Smooth criminals?
October 15th, 2009
Despite their carefully choreographed performance at the Treasury Select Committee in February the “unfab four” (pictured above), didn’t actually apologize or display any contrition for anything they had done.
According to new research from the consumers’ association Which?, this is the nub of the problem. The banks have no chance of regaining people’s trust unless and until they acknowledge their culpability in causing the crisis, show genuine remorse for past mistakes and demonstrate they’re mending their ways.
Given these serial failures by the banks, Which? has decided to step in and agitate for root and branch banking reform, and has today launched a campaign — Britain Needs Better Banks — with this in mind. As part of this, Which? is inviting visitors to its www.bnbb.org website to select the pop song which best encapsulates their feelings about banks and bankers right now. Here’s the shortlist:-
o Smooth Criminal – Michael Jackson
o Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word – Elton John
o Take The Money And Run – Steve Miller Band
o Hey Big Spender – Shirley Bassey
o I Hate You So Much Right Now – Kelis
o I’m Paying Taxes, What Am I Buying – Fred Wesley and the JBs
o Money For Nothing – Dire Straits
To vote, visit www.bnbb.org. From the title of this blog post you might be able to guess which song gets my vote — especially where the two “smoothies” on the left of the above picture are concerned.
Which? has also unveiled research which shows that, one year on from Brown’s ill-conceived banking bailout, almost two-thirds of Britons are still furious with the banks for causing the crisis and for their failure to acknowledge culpability.
According to the research, 75% of Britons doubt whether the banks are genuinely sorry for causing the crisis (although the report glosses over the failings of government and regulators, and indeed of consumers for over-binging on debt). Three out of five respondents don’t feel that banks have learnt lessons from the crisis while 80% believe senior bankers have got off too lightly.
Which?’s head of campaigns, Louise Hanson, said: “People tell us they’re angry –- a year after the bailout, banks are still treating them like second-class citizens with poor customer service and shoddy sales tactics. Consumers are wary of what the banks say. It’s not going to be easy for the banks to regain the public’s trust, but a good start would be for them to say sorry — and mean it.”
Separately, I can vouch for the fact that there are thousands of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) out there which have been victimized by their banks and suffered terribly at the hands of corrupt insolvency practitioners.
In the regulatory vacuum promoted by the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, far too much trust was placed in banks and bankers (and in auditors and insolvency practitioners too).
It is increasingly clear they have serially abused that trust, and were permitted by the government to form a state-sponsored kleptocracy with disastrous consequences for the health of the UK economy and for society at large.
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Short URL: http://www.ianfraser.org/?p=950
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Austin Mitchell, amongst others, has, over the past 20 or so years, asked many questions in Parliament via EDMs etc. e.g.
1. http://www.cbr.me/index.php?page=Newspaper-Magazine-Online-Articles
2008-10-16: EDM 2263 “BEHAVIOUR OF BANK AUDITORS”.
QUESTIONS ASKED, BUT NOTHING APPARENTLY CHANGES:
Austin Mitchell, amongst others, has, over the past 20 or so years, asked many questions in Parliament via EDMs etc. e.g.
http://www.cbr.me/index.php?page=Newspaper-Magazine-Online-Articles
2008-10-16: EDM 2263 “BEHAVIOUR OF BANK AUDITORS” This question ends….”….that audits of banks should be directly conducted by the regulators on a real time basis and external auditors of banks must not act as consultants to the banks or the directors.”
Over the past 20 years or so MPs have raised similar issues relating to whether there’s a CONFLICT OF INTEREST when banks select their auditors to act as receivers of SME/bank customers.
Again, nothing has happened. In today’s news there’s the matter of the horrendous UNNECESSARY cost of the Ministry of Defence procurement system where huge sums (and many lives) have been wasted by this Government who ‘talks the talk’ but fails to ‘walk the walk’. The relevance to the above article is that were the savings that can be made in the MoD to be used in establishing a proper Government Audit/Receivership Department, employing many of the accountants now in private practice who would in turn manage the Civil Servants that would be displaced from the MoD – then the Government could truly regulate the Audit/Receivership function and put a stop to the ‘banking-audit war’ that has cost the UK billions. With the next financial crisis averted the Armed Forces would then have the proper funding to protect us all. ……to quote the Meerkat on the comparethemeerkat.com TV ad…..“simple”!
…..and changing the old saying “….it’s the economy stupid” to “….it’s finite resources (producing true value) stupid”! ….perhaps Gordon’s friend Prudence might have said that to him before he stopped listening to her in 1994!! If you ask me, I’ll explain why I say 1994 and not later…..
I’ve kept this theme brief in order to stimulate debate, and look forward to your comments to this page &/or to alanedwards4@hotmail.com.
AE
….further to the above, and particularly with reference to the last paragraph of this excellent article. The Government via Jack Straw, and before when it was H M opposition, via Alistair Darling in 1994. They were fully aware of the PATTERN of fraudulent conduct/PERJURY CONSPIRACY TO PERVERT THE COURSE OF JUSTICE presently being expanded upon here. BUT they have CHOSEN to DO nothing! This due to not wanting to upset their ‘chums’/Bankers/Accountants who offer them jobs when they leave politics, or even part-time jobs before then. Did you know one of Tony Blair’s first jobs after leaving office was to take a $1m pa job with J P Morgan Chase? Such arrogance; such blatant disregard for what people might say! What do these politicians care – whether in office, by ripping off the Public Purse via expenses – or afterwards when they can receive the financial thank you for services rendered whilst in office! They say they don’t go into politics to get rich….but somehow they manage to get rich don’t they? Those riches often come from the finance sector so HOW CAN WE EXPECT THEM TO REGULATE IT or the INSOLVENCY business. It used to be called a profession but now ‘the King’s new clothes’ have fallen off revealing the truth that the insolvency guys are pin-striped-predators. The most cowardly of all….they feed off those the bankers have made vulnerable.
(above continued)…..….they feed off those the bankers have made vulnerable – often as part of a joint plan! Can there be a worse form of CONFLICT OF INTERESTS leading to ABUSE by an unregulated series of functions? Although the Brown Government, and the Blair Gov’t before it maintain that self-regulation is working fine! Ask those in the dole queues what they think when their jobs go as a result of the banks pulling the plug to make way for their INSOLVENCY chums! In return the banks often get their capital back along with interest and bank charges. DON’T get me started about the part the lawyers ‘play’!!
The entrepreneurs/owners usually lose everything including their family home! All SMEs should know these harsh facts of business life in the UK with so called self-regulated PREDATORS allowed to manipulate people’s finances…..and lives.
I speak from the experience of watching my wife suffer at their hands.
AE
alanedwards4@hotmail.com
Yet another very good blog Mr Fraser and I particularly like the title. But I am beginning to wonder if, over the last couple of years the word criminal has been redefined? Alternatively, I would ask (again) what dictionary are bankers and the government using?
I ask these questions because I have seen a mountain of evidence of serious crime in the financial sector and yet nothing has been done about it. It seems there’s one rule for the public and another for bankers (and their chums).
I cannot get my head around this situation. Dennis, Andy, Fred and Tom and others have, with hardly any qualifications, brought the country to its knees with their mis-management and negligence, while they made (and continue to make) millions of pounds and all they’ve had to do is make a half hearted apology. sorry. In some cases there have been actual criminal actions but no-one has been prosecuted.
For example, in the case of HBOS Reading, I know that the deliberate fraud perpetrated by Lynden Scourfield, David Mills other HBOS and Quayside corporate Services Directors, has been reported by many people (victims) to: the FSA, FOS, BBA, Bank Of England, SFO, CIB, BERR, Gordon Brown, Peter Cummings, Dennis Stevenson, Andy Hornby, the entire Board of HBOS. Vince Cable, James Paice, several other MPs and Eric Daniels.
With the exception of the MPs, the FSA (who are now investigating) and the FOS who are waiting for the outcome of the FSA investigation, everyone else has decided it is acceptable either to ignore the situation or to outright deny it even happened!!
But what happened at Reading is a fact and so well documented that surely it is now impossible to deny? The entire financial sector knows about it – so why persist with the cover up?
And what happens when the truth does come out – and the truth has an incredible habit of coming out as even Bernie Madoff knows?
How will Eric Daniels explain letters sent on his behalf saying the bank stands by its previous comments (i.e. “nothing happened” and “no one did anything wrong”) and that they see no point in further correspondence with victims?
How will Denton Wilde Sapte explain their letters stating allegations by the victims of this crime are “ill-founded and misconceived?”
And how will Gordon Brown explain the letters from his office saying he has taken allegations about HBOS Reading very seriously and has passed evidence sent to him, to HM Treasury, when the Treasury have then replied with utter gobbledigook ignoring all mention of HBOS Reading??? What are all these people going to say if the FSA really does do its job and exposes the huge fraud at Reading???
People’s lives have been totally devastated by what happened at HBOS Reading and, in the broader picture many people (including old age pensioners and former bank staff) have lost everything including their hard-earned pensions because a bunch of greedy, unethical individuals were given free rein to gamble the country’s finances away and get millions for their efforts.
Does the government and the financial sector really believe no one need be answerable or take any blame and that’s the end of it? Does Mr Daniels feel comfortable in his skin telling bald lies to people who have lost everything because of HBOS Reading?
It is a very perplexing issue. Just who are the criminals here? Obviously anyone who committed fraud is a criminal but, what do you call those people who know full well what crimes were committed, and who even committed them themselves but continue to deny everything?
And are some of the ‘criminals’ involved in the so-called ‘global credit crunch’, the very people we relied on to protect us from criminals?
Orwellian times indeed.