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 [...]
January 21st, 2012 The current cross-party campaign to have Sir Fred Goodwin stripped of his knighthood makes for entertaining viewing, but I’m afraid I don’t agree with it. The current witchhunt is handy for the politicians. It gives the impression they’re doing something to punish a perpetrator of the banking crisis but, call me cynical, [...]
December 10th, 2011 A project with which I was involved… RBS: Inside the Bank that Ran Out of Money, a one hour BBC Television documentary charting the build up to the biggest bank failure in history, was first aired across the UK on BBC2 on Monday, December 5th. The one-hour film, produced by Tony Nellany [...]
November 21st, 2011 A documentary on which I worked as senior researcher and lead consultant is to be shown on BBC2 nationally on December 5th. The one-hour BBC film charts the rise and fall of the Royal Bank of Scotland, starting with its £21bn acquisition of NatWest in February 2000 and ending soon after its [...]
September 12th, 2011 This morning I was listening to Nicky Campbell’s phone-in programme on BBC Radio 5 Live. The topic was the final proposals of Sir John Vickers’ Independent Banking Commission for reforming the UK’s banking system, which were published this morning. To many, including Philip Augar (who since leaving the City in 2000 has done [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Newsnet Scotland Date: Wednesday March 12th, 2011 George Osborne is a very different animal from the more bombastic Gordon Brown but judging by this afternoon’s performance, there are some similarities. Both like to stuff their budgets full of minor fiscal tinkering, unleashing a torrent of bamboozling fiscal tweaks and superficial measures [...]
November 2nd, 2010 I couldn’t believe it when I heard Lord Turnbull speak about the extent of former prime minister Gordon Brown’s self-delusion to the Treasury select committee (via Radio 4′s Today in Parliament). Basically, Turnbull claimed that the groupthink in Westminster and Whitehall had become so pronounced by the mid-Noughties that everyone at 1 Horse Guards [...]
September 8th, 2010 When prime minister David Cameron appointed Andy Coulson, former editor of the News of the World, as the Conservatives’ head of spin in June 2007, it was always seen as a bizarre appointment (and this was only partly because Coulson had left the paper under a cloud, resigning because of the phone [...]
July 19th, 2010 Chinless wonder: UKFI’s Robin Budenberg The coalition government of David Cameron and Nick Clegg is reverting to type where appointments to UK Financial Investments, the vehicle established by the previous government to hold the public’s stakes in lenders including RBS and Lloyds Banking Group. Most of the people who work for this [...]