Royal Bank of Scotland — House of Commons, 2015-11-05
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Guto ap Owain Bebb (Conservative, Centre-right): I would be careful about offering an opinion, because I do not think that risk should be criminalised; as small businesses understand, risk is inherent in business. If there is a clear effort to manipulate the situation, that is different, but risk is inherent. Most small businesses understand, when they take out a loan from the bank or ask for financial support, there is a risk involved if they cannot repay the money. I would want to see the definition and the detail before hazarding a further opinion On RBS, my concerns were touched on by my hon. Friend the Member for Hazel Grove (William Wragg). Now is a good time to mention the role of RBS’s global restructuring group, which, as a constituency MP dealing with businesses distressed by the mis-selling of interest rate hedging products, I have come across several times. The Tomlinson report was worthy of more attention than it received from both Front-Bench teams. I was fortunate enough in the previous Parliament to secure a debate in Westminster Hall on this issue, but I was disappointed with the response to the allegations in the report from both the Treasury and Opposition Front-Bench spokespersons. The report by Clifford Chance into the global restructuring group was given a very narrow focus by RBS—I am not saying we should dismiss it, but there is a question, given its narrow focus, about whether it is indicative of a problem with the group Of greater concern is the FCA’s decision to instigate a report into the group’s activities and the apparent further delay to that report. Given the sums of money at stake in the allegations of misbehaviour within the group, there is a question about whether the Government should be returning shares to the private sector; we do not know whether there will be significant liabilities arising from the FCA report. I have not been particularly complimentary of the FCA thus far, but I understand that the report has highlighted areas of significant concern about the group’s activities, so it is odd that the Government are proposing to sell RBS shares without first knowing about any potential liabilities arising from the report. I think there is much more to investigate, and I am glad that the FCA has finally concluded that that is worth doing, but the Government should be aware of potential issues arising from that report which could have a significant effect on the decision—and the perceived correctness of that decision—to return RBS to the private sector. I leave that word of warning with the Minister, and I would be delighted if she could comment. If she has a timescale for the report that is better than the one I heard this morning, I would be pleased to hear it I turn now to the sale of interest rate hedging products. This morning, I met a member of the RBS redress team whom I considered to be honourable, hard-working and doing his best for the businesses affected while trying to protect the bank’s interests. As a believer in the free market, I fully accept that if someone enters into a financial transaction, they accept a degree of risk, but they also expect the bank to work on their behalf, not against them, and to have their best interests at heart, rather than the interests of a commission-receiving salesman. When I meet someone who works for the bank in that capacity, I take them very seriously, and I understand that they are doing their best to deal with a complex situation None the less, the review into the banks that were affected, and particularly RBS, still leaves grounds for concern. Well over 50% of the derivative sales included in the FCA redress scheme were sold by RBS, so there is a huge potential liability if the review is shown to be inadequate. The FCA, in its response to the Treasury Select Committee’s report, clearly stated that it was minded to undertake a review of its own redress scheme, once all legal action had been completed. I am slightly concerned by that. If there are concerns about the implementation of its own redress scheme, I am surprised it is not willing to look at that until all legal action relating to the interest rate swap scandal has been completed. That means that the regulator is almost abdicating its responsibility to the courts. The whole point of the redress scheme was to avoid the need for small businesses without the financial resources to have to resort to the courts. They simply do not have the money. I am concerned, therefore, that the FCA seems to be admitting the need to review its own scheme but is not willing to do so until all court cases have been completed. Given that the FCA is at least admitting the need to acknowledge the concerns of the Treasury Select Committee, I am concerned that we might be returning RBS to the marketplace without being aware of liabilities that might arise from the redress scheme being found, to put it kindly, to be less than perfect. The fact that a significantly greater percentage of RBS cases have resulted in a "swap for a swap" outcome—where it is found that someone has been mis-sold this toxic financial product, but it is concluded that they would have ended up buying one anyhow—is a matter of concern. I am concerned in particular that the conditions of sanction, which are questionable, that were used by RBS to ensure that small businesses bought the protection are now being used to justify the finding that there was a legitimate condition of lending associated with the loans in question. I am not excusing any of the other banks involved, but RBS still has questions to answer. That is not to question the integrity of the team doing the work on behalf of RBS, but they are relying on questionable and concerning paperwork and legal excuses, and those concerns are shared by the Treasury Select Committee. They should be shared by those on the Treasury Bench as well Finally, on the stories in this week’s newspapers about the allegation of falsifying documents, it is important to take those allegations with a degree of caution, because they need to be tested and looked at. I nevertheless believe that the discrepancies between the paperwork made available through subject access reviews and other paperwork already supplied to small businesses undoubtedly raise questions I have been fortunate enough to have been subjected to several four-hour presentations highlighting discrepancies between, for example, the transcript of telephone calls held by RBS and the recorded transcripts held by the business. I grant that when a transcript of a telephone call is made, it will not be perfect, but when the RBS version is 94 words long and the business’s version is 594 words longer, one has to ask whether it is simply a mistake or whether something worse is going on. These are very serious issues that need to be looked at Similarly, I have seen emails in which half a sentence has disappeared and a capital letter has appeared in the middle of a sentence, turning its meaning on its head. Again, mistakes happen when information is transcribed, but I am not aware of mistakes happening when information disappears and capital letters appear. As I say, these allegations are extremely concerning. They are still allegations; they need to be looked at carefully. RBS has agreed that some serious issues need to be looked at, and I am confident that, in many cases, RBS will be able to explain why these discrepancies have occurred. I sincerely hope that it will be able to do that, because the thought that information kept by the banks about small businesses has been fabricated is truly shocking Let me return to my main point. RBS was brought into governmental control in order to save it from itself and make sure that the UK financial sector was protected—and, more importantly, that the citizens of this country were protected from what could have been a much worse outcome for our financial sector. In addition to ensuring that RBS is back to financial health, we have an obligation to make sure that behaviour within RBS has been rectified. I continue to believe that there is a question mark about that behaviour, and while it persists, I think we should be very careful before privatising or returning more of RBS to the private sector.