English
The violation of ethical principles by bankers was one of the main factors that led to the global crisis, meaning that the introduction of new rules and regulations will not be enough for a safer banking system, Henk Paardekooper, the CEO of RBS Romania said yesterday. "In 2008 was the beginning of the most terrible recession since the Second World War. In response to this situation, new laws were introduced everywhere, more regulations, direct control over some banks. The talks were based on the introduction of rules, but I think that introducing rules will not solve the problem and we won't have a safe banking system. I am not saying that it is a good thing not to have rules, but I think that it is not enough to have rules and regulations".
Henk Paardekooper added that according to the American authorities, the crisis could have been avoided, but among the factors which have led to this situation are bad regulations, the carelessness of financial companies, the decision makers which were caught unprepared by the crisis, as well as systemic violations of liability and ethics, at all levels.
"All the other reasons mentioned can be dealt with by introducing regulations, procedures and laws, we have already seen that. But we can't include ethics in a procedure. I think that the blatant violation of ethics is the main cause behind the recession. (...) Bankers have to comply with ethics, they have to be obsessed with doing the things that are right for society. If they do not understand that, they will remain in their glass towers", said the CEO of RBS Romania.
The statements of the banker come as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), the parent bank of RBS Romania, could become the object of a criminal investigation of the British authorities, after a report made by a government advisor in London has accused the restructuring division of the bank of having deliberately put viable companies in difficult situations, to buy up their assets at ridiculous prices.
The Serious Fraud Office is at an incipient stage of the analysis, and has yet to proceed with a complete investigation, according to Financial Times (FT).
Lawrence Tomlinson, advisor to the secretary of the state for the business environment of the British government, Vince Cable, claims that the lender is guilty of "systematically abusing" its corporate customers, from the moment of its bail-out by the authorities, in 2008, according to sources from the press.
FT reported that officials of the Office for Serious Fraud, have conducted interviews with former managers of some British companies that were affected by the behavior of the restructuring division of RBS (Global Restructuring Group - GRG) against them. The representatives of the bank declined to comment, according to the publication.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Great Britain (Bank of England - BoE) said on Monday, that it is "remarkable" and "shocking" that the treatment which RBS applied to small companies was not detected earlier, if it was applied on a large scale. He said, before the Treasury Committee of the lower house of the Parliament, that the findings in Lawrence Tomlinson's report show a "deeply disturbing and extremely serious behavior", The Telegraph reports.
Mark Carney added that it is the responsibility of the Financial Conduct Authority, and not of the central bank to conduct an investigation, but he said that he does not want to downplay an issue which should be prosecuted "with all the severity of the law", the publication notes.
In the beginning of the week, RBS hired law firm Clifford Chance, which is also present in Romania, under the name Clifford Chance Badea, to investigate the accusations.
Vince Cable, who described the accusations as "very serious" and said he was "horrified" by the findings of his advisor, said that he has sent the document to the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, in charge of the supervision and regulation of the British financial market, according to FT and Bloomberg.
The Minister of Finance of Great Britain, George Osborne, described the information as "shocking", according to the sources in the press.
The report of Lawrence Tomlinson notes that the restructuring division of RBS has the power to impose high interest rates and fees upon clients.
Companies that did not have a delicate financial situation were "pushed" towards that division, sometimes following some minor violations of the contractual terms, such as the delay in reporting some financial information of low importance, the document says, according to The Telegraph.
The quoted report also says that the high interest rates and commissions that they were then forced to pay caused some of them to collapse, which allowed RBS to buy up their assets at very low prices.
Euro
Dolar SUA
Franc elveţian
Liră sterlină
Gram de aur
