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How the report into RBS is becoming a report into the FSA
Originally posted by 5corpio
What started out as investigation into Britain's biggest bank failure is turning into a judgment on the regulator.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is a body unused to scrutiny. Since being established in 2000 by the then Labour government it has become the most powerful financial quango in the country, with sweeping powers that have seen it grow into an organisation with a budget for the current year of £458m and more than 4,000 staff.
The phrase "FSA investigation" is often enough to make any senior finance executive sweat, as any of those who have been subject to one of its frequent and highly intrusive inquiries can attest.
Yet, when it came to Britain's biggest bank failure, the FSA proved surprisingly toothless. On December 2 the regulator put out a 298-word statement in which it said it had closed its investigation into the failure of Royal Bank of Scotland and had found no grounds to take action against any of the lender's current or former directors or senior managers.
There was an angry reaction focused on the FSA's insistence that it would not make public any of the details of its investigation.
The FSA had been expecting to take some heat for the absence of a report after nearly 19 months of work costing £7.7m. But according to one source involved in the aftermath of the announcement, its decision not to publish a report into an event that cost the taxpayer £45bn in direct support and more tha.........Read more HERE
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is a body unused to scrutiny. Since being established in 2000 by the then Labour government it has become the most powerful financial quango in the country, with sweeping powers that have seen it grow into an organisation with a budget for the current year of £458m and more than 4,000 staff.
The phrase "FSA investigation" is often enough to make any senior finance executive sweat, as any of those who have been subject to one of its frequent and highly intrusive inquiries can attest.
Yet, when it came to Britain's biggest bank failure, the FSA proved surprisingly toothless. On December 2 the regulator put out a 298-word statement in which it said it had closed its investigation into the failure of Royal Bank of Scotland and had found no grounds to take action against any of the lender's current or former directors or senior managers.
There was an angry reaction focused on the FSA's insistence that it would not make public any of the details of its investigation.
The FSA had been expecting to take some heat for the absence of a report after nearly 19 months of work costing £7.7m. But according to one source involved in the aftermath of the announcement, its decision not to publish a report into an event that cost the taxpayer £45bn in direct support and more tha.........Read more HERE