Four times sorry
It took only five minutes in the Thatcher Room of Westminster's Portcullis House just before 1000 GMT for the long-awaited word "sorry" to be drawn from the former chairmen and chief executives of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland.
They all knew it had to be said, and spread it generously around shareholders, staff, communities and, to a lesser extent, taxpayers. Between them, they had the demeanour -Sir Fred Goodwin, in particular - of four miscreants coming before the headteacher for having pauchled the petty cash from the sixth year common room and blown it on online poker.
As the squirming continues through the morning on the bonus culture (blamed on investment banks and American imports), the lack of banking qualifications (only Sir Fred comes close, being a chartered accountant), and the calamitous RBS purchase of ABN Amro ("We made a bad mistake, but at the time it did not look like that"), there's been some interesting comment from Susan Rice, who has emerged from the merger of HBOS with Lloyds TSB as a very powerful player in trying to get Scottish banking back on its feet.
The general manager of Lloyds Banking Group in Scotland told a conference yesterday: "There has sometimes been blind optimism in the good times, but it's hard to find optimism now. I would suggest we need some more caution in the good times and perhaps more adventurousness in the difficult ones".
And for those wondering what she thinks about the shortage of credit from banks, she appeals for an end to "pointing fingers" and says the shortage is down to foreign banks - American, Icelandic, Irish - getting out of the UK lending market.
The view from Edinburgh's Mound looks like this:
"For us, banking is about transparency in product and pricing, it's about lending responsibly to people who can and will repay their loans. And if we say 'no' to a request for credit, we may have made a tough but it's a correct decision because we're acting responsible. This is the kind of approach to banking we want to see dominate in the future. It's not just about a profit and a deal - it's about those things being delivered within a framework of responsibility and fair play. We have to find the balance between prudence and sensible lending without stifling the enterprise we need to stimulate our national economy".
More later from the Thatcher Room...
Hullo, I'm Douglas Fraser, and I'm business and economy editor at ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Scotland. Welcome to my blog, where you can read my take on money matters, viewed from a Scottish perspective.
Comment number 1.
At 10th Feb 2009, Deasun1967 wrote:"And for those wondering what she thinks about the shortage of credit from banks, she appeals for an end to "pointing fingers" and says the shortage is down to foreign banks - American, Icelandic, Irish - getting out of the UK lending market."
Oh no, not British banks, not a failure of the City of London, not a failure of governement regulation, it's the fault of those nasty foreigners. Just how much was invested by - say - Irish banks prior to this crisis? Did it represent 1% of the market, 10%, 50%? And funny how she calls for end to finger pointing, while pointing the finger.
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Comment number 2.
At 10th Feb 2009, inmykip wrote:Sorry seems to be the hardest word, but for these guys it tripped off their tongues far too easily. Sorry isn't good enough, their apologies are meaningless to people in this country. Did these people show good corporate governance? Did they show due diligience? Given the size of the losses in their banks I''d find it hard to believe. They should be investigated and if criminal charges can be brought against them and any other executive or politician or civil servant then proscecute them. No more white washing.
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Comment number 3.
At 11th Feb 2009, Wissenhinter wrote:Why not include lower echelon staff in 'unwise lending'? It all adds up. I was gently 'sold' a loan whilst on benefits. Surprise surprise, I couldn't keep up the payments. This was part of the reason I ended up in a psychiatric hospital, and, in part, why I am going bankrupt now, ok some years down the line.
To be fair, RBS staff have always been most understanding.
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