WE are only on day 19 of the new year, but already 2018 is shaping up to be another annus horribilis for crisis-torn Royal Bank of Scotland.
Chief executive Ross McEwan expressed hope in recent months that 2018 would be the year the state-backed lender put the last of its “legacy” issues behind it, and make its first annual profits in around a decade.
Instead, it has begun the year facing renewed criticism in Parliament for its treatment of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.
And it has faced tough questioning by MPs over the impact on communities from its latest, swingeing branch closures.
Allegations of mistreatment of SMEs by the bank’s controversial Global Restructuring Group (GRG), a turnaround unit ostensibly set up to support struggling firms after the financial crash, have been well documented in recent years, leading the City watchdog to commission a report into its operations.
Although the full report has yet to be published, the Financial Conduct Authority said the bank “accepted it did not meet the standard it set of itself, which impacted on how it treated some of its SME customers” after a summary was issued by the watchdog in November 2016.
At the time, the bank was cleared of the worst allegations made against it. But if bosses thought that would be the end of the matter, they would have been mistaken.
After an internal memo emanating from GRG, dating from 2009 and released on Wednesday, showed staff had been asked to “let customers hang themselves”, the bank faced furious condemnation yesterday from MPs for the way GRG handled small firms referred to it.
The fresh focus placed on GRG will surely inflict further damage on the bank’s already battered image.
But, amid claims the majority of the 12,000 SMEs placed into the unit were ultimately liquidated, there could well have been a human, and an economic, cost to its activities too.
This matter deserves the fullest possible scrutiny.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here