Nicky Morgan demands FCA publish leaked RBS report

Following a leaked report into the treatment of customers in RBS’s Global Restructuring Group, Nicky Morgan, Chair of the Treasury Committee, has written to Andrew Bailey, Chief Executive of the FCA, to demand the full publication of the report.

Related topics:  Finance News
Rozi Jones
7th September 2017
rbs royal bank of scotland
"The balance has tipped firmly in favour of full publication. I have written to Mr Bailey to urge him to secure the approval of RBS to do so, without delay."

GRG was a support unit for troubled businesses which came under fire in 2013 after Lawrence Tomlinson - then Entrepreneur in Residence at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - made a number of allegations against RBS, primarily that it mistreated troubled businesses to profit from their financial hardship.

He claimed that the bank "artificially distresses an otherwise viable business and through their actions puts them on a journey towards administration, receivership and liquidation".

On 17 January 2014 the FCA announced its review into the conduct of GRG.

Nicky Morgan commented: “The FCA told the Committee in November 2016 that a ‘full account’ of the findings from the skilled persons’ report would be published. Nearly a year later, and nearly four years since the report was commissioned, we are still waiting for answers.

“The report itself is now in the hands of an unknown number of third parties. The FCA now has no control over the timing or content of further public disclosures from it.

“The balance has tipped firmly in favour of full publication. I have written to Mr Bailey to urge him to secure the approval of RBS to do so, without delay.”

Commenting on the leak itself, she added: “I have asked Mr Bailey to update the Committee on any information that the FCA uncovers as part of its inquiry into the leak. This would not be the first instance of leaking from the FCA, but lessons must be learned to ensure it is the last.”

An FCA spokesperson said: “We have received the TSC’s letter and will respond in due course. We have already initiated a leak inquiry into the disclosure of the s166 report on RBS GRG to the BBC, and we have asked the other parties who had access to the report, namely RBS and Promontory, to do the same.

"If the Treasury Select Committee or the BBC have evidence that the document was leaked by the FCA, we encourage them to share that with us."

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