April 13th, 2013 Finally, we have evidence that banks and bankers are not above the law in the United Kingdom. It seems the courts have finally woken up to the fact that allowing them to lie, cheat, deceive and defraud without legal impediment may not be a particularly good idea. As such, yesterday’s appeal court [...]
December 15th, 2012 An open letter to David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, from Mrs N Turner Dear Mr Cameron, I and many other people were stunned by the quotes from Mr Andrew Bailey, the chief executive-designate of the Prudential Regulation Authority, which were reported in the Daily Telegraph [...]
September 7th, 2012 When David Cameron reshuffled his cabinet earlier this week, the arrival of a trio City of London bankers and consultants at Her Majesty’s Treasury went almost unnoticed. This in my view was a lacuna. The three men are Paul Deighton, a former Goldman Sachs partner and chief operating officer for Europe (pictured above), Sajid [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Signet Magazine Date: July 16th, 2012 (minor edits March 28th, 2013) Scottish banking was once renowned for prudential management. Today the association is rather different. Financial journalist Ian Fraser gives his view of events behind the collapse of RBS and HBOS and calls for a Leveson-style inquiry. PDF version of this [...]
July 13th, 2012 On Tuesday, I was interviewed by Max Keiser of the Keiser Report about the UK’s lack of appetite for prosecuting ’white collar’ crime. Max also asked me about the Libor rigging scandal, swaps misselling by UK banks, and much else besides. The progeamme was broadcast on Wednesday night and made available via [...]
By Ed Jacob, via Left Foot Forward 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 transactions. While NatWest and RBS customers now seem to be enjoying a near normal service, a cross-party [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: July 1st, 2012 Bankers on the fiddle: executives face extradition to US. Exclusive by Ian Fraser (This is the full, unedited version of an article that was the “splash” in the Sunday Herald on July 1st, 2012) Image: Banzai7 Executives and former executives of the Royal Bank of [...]
March 18th, 2012 Demands for a Leveson-style public inquiry into the UK’s dysfunctional banking sector are reaching a crescendo following the FSA’s partial whitewash of the RBS collapse, a cover-up of events surrounding the Bradford & Bingley rights issue, doubts about the regulator’s commitment to getting to the bottom of what happened at HBOS and much establishment [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: February 2nd, 2012 Financial commentators are, suddenly, in demand and it’s largely down to the continuing failure of banks to properly reform themselves in the wake of the global financial crisis and the current public rage about bankers who continue to award themselves massive pay packages even though their [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: January 27th, 2012 The board of Royal Bank of Scotland and its remuneration committee, led by the ex-Coca Cola executive Penny Hughes but also comprising ex-Standard Life boss Sandy Crombie, must have decided let’s just go for it and to hang with the consequences. The RBS board of directors [...]