RBS executives make 'belated U-turn' on evidence, says Tyrie

22nd Jul 2014 17:41

Senior executives at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have been accused by MP Andrew Tyrie of making a "belated U-turn" on evidence given to the Treasury on allegations about the way the bank treats its small businesses. Tyrie said he is writing to Sir Philip Hampton, Chairman of the bank, to complain about the way MPs questions were answered by Chris Sullivan, Deputy Chief Executive of RBS, and Derek Sach, head of the bank's Global Restructuring Group (GRG) in June.The GRG unit is under investigation for allegedly putting viable small businesses into default so that the bank could take their properties and sell them for a profit. The allegations were made in a report by government adviser Lawrence Tomlinson. Sir Andrew Large released a separate report which said that there were potential conflicts of interest between GRG and its small business clients because the division was an "internal profit centre". In giving evidence, RBS denied that GRG was a profit centre. However, Sullivan, who is leaving the state-backed bank next year, has now said he needed to "correct the statement he made to the Committee", agreeing that GRG was profit centre. "If this is how RBS deals with a parliamentary Committee, how much can customers and regulators rely on it to be straightforward with them?" Tyrie said in a statement, according to The Telegraph. "I will be writing to the Chairman of RBS about this, and the Committee will report on it after the summer."He added: "Following the Committee's decision to write to Sir Andrew Large for clarification, RBS has now offered the Committee what it euphemistically describes as 'additional comments'. In fact, they have done a belated U-turn. It's not as if the facts have changed. So it now appears that RBS has been wilfully obtuse with the Committee."RD