BASED on past performance, the recent revelation about dubious business practices within the RBS comes as no surprise ("RBS reveals culture of 'disgraceful' behaviour", The Herald, February 21). Every organisation has its “chancers” and those whose main interest in life is themselves and who are willing to sacrifice others and break the rules in the process. Usually their behaviour is tolerated as long as it is beneficial to those further up the organisational hierarchy. The significant factor in this new scandal is the fact that once it had come to this conclusion about the Global Restructuring Group (GRG) of the Royal Bank of Scotland the Financial Conduct Authority was reluctant to tell the public about it despite our being the major shareholder in the company in question.
When a body specifically charged with protecting the interests of the general public is reluctant to publish its findings in full for fear of legal action raised by a potential offender it brings into question the fitness of the regulator to perform its statutory duties. It also reinforces the public perception that the banking industry is a law unto itself and that begs the question of what the Treasury Committee and HM Government intend to do about it.
Then again we already know the answer to that question. Nobody responsible for the 2008 crash went to jail; those who profited from it kept their money, government bailed out the banks who bought worthless bonds from other banks. Don’t hold your breath waiting for head to start rolling.
David J Crawford,
85 Whittingehame Court,
1300 Great Western Road, Glasgow.
IS the Royal Bank of Scotland Group taking advantage of the branch closure discussions and the GRG scandal to distract us from its preparations for Scottish independence?
Everyone will have noticed that the RBS Six Nations rugby is now the NatWest Six Nations.
Also, customers will have received a circular outlining plans for ring-fencing the retail banks from the casino business. A quick look online shows that, broadly, the casino bank will be renamed NatWest Markets plc and will sit outside the ring-fence. That is entirely appropriate, as it acknowledges that it was London and not Edinburgh that caused the banking crisis. Various international operations will also sit outside the ring-fence.
However, the ring-fenced entity will be renamed NatWest Holdings Limited, registered at the glass tower in London, and will incorporate the retail banks including the Royal Bank of Scotland (after some arcane jiggery-pokery renaming it Adam & Company then instantaneously renaming it back) and Ulster Bank. So essentially the Royal Bank of Scotland becomes a subsidiary of a London company.
Does CEO Ross McEwan know something we don’t, or is he simply bowing to the inevitable and accepting that we will follow his homeland and throw off the dead hand of London?
Jim Clark,
8 Thistle Place, Scone.
I FEAR that Professor Ronald MacDonald (Letters, February 20) conveniently scares the natives about the bovver boys and girls of the international financial army ready to exploit an independent Scotland and undermine its currency.
While Scotland will always engage globally that does not mean we shall be financial slaves to the global establishment. Why would we wish to sell our currency? There is no need.
The challenge for the Scottish Government in the run-up to and following upon an affirmative independence vote is to increase public funding to provide a universal basic income while allowing our businesses to expand and compete internationally.
The proposition is quite simple, and the solution ensures that our government is in control and has no need to borrow on the international markets or adjust its budgets due to global volatility; £100 billion can be raised by imposing an Annual Ground Rent (AGR) of £7.124 per square metre on all floor space and urban land while replacing all existing taxes.
Let the speculators and their fellow travellers do their worst. Our land is ours, and they can't take it from us. Even if we allow them to buy some of it they can't avoid payment of the AGR on it. Revenue Scotland will just repossess it. We could call it our Darien revenge.
Graeme McCormick,
Redhouse Cottage, Arden,
by Loch Lomond.
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