‘Let the jury consider their verdict,’ the King said, for about the twentieth time that day. ‘No, no!’ said the Queen. ‘Sentence first—verdict afterwards.’ (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland).
Politicians have often followed the Red Queen’s approach: policy first, evidence later.
It is seven years since the collapse of HBOS – the second largest collapse in British banking history (after RBS) and one which cost the UK taxpayer £20 billion, Lloyds and former HBOS shareholders £54 billion and 40,000 bank employees their jobs.
Looking back I discover it is almost exactly a year ago that I wrote that the extremely tardy official report into the collapse of HBOS would be published “early in the New Year.”
Four banks — Lloyds, RBS, Barclays and HSBC — have over 70% of the personal current accounts in the UK between them and over 80% of the current accounts of small businesses. This is not a new situation, it was identified 15 years ago in an official inquiry.
According to the television executive Michael Grade non-executive directors are like bidets – no-one is sure what exactly they are for, but they add a touch of class.
I’m told the extremely tardy official report into the collapse of HBOS will be published early in the New Year and will contain criticism of the former chairman, Lord Stevenson, and chief executive, Andy Hornby. Whether it also imposes sanctions is another matter.
Whatever the referendum result on September 18, the Scottish banking system needs reforming and the Scottish Government has a golden opportunity to try to do something about it.
Could the HBOS three finally get an official slap on the wrist for losing £54 billion, forcing the Government to rescue the bank and impoverishing millions of bank employees and small shareholders?
Can the TSB claim to be the John Lewis of Banking? Following my blog post last week questioning that claim, here is the detailed response from Anthony Hus, Media Relations (Corporate) Manager at the TSB.
I read with interest your recent blog titled “The ‘John Lewis’ of banking? Not with this level of bonus” and thought you might like some further background on TSB’s new reward strategy and how we see this as a step forward for the banking industry, as well as how it compares to the John Lewis Partnership model.
It’s a measure of how inured we have become to the excesses of bankers, and how numbed by high numbers, that when TSB announced its pay policy recently a limit on the maximum pay of its chief executive to £1.65 million — 65 times the average salary of its ordinary staff — could be presented as modest.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén