RBS terminates relationship with Tomlinson
YORKSHIRE entrepreneur Lawrence Tomlinson, who published a report criticising RBS, has revealed that the bank has terminated its relationship with him.
Tomlinson published a damning report last year which claimed that RBS treated some businesses in an “unscrupulous” and “shocking” way.
Now, it has been revealed on BBC’s Panorama Did the Bank Wreck my Business? in which the LNT chairman and former government entrepreneur in residence, Lawrence Tomlinson, revealed the actions RBS had taken against him following the publication of the Tomlinson Report, that he received an email from the bank terminating his business and personal accounts.
In a statement this morning, Tomlinson said: “Just two weeks after I’d paid RBS £55,000 to renew the LNT Group’s overdraft facility, I received an email from RBS deputy chief executive, Chris Sullivan, terminating all my business and personal accounts – they even tried to revoke my mortgage.
“This was not for any financial reason but what they termed a breakdown of trust in the banking relationship… Given I have only ever been positive about my personal accounts, and had a good on-going working relationship with our local RBS team, one can only conclude that this was, despite their denials, a backlash to my work on the Tomlinson Report.”
Tomlinson says he only ever tried to help the bank, showing them how badly treated their customers feel.
“It was a difficult decision to publish the Tomlinson Report, especially as RBS were my bank, but I did so as I believed it was in the bank’s and public’s interest to do so,” he said. “It is highly disappointing that they adopted this strategy. I am lucky as I have very strong businesses and personal wealth but even for me this was a blow – for many businesses, it would have been the end.
“Was I naïve? Probably yes, because I thought it was still possible to help the bank do the right thing by its customers and RBS wanted to change its culture. I cannot express just how disappointing this is that a year after the publication of the Tomlinson Report, the banks are not behaving any better.
“Following another week of scandal, I truly hope this is the wakeup call the bank, regulators and Government need to take decisive actions to rectify the dreadful culture that has resulted from the lack of competition in the sector. I’d like to stress, however, that not all banks are the same. There are some great challenger banks who are offering excellent customer-centric products and services but they need room to flourish in a competitive market. This can only be achieved by breaking up those banks who are too big to fail into smaller and more manageable sized banks.”
