Minggu, 01 Juli 2012

Vince Cable: Business Secretary tells shareholders to take control over 'systemic abuse' by bank executives

Vince Cable: Business Secretary tells shareholders to take control over 'systemic abuse' by bank executives

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 18:42 EST, 30 June 2012 | UPDATED: 09:49 EST, 1 July 2012


Vince Cable has ordered the banks to get a grip

Vince Cable has ordered the banks to get a grip

Business Secretary Vince Cable has urged shareholders in British banks to 'get a stronger grip' on the boards and executives responsible for 'systemic abuse'.

He said that nobody at Barclays was prepared to take responsibility for the scandal that has engulfed the company in recent days and that shareholders ought to take action.

'Regulators are a backstop: they don't own banks,' he wrote in an article for The Observer.

'The governance at the top of our leading banks has been shown to be lamentably weak. No one at the top of Barclays will take responsibility for systemic abuse.

'Shareholders, the owners, have a major responsibility here. I am bringing in legislation to strengthen their control over pay and bonuses, through binding votes, but shareholders have to get a stronger grip on weak boards and out-of-control executives.'

His call came as Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond faces demands for his resignation and there appeared to be move s by investors against the bank's chairman, Marcus Agius. Both are to be questioned by the Treasury Select Committee this week.

Ministers are to order an independent review into the inter-bank lending rate in the wake of revelations that it was rigged by bankers Barclays and other financial institutions.

The review will consider the future operation of the so-called Libor rate and the possibility of introducing criminal sanctions for its manipulation.

The move did not satisfy Labour, however, whose leader Ed Miliband insisted the public would not accept anything less than a full-scale independent inquiry into the culture and practices of banking.

His call came after the Financial Services Authority uncovered 'serious failings' in the sale of complex financial products to small businesses, just days after the rate-rigging affair emerged at Barclays.

Chief executive of Barclays Bob Diamond has refused to resign over the scandal

Chief executive of Barclays Bob Diamond has refused to resign over the scandal

Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland has also confirmed it is being investigated for manipulating the rates at which banks lend to each other.

Treasury sources said its review, to be headed by an as-yet-undisclosed independent figure, would ensure a speedy response to the issue, resulting in amendments to the Financial Services Bill this summer.

Ministers are considering setting up a separate review into the professional standards of bankers.

Prime Minister David Cameron

Prime Minister David Cameron

Prime Minister David Cameron said the Government would ensure 'the criminal law can go wherever it needs to'.

Asked about calls for a wide-ranging inquiry, he said: 'Let's take our time, think this through carefully... That's what I'm determined to do, and that's what we will do.'

But Mr Miliband said the Prime Minister was 'out of touch' and warned that voters would not accept 'the establishment closing ranks'.

He called for an inquiry along the lines of Lord Justice Leveson's into media ethics and practices.

'I have news for David Cameron - the people of this country want a moment of reckoning for our banks,' he told a Fabian Society conference in London.

'The British people will not tolerate the establishment closing ranks saying we don't need an inquiry.

'They want a light shone into every dark corner of our banking system. They want bankers held to account. They want the system rebuilt.

'Nothing less than a full public inquiry can do that. Sticking-plaster solutions will not heal this wound.'

Barclays was fined £290 million by UK and US regulators for manipulating the rate at which banks lend to each other in the first of two scandals to rock the City this week.

On Friday, the FSA revealed separately that Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group had agreed to pay compensation to customers who were mis-sold interest-rate hedging products.

Some 28,000 of the products have been sold since 2001 and may have been offered as protection - or to act as a hedge - against a rise in interest rates without the customer fully grasping the downside risks.

Serious Fraud Office investigators are in talks with the regulator over the scandal.

VIDEO: Ed Miliband demands full-scale independent inquiry


Here's what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

  • Newest
  • Oldest
  • Best rated
  • Worst rated

Vince Cable, as Business Secretary, you should know better. Over 90% of all shares are owned by big finance institutions, pension funds and the like, who, like the bankers, all 'eat from the same trough'. Small shareholders are railroaded every time, their combined amount means little to the corporate boards, nor at EGMs and AGMs. So their vote on boardroom pay and trading conditions is absolutely worthless, and you know it! Stop paying lip service, the public are not that stupid.

Report abuse

The Leveson inquiry or peoples court should be applied here, as share holders (such as insurance companies etc.) have a distinct interest in wanting to maximize profits to pension funds and the like.

Report abuse

Shareholders do not have access to the running of their banks and have no idea what the senior executives are doing on a daily basis, or what decisions are being made. Cable should stop ducking the issue, the banks can only be reigned in by tighter regulation backed up by the threat of prosecution. We want to see less bankers visiting Downing Street and more of them visiting police stations. Only then will these questionable activities stop.

Report abuse

And let's urge voters to take control and oust useless politicians.

Report abuse

No a WORD in our Media about this; Im sure it is not just confined to the UK!! after all aren't we told over and over again that we live in a global financial system. Are the press so ignorant in Australia that this HUGE scandal doesn't even deserve a by-line??? Who own's the press here...Oh? I forgot...isn't one of the Global Megalords of the ink-press an Australian????

Report abuse

Until it is possible to shareholders to vote on line the private shareholder will find it difficult to vote. It would not be too difficult to organise but does the establishment really want thisw????

Report abuse

It is the CONSUMERS who need to get a grip, Mr.Cable. All I have to do is......switch banks. As for "shareholders" - had I been one.....I'd have taken the exit door on any bank shareholding - around the time of Northern Rock.

Report abuse

Either scrap the board concept altogether or make the directors legally liable for actions taken or lack of oversight. Nobody should be on any board unless they have a thorough working knowledge of the business from bottom to top, that would exclude many current board members who are hand picked to do the CEO's bidding.

Report abuse

Bufooooooooooon!

Report abuse

Its Cable who needs to get a stronger grip on his department. He speaks as if he is an observer. Does he not understand he is the Business Secretary. He is totally useless as a politician at senior level.

Report abuse

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Diposting oleh di

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar

Langganan: Posting Komentar (Atom)