Press Release 13th June 2019

Thursday 13th June 2019

SME Alliance calls for Ross McEwan and Stephen Hester to resign in wake of FCA report into RBS GRG

Nikki Turner, director of SME Alliance, says: “The Financial Conduct Authority has found that if the current regulatory regime was in place when RBS was sending thousands of small businesses to the wall, then they would have had the ‘jurisdiction’ to take action against the senior management of the bank. Based on the report’s findings we would point out that the FCA can still make a decision under its Principle for Business as to whether the senior management were fit and proper persons for the jobs. We therefore call for all of those who were in charge of RBS at the time – notably current RBS CEO Ross McEwan and his predecessor Stephen Hester – to immediately resign from their present roles and not be allowed to hold senior positions in financial services.
 
“While the regulatory regime has been tightened up through the introduction of the Senior Managers & Certification Regime, the protection afforded to small and medium sized businesses, which are the bedrock of the UK economy, in their dealings with banks is still woefully inadequate and we call on the Government to urgently review whether they want entrepreneurs to feel that they can safely borrow to grow their companies.
 
“Yet again, we are deeply disappointed that the regulator, having found ‘that some aspects of customers’ inappropriate treatment were systematic’, and that ‘Some customers lost everything’, seems to have concluded none of RBS, its staff or its senior management could or should be held accountable in any way. It begs the question of why the FCA started an investigation or produced a report at all when the only real beneficiaries will have been the authors?"