Now fat cats get bonuses of up to £30k… to probe scandal that unfolded on their watch
Royal Bank of Scotland ‘fat cats’ who were criticised for their role in one of the most shocking episodes in RBS’s history are now being paid lucrative bonuses to investigate what went wrong.
Earlier this month, the bank was condemned after an official report concluded that staff had bullied and threatened vulnerable small businesses, invented fees, and brutally mocked business bosses in their time of need. The report into the bank’s Global Restructuring Group (GRG) concluded that RBS’s board of directors should shoulder the blame for its inappropriate activities and distress to customers.
But several of the same directors are pocketing thousands to sit on a committee tasked with examining the GRG scandal.
The bank’s annual report for the year to 31 December 2017, published on Friday, shows directors receiving additional payments of £15,000 to £30,000 each to sit on the GRG Board Oversight Committee, which was set up in 2015 to help review the unit’s activities.
Among them is RBS non-executive director Brendan Nelson, who was paid an extra £30,000 last year to chair the GRG BOC committee, taking his annual payment for being an RBS director to £216,000. Nelson joined the board in 2010, when the GRG scandal was still in its early stages.
Baroness (Sheila) Noakes, who became an RBS director on 1 August, 2011, at a time when the bank was bullying and threatening vulnerable business customers, received an additional £15,000, taking her annual payment to £196,000.
Director Penny Hughes, former Coca-Cola executive who joined the bank’s board as a non-executive in 2010, is being handed £15,000 a year to sit on the committee, taking her annual payment to £187,000.
Last night critics said it was ‘unacceptable’ that bosses are being rewarded for failure, and that taxpayers who bailed out the bank in 2008-9, or were pushed to the brink during the GRG scandal will ‘rightly be furious ‘.
Steve Middleton, chief advisor at BankConfidential, a body for whistleblowers, which aims to expose the unacceptable practices of big banks, said: “This is a slap in the face for those bullied and ripped off by the bank during its corruptive GRG years.
“It is disgraceful that senior bankers are investigating themselves. The fact they’re getting paid for this is corrupt in itself; they’re being rewarded for failure.”
“HM Treasury, which ultimately controls RBS Group on behalf of taxpayers, should immediately investigate the clear conflict of interest and propriety of such appointments.”
Two weeks ago, we revealed a report produced for the Financial Conduct Authority which found that RBS staff had bullied and threatened businesses, plotted to help themselves to the stock of a retail customer, plundered small firms for huge arbitrary fees, sent mocking emails, and created an unprofessional culture in which customers were seen as ‘opportunities’. (see Shame of the RBS bullies.)
Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said: “It seems inappropriate for individuals to be sitting on a review committee effectively investigating practices they were involved in, let alone paid be very handsomely for it. Yet again, RBS’s cavalier management style is not meeting even the lowest expectations.”
RBS declined to comment.
This article, bylined Ian Fraser and Lorraine Kelly, was published in the Mail on Sunday on 25 February 2018.
Article as published in the Scottish Mail on Sunday
