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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 »

Chuka Umunna: PWC’s useful idiot?

January 23rd, 2014 I’ve long wondered how committed the Labour shadow business secretary and MP for Streatham Chuka Umunna really is to UK banking reform. It seems the answer is “not very”. In the furore that followed the publication of the Tomlinson Report on November 25 last year, a report which (accurately, in my view) […]

January 23rd, 2014 | Posted in Blog | Read More »

Writing the wrongs of the financial crash

By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: August 25th, 2013 FOUR decades of laissez-faire policies have left Britain as a deeply indebted and uncompetitive economy that is unable to pay its way in the world and incapable of rediscovering its economic mojo, according to a number of economists and speakers at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last […]

August 25th, 2013 | Posted in Article Library | Read More »

Yes Scotland’s crisis avoidance claim is just laughable

January 18th, 2013 (updated January 19th, 2013) Blair Jenkins, chief executive of the Yes Scotland campaign, today claimed that Scotland “might very well not have had a financial crisis” if it had been an independent country. This is a ridiculous claim which further undermines the credibility of the ‘Yes’ campaign, especially where business, finance and […]

January 19th, 2013 | Posted in Blog | Read More »

FSA plays dangerous game with relaxation of capital rules

October 10th, 2012 Today the Financial Services Authority formally relaxed capital and liquidity rules on UK banks in the vague hope this might kickstart lending and do something to ensure the UK economy can pick itself up off the floor. The Canary Wharf-based regulator also said that it would not require banks to hold extra […]

October 10th, 2012 | Posted in Blog | Read More »

Dear David Cameron: Entrusting economic policy to ex-investment bankers is no solution

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. The three men are Paul Deighton, a former Goldman Sachs partner and chief operating officer for Europe (pictured above), Sajid Javid, a former global head of credit […]

September 7th, 2012 | Posted in Blog | Read More »

Durable change a long way off for UK’s scandal-ridden banking system

By Prem Sikka, University of Essex July 8th, 2012 The role of Barclays bank in manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) continues to dominate international financial media. The bank has already attracted fines from regulators in the UK and theUSA. But further revelations are likely as US Senate Committees are flexing their muscles, the UK […]

July 9th, 2012 | Posted in Article Library | Read More »

Banking’s ‘Milly Dowler’ moment

June 29th, 2012 This is banking’s ‘Milly Dowler’ moment. Finally the blinkers are off and the rest of the world (by which I mean people like leading politicians and the mainstream commentariat) is waking up to the culture of self serving greed and corruption that has infested the UK’s banking sector, about which I’ve been […]

June 29th, 2012 | Posted in Blog | Read More »

Financial regulation: With Griffith-Jones’ appointment, Britain keeps it in the family

By Ian Fraser Published: Qfinance Date: June 18th, 2012 I was surprised and exasperated to learn last week that chancellor George Osborne has rubber-stamped the appointment of John Griffith-Jones, the senior partner of KPMG, as chairman-designate of the Financial Conduct Authority, one of the two financial regulators that will take over from the soon-to-be-disbanded FSA. As […]

June 18th, 2012 | Posted in Article Library,Blog | Read More »

CBI and Barclays still ensnared by the delusion of performance-related pay

By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: April 27th, 2012 The debate over executive pay is turning ugly. In the UK, investor disquiet about the unwarranted rewards routinely doled out to bankers despite weak and unethically achieved performance is reaching boiling point. It could well explode at the Barclays AGM in London’s Royal Festival Hall which […]

April 27th, 2012 | Posted in Article Library,Blog | Read More »

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