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Classic over-reach as Goodwin boasted about RBS’s immensity

7th November 2015 The FactSheet compiled by RBS’s senior communications executive and deputy chief economist Andrew Wilson in February 2007 pleased his master, the bank’s chief executive, Fred Goodwin, as it put RBS’s financial success in context. But it was also incredibly bombastic and dangerously hubristic Royal Bank of Scotland issued an extraordinary flyer to journalists on the […]

November 7th, 2015 | Posted in Blog | Read More »

RBS lawyers fail in attempt to distance themselves from Fred Goodwin as trial approaches

By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: 2 August 2015 The Royal Bank of Scotland has lost a fight to have its former chief executive, Fred Goodwin, excluded from the coming trial over its ‘misleading’ £12.3 billion rights issue. Sonia Tolaney QC, the bank’s lead barrister, told the High Court in London last week that […]

August 2nd, 2015 | Posted in Article Library | Read More »

‘RBS still lacks transparency’ — CNBC Squawk Box interview

7th June, 2015 In this interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, recorded in their Fleet Place studios, I said that RBS still hasn’t shrunk enough and that the bank still lacks transparency. In particular I implied it was being somewhat dishonest in its provisioning for future litigation and the cost of past/current misconduct. The interview, which […]

June 7th, 2015 | Posted in Blog | Read More »

British government policy towards RBS leaves much to be desired

7th June, 2015 Afshin Rattansi asked me about who was to blame for the Royal Bank of Scotland’s collapse, whether the 2008-09 bailout was mishandled, the scapegoating of Fred Goodwin by former prime minister Gordon Brown, and whether the government has a vested interest in airbrushing the bank’s crimes and misdemeanours, in view of its […]

June 7th, 2015 | Posted in Blog | Read More »

Breakthrough in RBS trial as judge orders bank to produce Fred’s emails

By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: 29 March 2015 Note: This is an unedited version of the article that was published in the Sunday Herald on 29 March 2015. This draft dates from 20 March 2015. The published version is available here. The Royal Bank of Scotland has been rapped over the knuckles by a […]

March 29th, 2015 | Posted in Article Library | Read More »

Hard hats for bankers

By Ian Fraser Published: Business Quarter (BQ) Date: 13 October 2014 At a dinner to mark the departure of chief executive Stephen Hester in September 2013, the Royal Bank of Scotland’s finance director Bruce van Saun gave Hester’s anointed heir, Ross McEwan, an unusual present. Hester, a keen horseman, had been the bank’s chief executive […]

October 13th, 2014 | Posted in Article Library | Read More »

A true rebranding … or lipstick on a pig?

By Ian Fraser Published: Mail on Sunday (Scottish edition) Date: 17 August 2014 RBS’s decision to scrap the three-letter acronym it has used for eleven years and assert its heritage by readopting the Royal Bank of Scotland title and refurbishing branches with a “heather, tartan and tweed” theme will get the nation thinking. Is this […]

August 17th, 2014 | Posted in Article Library | Read More »

On the trail of Fred the Shred

By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: 8 June 2014 Ian Fraser’s new book, Shredded – Inside RBS: the Bank that Broke Britain, has been acclaimed as the definitive account of the crisis. Here he reflects on the 13 things he learned along the long, hard road to publication (1) Fred the Shred was not […]

June 8th, 2014 | Posted in Article Library | Read More »

Shredded: ‘The pimp, the ghetto of fraud and the whorehouse of debt’

June 5th, 2014 (updated June 6th, 2014) It has been nearly two years in the making, but Shredded: Inside RBS The Bank That Broke Britain was published by Birlinn today. It’s a look at the Icarus-like ascent of RBS under former chartered accountant Fred “The Shred” Goodwin, and examines many aspects of the bank’s spectacular rise […]

June 5th, 2014 | Posted in Blog | Read More »

Lloyds sues RBS for £420m over ‘misleading’ rights issue

By Ian Fraser Published: The Herald Date: 21 May 2014 In an unprecedented clash between two of the UK’s biggest banks, Lloyds Banking Group is suing government owned Royal Bank of Scotland over its “misleading” £12 billion rights issue. In what is seen as the first American-style class action to hit the English courts Lloyds – […]

May 21st, 2014 | Posted in Article Library | Read More »

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