s leader-in-waiting – premier-designate Li Keqiang and Communist Party of China chief and president-designate Xi Jinping – are short of advice about how best to steer the Chinese economy over the next few years, they have just [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Qfinance Date: November 26th, 2012 Many of François Hollande’s predecessors as French president have publicly stressed the need for structural reforms – for example plans to raise the pension age, or measures to free up France’s labor market – but balked before implementing them. It happened to ex-president Jacques Chirac, who shelved plans for [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: November 25th, 2012 Fund managers who invested customers’ money in Royal Bank of Scotland’s disastrous £12 billion rights issue in 2008 but who failed to alert clients to the existence of a shareholder-led legal action against the bank, are vulnerable to being sued by their clients, according to [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: November 11th, 2012 Stability of leadership has been confirmed in the US and China – now they need stability in their economies, or the world will suffer. By Ian Fraser Today’s global economy is like a drunk meandering his way across a busy street after a year-long binge [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: October 21st, 2012 Stephen Hester and Sir Philip Hampton may be in bullish mood, but is RBS as strong as they claim? By Ian Fraser (Image: The Sun) THE chairman and chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland had something of a spring in their step last week. The [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: September 30th, 2012 Fund managers are ripping off their customers through a minefield of hidden charges, misleading advertising, and obfuscation over performance, according the founders of new campaign aimed at ensuring investors get a fairer deal. Alan and Gina Miller – a husband and wife team who held [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: September 16th, 2012 High profile figures say banker Peter Cummings has been made a scapegoat (Note: This is a longer version of an article published as the lead business story in the Sunday Herald on September 16th, 2012) Jim McColl, Scotland’s highest-profile business figure, has added his weight [...]