A BODY representing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has called for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to publish a report into a controversial restructuring group run by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
SME Alliance made their call in a letter to Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the City watchdog, after a report earlier this week suggested that more than 90 per cent of the firms referred to the Global Restructuring Group (GRG) were thought to have suffered “inappropriate action” against them by RBS.
The report, leaked to the BBC, suggested that struggling companies that were placed in the GRG had a slim chance of emerging from it, with only 10 per cent returning intact to the main bank.
Taxpayer-owned RBS shut the controversial unit in August 2014.
In their letter, Nikki Turner and Nick Gould, SME Alliance directors, said victims of the GRG had been denied justice because of the “secrecy” attached to the report.
They wrote: “It is reasonable and in fact obvious that, had victims of GRG had sight of your report prior to going through any redress scheme, complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service and/or most importantly, through costly court cases, your findings would have lent considerable weight to the outcomes.
“Therefore, the secrecy the FCA has adopted … will have been materially detrimental to victims and may have resulted in any court being seriously misled by the bank’s highly remunerated legal teams. In short, withholding the S166 [skilled persons’] report may have caused multiple miscarriages of justice.
“We note your three operational objectives are: to secure an appropriate degree of protection for consumers; to protect and enhance the integrity of the UK financial system; and to promote effective competition in the interests of consumers.
“We fail to understand how withholding the report into RBS GRG will support any of the objectives.”
The letter added: “As you may already know, the conduct of some GRG staff has resulted in depression, destitution and sadly even tragedy for those victims who chose suicide rather than a seemingly futile opposition to RBS/GRG’s aggressive actions.
“We would therefore be grateful if you would advise us as to when the full report will be publicly available before yet more damage is done? Failure to release it can only result in further miscarriages of justice and those withholding crucial information will be perverting the course of justice.”
An FCA spokesperson confirmed they had received the alliance’s letter, and added: “In November 2016 the FCA provided a summary of the main findings and the key conclusions of the skilled persons’ report into RBS’s treatment of SME customers transferred to GRG between 2008 and 2013.
“The summary stated there were areas in which the inappropriate treatment of SME customers by RBS was identified as being widespread.
“The summary also stated that the report concluded that most of the potentially viable SME customers transferred to GRG experienced some form of inappropriate action by RBS.
“The activities carried out by GRG are largely unregulated; therefore, the FCA’s powers are limited in this area. However, we are investigating issues raised by the report which fall within our remit … We will publish the outcome of our investigation, and a full account of the issues contained in the report, once the investigation is complete.”
The alliance said if the watchdog’s powers were so limited, “we would question why the FCA undertook its review in the first place”.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here