FCA caves to RBS GRG report pressure

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has succumbed to mounting political pressure and agreed to Treasury Committee’s demands for the appointment of a legal adviser to study the watchdog’s report into misconduct at 73 per cent state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland’s now notorious GRG restructuring unit.

The report, leaked to the BBC, said the now defunct RBS department set up to help companies in trouble mistreated clients.

The FCA has refused to publish the skilled persons’ report so far as it said to do so would risk revealing confidential information, and has so far only released a short summary.

But FCA chief Andrew Bailey has now agreed to allow Andrew Green QC to compare its summary with the full report.

The City watchdog’s capitulation follows chairwoman of the Treasury select committee Nicky Morgan’s recent relentless campaign for full disclosure of the report’s findings which last week culminated in her ratcheting up the already growing pressure by threatening to force publication if the FCA did not agree to it being scrutinised.

The MP wrote directly to Mr Bailey specifically proposing the appointment of Andrew Green QC as an independent legal adviser to compare the regulator’s impending summary with the underlying report into the scandal.

That decision came after the report, which the BBC said accuses RBS of mistreating businesses – claims the bank denies – was seen by the broadcaster.

The leak prompted Ms Morgan to demand its full release to the public.

While Ms Morgan said the case to publish the full report had become “overwhelming”, the watchdog has insisted that it will only publish a summary of the report’s findings, verified by external lawyers.

Last month it was also reported that City of London law firm Lexlaw has organised a data request Under the Data Protection Act 1998.

The firm believes former RBS business customers mentioned in the report have a legal right under the act to be given any personal information contained in it and that, as the data controller, the FCA is legally obliged to hand it over.

Under the DPA 1998, individuals, as “data subjects”, can make a “subject access request” for all personal data that organisations hold about them on their systems. The act covers sole traders as well as individual directors, officers and employees of companies.

Reacting to the request, the regulator said at the time: “We receive many DPA requests each year. We generally release any information once the formal process is completed but we comply with DPA rules.” He reiterated the FCA’s intention to release a detailed summary of the report “soon”.

Ms Morgan’s calls for full disclosure of the report has also been joined by a group of cross-party MPs who condemned RBS’s treatment of business customers as an “ugly stain” on the UK financial services industry.