Financial watchdog to publish critical RBS report
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is to publish a report into the actions of a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) after its bosses indicated they will not object.
RBS chief executive Ross McEwan yesterday told MPs on the Treasury Select Committee: “We will not object.”
Last year, the FCA refused to publish, in full, a leaked report into the way Royal Bank of Scotland treated small business customers, after Andrew Bailey, FCA chief executive, told MPs on the Treasury select committee that publication of information in the report could be a criminal offence under the Financial Services and Marketing Act.
A leaked copy of the FCA report into the conduct of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Global Restructuring Group was published by the BBC in August.
The BBC reported that the full FCA report finds that “inappropriate action” was experienced by 92% of viable businesses it handled.
In a statement yesterday, the FCA said: “The FCA welcomes the statement by Royal Bank of Scotland, given at today’s Treasury Committee hearing, that they will not object to the FCA publishing the s166 report into the treatment of small and medium-sized enterprise customers transferred to its Global Restructuring Group.
“On this basis, we are content to publish the s166 report. To do so will also require the consent of those who provided the information in the report and any individuals who are identified. We will approach these individuals, once the work on the focused investigation is completed, to ask for their consent to publish.”
Lawrence Tomlinson, chairman of Leeds-based LNT group, who in 2013 authored the Tomlinson Report which first exposed the unfair treatment of businesses in the Royal Bank of Scotland’s turnaround division, said: “Parliament has clearly got behind this issue. Alongside the pursuit by the Treasury Select Committee, the recent debate in the Commons shows that MPs from all political parties are completely in support of more substantive action to hold the bank to account and achieve justice for individuals affected.”
