A report by the City watchdog into Royal Bank of Scotland’s controversial restructuring business has been branded a “whitewash” by MPs.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s report into RBS‘ Global Restructuring Group (GRG) attempted to draw a line under a scandal, but a group of MPs said it failed to find out whether the bank’s senior managers were involved.
GRG was supposed to help turn around small businesses but has been accused of ruining lives by stripping customers of assets in order to benefit its own bottom line.
The bank allegedly engineered defaults on loans so that it could push valuable businesses into GRG and acquire their property.
“This report is another complete whitewash and another demonstrable failure of the regulator to perform its role,” said Kevin Hollinrake, the co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking.
1/20 Volkswagen emissions scandal
VW admitted to rigging its US emission tests so that diesel-powered cars would looks like they were emitting less nitrous oxide, which can damage the ozone layer and contribute to respiratory diseases. Around 11 million cars worldwide were affected.
Getty
2/20 Martin Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals
Martin Shkreli became known as the “most hated man in the world” after his drug company, Turing, increased the price of a 62-year-old drug that treated HIV patients by 5,000% to $750 a pill. He was charged with illegally taking stock from Retrophin, a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. Shkreli, who maintains he is innocent, and says there is little evidence of fraud because his investors didn’t lose money.
3/20 Panama Papers: Millions of leaked documents expose how world’s rich and powerful hid money – April 2016
Millions of confidential documents have been leaked from one of the world’s most secretive law firms, exposing how the rich and powerful have hidden their money. Dictators and other heads of state have been accused of laundering money, avoiding sanctions and evading tax, according to the unprecedented cache of papers that show the inner workings of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which is based in Panama.
Getty
4/20 Google’s tax avoidance
Google reached a deal with the HM Revenue and Customs to pay back £130 million in so-called “back-taxes” that have been due since 2005. George Osborne championed the deal as a “major success”. But European MEPs have since called for the Chancellor to appear in front of the committee on tax rulings to explain the tax deal.
Getty
5/20 Rogue trader
A French court cut the damages owed by rogue trader Jerome Kerviel from €4.9bn (£4.2bn) to just €1m (£860,000).
The court ruled on that Kerviel was “partly responsible” for massive losses suffered in 2008 by his former employer Societe Generale through his reckless trades.
Kerviel has consistently maintained that bosses at the French bank knew what he was doing all along.
AP
6/20 Barclays CEO under investigation for trying to identify whistleblower – Monday Paril 10
Authorities have launched an investigation into Barclays chief executive officer Jes Staley for trying to identify a whistleblower, the bank said on Monday.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are both investigating Mr Staley after the bank notified them that Mr Staley had tried to identify the author of two anonymous letters, which were sent to the board and a senior executive in June 2016.
Getty
7/20 UK to crack down on bank money laundering after reports of £65bn Russian scam, City minister says – March 2017
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury has vowed that the Government will crack down on money laundering practices, after several of the UK’s biggest banks were accused of processing money from a Russian scam, believed to involve up to $80bn (£65bn).
Reuters
8/20 Former HBOS bankers convicted of bribery and fraud over £245m loan scam – February 2017
Two former HBOS bankers were among six people found guilty of bribery and fraud that cost customers and shareholders hundreds of millions of pounds, the BBC reports.
Lynden Scourfield, 54, a manager at HBOS, forced struggling clients to use the services of his friends David Mills, 60, and Michael Bancroft, 73. In return, the two businessmen arranged sex parties, cash and lavish gifts.
On Monday, the three were convicted at Southwark Crown Court on accounts including bribery, fraud and money laundering. Mark Dobson, another manager at HBOS, Alison Mills, and John Cartwright were also convicted.
Getty
9/20 Lloyds chief apologises for damage caused by affair allegations – August 2016
Antonio Horta-Osorio, the chief executive of Lloyds Bank, has broken his silence over allegations about his private life admitting he regrets any “damage done to the group’s reputation”.
In a message sent to the bank’s 75,000 employees, the banker said that anyone can make mistakes while insisting that staff had to maintain the highest professional standards.
Getty
10/20 Christine Lagarde faces court over £340m Bernard Tapie payment – July 2016
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, must stand trial in France over a payment of €403 million (now £340m, then £290m) to tycoon Bernard Tapie, a France’s highest appeals court has ruled.
The court rejected Ms Lagarde’s appeal against a judge’s order in December for her to stand trial over allegations of negligence in her handling of the affair.
Ms Lagarde could risk a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of €15,000 euros if convicted.
Reuters
11/20 HSBC senior manager arrested in FX rigging investigation at JFK airport in New York – July 2016
A senior executive at HSBC has been arrested at New York’s JFK airport for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to rig currency benchmarks, according to reports.
Mark Johnson, global head of foreign exchange cash trading in London, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday.
He will appear before a federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Bloomberg said.
Getty
12/20 Former PwC employees found guilty in ‘Luxleaks’ tax scandal – June 2016
Two ex- PricewaterhouseCoopers staffers were found guilty in Luxembourg of stealing confidential tax files that helped unleash a global scandal over generous fiscal deals for hundreds of international companies.
Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet face suspended sentences of 12 months and 9 months and were ordered to pay fines of €1,500 (£1,230) and €1,000 (£822) for their role in the so-called LuxLeaks scandal. Despite the minimal sentences, the ruling was described by Deltour’s lawyer as “shocking” and “a terrible anomaly.”
The ruling “puts on guard future whistle-blowers,” Deltour told reporters.The LuxLeaks revelations sped beyond Luxembourg, causing European Union regulators to expand a tax-subsidy probe and propose new laws to fight corporate tax dodging, while EU lawmakers created a special committee to probe fiscal deals across the 28-nation bloc.
Reuters
13/20 Goldman Sachs dealmakers lavished Libyan officials with prostitutes to win contract – June 2016
A former Goldman Sachs dealmaker trying to persuade Gadaffi-era Libya to invest $1 billion with the investment bank procured prostitutes and invited Libyan officials to lavish parties in the hope of winning the business, the High Court heard on Monday June 13.The Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund is suing Goldman Sachs for inappropriately coercing its naïve staff into giving its sovereign wealth fund cash to the bank to invest in products they did not understand. The products were designed to generate big profits for Goldman, the LIA claims.Goldman denies wrongdoing and says the LIA was treated as an arms-length customer
Reuters
14/20 Former boss of BHS said his life was threatened – June 2016
Darren Topp, the former boss of BHS, has said former owner Dominic Chappell threatened to kill him when he challenged him over a £1.5 million transfer out of the business.
MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee asked Mr Topp about a £1.5 million transfer Mr Chappell made from BHS to a company called BHS Sweden.
Getty
15/20 Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley admits paying workers below the minimum wage – June 2016
Mike Ashley admitted paying Sports Direct employees below the minimum wage at a hearing in front of MPs. The company founder said that workers were paid less than the statutory minimum because of bottlenecks at security in an admission that could result in sanctions from HMRC.
Reuters
16/20 Mitsubishi admits ‘improper’ fuel tests – April 2016
Mitsubishi has admitted to using false fuel methods dating back to 1991. The scale of the scandal is only just coming to light after it was revealed in April that data was falsified in the testing of four types of cars, including two Nissan cars.
AP
17/20 Quindell, the scandal-ridden insurance firm
Quindell was once a darling of AIM but its share price fell in April 2014 when its accounting practices were attacked in a stinging research note by US short seller Gotham City. In August the group was forced to disclose that the £107 million pre-tax profit it had reported for 2013 was incorrect, and it had in fact suffered a £64million loss.
Getty
18/20 Toshiba Accounting Scandal
The boss of Toshiba, the Japanese technology giant, resigned in disgrace in the wake of one of the country’s biggest ever accounting scandals. His exit came two months after the company revealed that it was investigating accounting irregularities. An independent investigatory panel said that Toshiba’s management had inflated its reported profits by up to 152 billion yen (£780m) between 2008 and 2014.
19/20 FIFA Corruption Scandal
Fifa, football’s world governing body, has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption since the summer of 2015, when the US Department of Justice indicted several top executives. It has now claimed the careers of two of the most powerful men in football, Fifa President Sepp Blatter and Uefa President Michel Platini, after they were banned for eight years from all football-related activities by Fifa’s ethics committee. A Swiss criminal investigation into the pair is ongoing.
Getty
20/20 Libor fraudster
City trader Tom Hayes, 35, has become the first person to be convicted of rigging Libor rates following a trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court. Hayes worked as a trader in yen derivatives at UBS before joining the American bank Citigroup in Tokyo. He was fired from Citigroup following an investigation into his trading methods. He returned to the UK in December 2012 and was arrested following a two-and-a-half year criminal investigation by the SFO.
Getty
1/20 Volkswagen emissions scandal
VW admitted to rigging its US emission tests so that diesel-powered cars would looks like they were emitting less nitrous oxide, which can damage the ozone layer and contribute to respiratory diseases. Around 11 million cars worldwide were affected.
Getty
2/20 Martin Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals
Martin Shkreli became known as the “most hated man in the world” after his drug company, Turing, increased the price of a 62-year-old drug that treated HIV patients by 5,000% to $750 a pill. He was charged with illegally taking stock from Retrophin, a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. Shkreli, who maintains he is innocent, and says there is little evidence of fraud because his investors didn’t lose money.
3/20 Panama Papers: Millions of leaked documents expose how world’s rich and powerful hid money – April 2016
Millions of confidential documents have been leaked from one of the world’s most secretive law firms, exposing how the rich and powerful have hidden their money. Dictators and other heads of state have been accused of laundering money, avoiding sanctions and evading tax, according to the unprecedented cache of papers that show the inner workings of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which is based in Panama.
Getty
4/20 Google’s tax avoidance
Google reached a deal with the HM Revenue and Customs to pay back £130 million in so-called “back-taxes” that have been due since 2005. George Osborne championed the deal as a “major success”. But European MEPs have since called for the Chancellor to appear in front of the committee on tax rulings to explain the tax deal.
Getty
5/20 Rogue trader
A French court cut the damages owed by rogue trader Jerome Kerviel from €4.9bn (£4.2bn) to just €1m (£860,000).
The court ruled on that Kerviel was “partly responsible” for massive losses suffered in 2008 by his former employer Societe Generale through his reckless trades.
Kerviel has consistently maintained that bosses at the French bank knew what he was doing all along.
AP
6/20 Barclays CEO under investigation for trying to identify whistleblower – Monday Paril 10
Authorities have launched an investigation into Barclays chief executive officer Jes Staley for trying to identify a whistleblower, the bank said on Monday.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are both investigating Mr Staley after the bank notified them that Mr Staley had tried to identify the author of two anonymous letters, which were sent to the board and a senior executive in June 2016.
Getty
7/20 UK to crack down on bank money laundering after reports of £65bn Russian scam, City minister says – March 2017
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury has vowed that the Government will crack down on money laundering practices, after several of the UK’s biggest banks were accused of processing money from a Russian scam, believed to involve up to $80bn (£65bn).
Reuters
8/20 Former HBOS bankers convicted of bribery and fraud over £245m loan scam – February 2017
Two former HBOS bankers were among six people found guilty of bribery and fraud that cost customers and shareholders hundreds of millions of pounds, the BBC reports.
Lynden Scourfield, 54, a manager at HBOS, forced struggling clients to use the services of his friends David Mills, 60, and Michael Bancroft, 73. In return, the two businessmen arranged sex parties, cash and lavish gifts.
On Monday, the three were convicted at Southwark Crown Court on accounts including bribery, fraud and money laundering. Mark Dobson, another manager at HBOS, Alison Mills, and John Cartwright were also convicted.
Getty
9/20 Lloyds chief apologises for damage caused by affair allegations – August 2016
Antonio Horta-Osorio, the chief executive of Lloyds Bank, has broken his silence over allegations about his private life admitting he regrets any “damage done to the group’s reputation”.
In a message sent to the bank’s 75,000 employees, the banker said that anyone can make mistakes while insisting that staff had to maintain the highest professional standards.
Getty
10/20 Christine Lagarde faces court over £340m Bernard Tapie payment – July 2016
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, must stand trial in France over a payment of €403 million (now £340m, then £290m) to tycoon Bernard Tapie, a France’s highest appeals court has ruled.
The court rejected Ms Lagarde’s appeal against a judge’s order in December for her to stand trial over allegations of negligence in her handling of the affair.
Ms Lagarde could risk a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of €15,000 euros if convicted.
Reuters
11/20 HSBC senior manager arrested in FX rigging investigation at JFK airport in New York – July 2016
A senior executive at HSBC has been arrested at New York’s JFK airport for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to rig currency benchmarks, according to reports.
Mark Johnson, global head of foreign exchange cash trading in London, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday.
He will appear before a federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Bloomberg said.
Getty
12/20 Former PwC employees found guilty in ‘Luxleaks’ tax scandal – June 2016
Two ex- PricewaterhouseCoopers staffers were found guilty in Luxembourg of stealing confidential tax files that helped unleash a global scandal over generous fiscal deals for hundreds of international companies.
Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet face suspended sentences of 12 months and 9 months and were ordered to pay fines of €1,500 (£1,230) and €1,000 (£822) for their role in the so-called LuxLeaks scandal. Despite the minimal sentences, the ruling was described by Deltour’s lawyer as “shocking” and “a terrible anomaly.”
The ruling “puts on guard future whistle-blowers,” Deltour told reporters.The LuxLeaks revelations sped beyond Luxembourg, causing European Union regulators to expand a tax-subsidy probe and propose new laws to fight corporate tax dodging, while EU lawmakers created a special committee to probe fiscal deals across the 28-nation bloc.
Reuters
13/20 Goldman Sachs dealmakers lavished Libyan officials with prostitutes to win contract – June 2016
A former Goldman Sachs dealmaker trying to persuade Gadaffi-era Libya to invest $1 billion with the investment bank procured prostitutes and invited Libyan officials to lavish parties in the hope of winning the business, the High Court heard on Monday June 13.The Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund is suing Goldman Sachs for inappropriately coercing its naïve staff into giving its sovereign wealth fund cash to the bank to invest in products they did not understand. The products were designed to generate big profits for Goldman, the LIA claims.Goldman denies wrongdoing and says the LIA was treated as an arms-length customer
Reuters
14/20 Former boss of BHS said his life was threatened – June 2016
Darren Topp, the former boss of BHS, has said former owner Dominic Chappell threatened to kill him when he challenged him over a £1.5 million transfer out of the business.
MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee asked Mr Topp about a £1.5 million transfer Mr Chappell made from BHS to a company called BHS Sweden.
Getty
15/20 Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley admits paying workers below the minimum wage – June 2016
Mike Ashley admitted paying Sports Direct employees below the minimum wage at a hearing in front of MPs. The company founder said that workers were paid less than the statutory minimum because of bottlenecks at security in an admission that could result in sanctions from HMRC.
Reuters
16/20 Mitsubishi admits ‘improper’ fuel tests – April 2016
Mitsubishi has admitted to using false fuel methods dating back to 1991. The scale of the scandal is only just coming to light after it was revealed in April that data was falsified in the testing of four types of cars, including two Nissan cars.
AP
17/20 Quindell, the scandal-ridden insurance firm
Quindell was once a darling of AIM but its share price fell in April 2014 when its accounting practices were attacked in a stinging research note by US short seller Gotham City. In August the group was forced to disclose that the £107 million pre-tax profit it had reported for 2013 was incorrect, and it had in fact suffered a £64million loss.
Getty
18/20 Toshiba Accounting Scandal
The boss of Toshiba, the Japanese technology giant, resigned in disgrace in the wake of one of the country’s biggest ever accounting scandals. His exit came two months after the company revealed that it was investigating accounting irregularities. An independent investigatory panel said that Toshiba’s management had inflated its reported profits by up to 152 billion yen (£780m) between 2008 and 2014.
19/20 FIFA Corruption Scandal
Fifa, football’s world governing body, has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption since the summer of 2015, when the US Department of Justice indicted several top executives. It has now claimed the careers of two of the most powerful men in football, Fifa President Sepp Blatter and Uefa President Michel Platini, after they were banned for eight years from all football-related activities by Fifa’s ethics committee. A Swiss criminal investigation into the pair is ongoing.
Getty
20/20 Libor fraudster
City trader Tom Hayes, 35, has become the first person to be convicted of rigging Libor rates following a trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court. Hayes worked as a trader in yen derivatives at UBS before joining the American bank Citigroup in Tokyo. He was fired from Citigroup following an investigation into his trading methods. He returned to the UK in December 2012 and was arrested following a two-and-a-half year criminal investigation by the SFO.
Getty
He added that the report was supposed to consider the “root causes” of the problems and to see if senior management at RBS knew about the controversy.
“They have manifestly failed to do this.”
The regulator said its conclusions were backed up by an independent report.
Business groups also attacked the FCA‘s report. The Federation of Small businesses said it “failed to provide consolation to former GRG customers who lost everything”.
National chairman Mike Cherry said: “It’s troubling that this report does not provide assurance that the Senior Managers & Certification Regime would be effective were a similar scenario to arise again.”
A review into GRG published last year found that it mistreated thousands of small firms by hitting them with large interest charges and new fees, among other practices.
Previously, the FCA has said it was powerless to investigate GRG because the unit was outside the regulator’s remit.
New powers mean that if a similar situation were to occur again, the FCA could launch a probe, Thursday’s report said
But the regulator said it would “inappropriate” to look at the GRG scandal using those new powers.
FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey, said: “GRG has been highly damaging for those customers impacted and more widely for the reputation of the banking industry.
“Combined with other issues that have impacted SMEs, it is important for all who work in this sector to regain the public’s trust.
“I must acknowledge the distress felt by many of GRG’s customers.
“The firm’s relations with its customers were often insensitive, dismissive and sometimes too aggressive; these failings made an already stressful situation worse.
“I know that many customers of GRG therefore disagree with our decision to not take enforcement action, but I hope that this report will explain why we reached that decision.”
Sir Howard Davies, chairman of RBS, welcomed the FCA final report.
He said: “The bank has acknowledged that some SME customers did not receive the treatment they should have done while in GRG during the relevant period and has apologised.
“The way the bank deals with business customers in financial difficulty today is fundamentally different to the aftermath of the financial crisis, during what was a hugely challenging time for the bank, its customers and the wider economy.”
