Royal Bank of Scotland

Debate between Jo Stevens and William Wragg

Thursday 5th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[William Wragg]

Following your lead, Mr Deputy Speaker, I will address one of those points, on bankers’ bonuses. Of course, bonuses should not be used to reward wrongdoing. I make my remarks and quote from the motion in the context of the UK’s financial sector.

Further examination of the report revealed that many businesses across the country, at least those among RBS customers, found themselves in circumstances in which the bank unnecessarily engineered default to move them out of local management and into its turnaround division, in order to generate revenue through fees, increased margins and devalued assets.

[Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central) (Lab)]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that that is not a practice restricted to RBS, but applies also to Lloyds bank? I raised this in a Westminster Hall debate. My constituent Mr Kash Shabir was a victim of exactly that practice. Does the hon. Gentleman have any observations on that?

[William Wragg]

I agree entirely that the practice was not restricted to RBS. The case of my constituent involved RBS, but the hon. Lady’s constituent no doubt had a similar experience with other banks.

Tomlinson said that the practices at RBS’s turnaround division were typical. Once placed in this division of the bank, businesses were trapped, with no ability to move and no opportunity to trade out of their position. Good, honest and otherwise successful businesses were forced to stand by and watch as they were sunk by the decisions of the bank. The bank could then extract maximum revenue from the businesses, beyond that which could be considered reasonable, and to such an extent that it was the key contributing factor in the businesses’ financial deterioration.