In this interview with Kam Sandhu of Real Media, I spoke about RBS / NatWest’s infamous Global Restructuring Group.
The group, formally founded by the Royal Bank of Scotland in August 2008, has been likened to as “small business abattoir,” “psychopath unit” or “vampire unit”.
Its unaccountable executives and staff have caused the destruction of tens of thousands of viable small businesses across the UK, in an apparent attempt by RBS to shrink and safen its balance sheet while profiting from the residual assets of targeted firms. I likened the City’s vow of silence on the matter to an omerta, questioned the role of financial regulators and government, and called for a public inquiry and major changes.
This interview followed a debate in he House of Commons, titled “RBS Global Restructuring Group and SMEs”, which I attended in the public gallery.
During the debate, MP after MP condemned RBS / NatWest’s Global Restructuring Group for its systemic destruction of SMEs, describing it as a parasitic unit engaged in asset stripping, fraudulence, and aggressive litigation.
MPs highlighted GRG’s role in artificially distressing viable businesses, undervaluing assets, and employing harsh recovery strategies during 2009-13, leading to widespread harm, including family breakups, mental breakdowns and suicides. The Financial Conduct Authority’s delayed and redacted report also faced heavy criticism, with calls for transparent accountability, a financial services tribunal, whistleblower protections, and full release of investigations.
The Labour MP Clive Lewis said: “We know that 90 per cent of GRG administered businesses never made it back to mainstream banking. This is a very high proportion.The cost of this is immeasurable, but we believe it to be in the tens of billions.
“So let’s be clear here. This is the potential size of the injustice that has taken place in our country. If it is this big, it may be the largest theft anywhere, ever.”
Lewis added: “We should have caught it much sooner, but instead it has been left to a dedicated group of individual victims… and to a relentless pursuit by journalists such as Andy Verity, Joe Lynam, Siobhan Kennedy, James Hurley, Jonathan Ford, Ruth Sunderland, Tom Warren, Ian Fraser and Heidi Blake, to name just a few — to keep the issue alive.
“That is the journalism that the British public need: journalism that investigates the acts of the powerful and holds them to account. It is the fourth estate playing its rightful role in a healthy, functioning democracy.” (see full transcript of Clive Lewis’s speech and the full “RBS Global Restructuring Group and SMEs” debate in Hansard).
The debate was widely covered in the media (e.g. by the BBC, Iain Withers in the Daily Telegraph, Rachel Wearmouth in Huffington Post, Alan Simpson in The Herald and Torcuil Crichton in the Daily Record among many others) though much of the coverage focused on Vince Cable’s use of parliamentary privilege to name Santander CEO Nathan Bostock, who was head of restructuring and risk at RBS in 2009-13, as responsible.
Perhaps the most comprehensive and detailed account of the House of Commons debate was by LexLaw.
This interview and blog was published on 22 January 2018