Royal Bank of Scotland not guilty of accusations
Royal Bank of Scotland has been cleared of wrongdoing in the years leading up to the global financial crisis by Britain’s main financial watchdog.
After completing its investigation which started in May of last year, the Financial Services Authority commented that RBS had made a string of bad decisions. However, it was pointed out that there had never been a lack of integrity in the way the bank went about its business.
At present, the government owns 84% of Royal Bank of Scotland after it had to be bailed out in the thick of the financial crisis. Among other things, it was mainly lambasted for over-stretching itself during the takeover of Holland’s ABN Amro bank, which took place a year before the crisis in 2007, in addition to aggressively expanding itself into investment banking.
However, as mentioned, the FSA says it and other decisions weren’t the result of a lack of integrity by individuals at the company and there no incidents of fraud or dishonesty from senior individuals ever occurred. While this may be so, this wasn’t to say that those such as past chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin, who was accused of giving over-generous pension arrangements with severance packages, weren’t singled out for criticism.
While the FSA did suggest that there had been poor management at RBS in the past, it also pointed out that the aptitude of RBS individuals would always be considered whenever applications to other FSA-regulated firms had to be made. While the investigation of RBS has now finished, those into the handling of other banks are still continuing.