RBS sell-off investigation ruled out

Government admits prospect of selling off bank remains distant, despite speculation over potential sale of rival group Lloyds

The government has ruled out a broad investigation into whether Royal Bank of Scotland should be broken up and sold off in smaller component parts to foster more competition in the banking sector.

As shares in rival bailed-out bank Lloyds Banking Group hit their highest levels in more than two and a half years, of 67p, amid speculation that a sale of the government stake was imminent, the coalition admitted that the sell-off of the 81%-owned RBS was a more distant prospect.

The parliamentary commission on banking standards called for a wide-ranging review of the structure of RBS, but the government said splitting RBS into smaller parts "would generate significant additional costs". It added that it would "cause uncertainty and disruption for customers, creditors and staff. This would risk undoing much of the good work that RBS has done in strengthening the bank in recent years. As the majority shareholder, the taxpayer would ultimately bear the majority of the costs."

Splitting RBS into smaller parts 'would generate significant additional costs', according to the governmentThe Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, a member of the commission, raised the idea of regional banks to bolster competition in lending.

Chancellor George Osborne has already asked investment bank Rothschild to look at splitting off a "bad" bank from RBS in a move that is delaying any plans to start selling off the government stake, but does not go as far as the commission wanted.

While he has ruled out splitting up RBS into "multiple entities", George Osborne has already asked the competition authorities to look at whether it should hive off more branches than the 316 it is selling to meet EU rules. RBS has to sell the branches because of European rules on state aid – which also require Lloyds to sell 631 branches.

The government reiterated Osborne's previous assertion that it would not close down UK Financial Investments (UKFI), which looks after the taxpayer's stakes in the bailed-out banks, as recommended by the commission.

UKFI is currently deciding which banks will be appointed to sell off Lloyds and RBS and also strengthened its management team yesterday by naming a former banker to run its "bad bank".

Christopher Fox has joined from UBS to run UK Asset Resolution, the arm of UKFI which looks after the nationalised mortgage books of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, which are being run down.

Article Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk

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RBS: Rothschild to consider good bank/bad bank split

Investment bank to be paid £850,000 to provide advice on transferring RBS's troubled assets into a bad bank

Investment bankers at Rothschild are to be paid £850,000 for conducting a review, commissioned by the chancellor, into whether Royal Bank of Scotland should be split into a good and bad bank.

George Osborne announced the review in his Mansion House speechand said he wanted the work to be completed by autumn. RBS, 81%-owned by the taxpayer, is expected to pick up the bill.

John Kingman, second permanent secretary at the Treasury, recused himself from the selection process as he was global co-head of financial institutions at Rothschild until September.

RBS headquarters in the City of London.He had returned to the civil service last year after joining the investment bank in 2009 after running UK Financial Investments, the body set up during the crisis to look after the stakes in the bailed-out banks.

The outgoing UKFI chief executive, Jim O'Neil, also recused himself from the selection process as he prepared to move to Bank of America Merrill Lynch this year.

Rothschild is to provide advice on transferring RBS's troubled assets into a bad bank – but the remit does not extend to a wider analysis of breaking up RBS along any other lines.

Slaughter & May, the law firm involved in the 2008 bank bailouts, has been tasked with advising the government on the possible creation of a bad bank.

Article Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk

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RBS steps up small business lending after government calls

Royal Bank of Scotland said it had identified thousands of British companies it could offer 1.7 billion pounds of extra credit to, as it responds to government calls for banks to increase lending to small businesses.

Britain's government and central bank are concerned that poor access to finance, particularly for smaller firms, may thwart a sustainable recovery from the country's worst slump in decades.

RBS has come under pressure to increase lending because the government controls 81 percent of the bank after pumping 45.5 billion pounds in to keep it afloat during the 2008 financial crisis.

The bank said it and its subsidiary NatWest had contacted more than 20,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - existing customers - and told them they were eligible to borrow from the 1.7 billion pound credit pot, on top of what they were already borrowing from RBS.

It said the next stage of the programme would see the bank target a further 100,000 SME customers. More than one million SMEs bank with RBS.

Small business lobby group the Forum for Private Business said it welcomed the RBS initiative as long as the bank was evaluating lending opportunities properly.

"Experience tells us to be cautious here, with RBS's qualifying criteria stipulating the offer is only being made to 'credit worthy' businesses. We hope this doesn't mean they're adopting an ultra-hard line approach to risk, otherwise most of the cash available will stay in RBS's coffers," said spokesman Robert Downes.

Mike Cherry, national policy chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, described the RBS initiative as "a step in the right direction", but reminded SMEs to make sure the terms and overall costs of finance were fair and competitive.

Banks should also offer less established businesses like start-ups the credit they need, he said.

Earlier this year, the government extended its Funding for Lending Scheme, which provides banks with cheap funding to encourage them to lend to households and businesses, but recent data showed business lending has actually fallen versus last year.

Article Source :http://uk.reuters.com

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Five questions MPs should ask Bank of England governor Mervyn King

MPs should keep their questioning robust when the outgoing governor makes his final appearance in parliament

Mervyn King has enjoyed many congratulatory farewells ahead of his departure next month as governor of the Bank of England, but maybe MPs could stick to the robust questioning that is their hallmark when he appears in parliament for the last time on Tuesday.

Five questions that he should answer are:

• Should the government press ahead with the privatization of Royal Bank of Scotland or its break-up?

• Barclays and Nationwide have missed targets for capital – the new so-called leverage ratios – according to the new regulator. What is the deadline for meeting the ratios, is it earlier than the internationally agreed date of 2019?

Mervyn King speaks at his final Mansion House dinner as Bank of England governor

• Is it inconsistent to want easier credit while imposing tougher lending rules on banks? For the sake of the economy, should we not make it easier to lend, not harder?

• How would you like the MPC's remit to evolve under Mark Carney? Is there a single new policy initiative that your successor could adopt to improve the BoE's management of monetary policy?

• Can you explain how austerity has worked when growth has flatlined for three years, real wages are falling and the debt burden is higher?

Article Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk

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'Big four' banks cut 189,000 jobs worldwide in five years

By the end of this year, Britain's four biggest banks will have axed 189,000 jobs around the world in the five years since the financial crisis broke, according to new calculations.

The figures, compiled by Bloomberg, show that Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and HSBC will have cut their global headcount by 24% to a nine-year low of 606,000, compared with their pre-crisis peak of 795,000 in 2008.

Royal Bank of Scotland Holdings has axed 78,000 jobs since its £45bn taxpayer bailout in 2008. This includes 4,000 roles in its UK high-street banking business. Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of the bank, which is now 81% owned by the taxpayer, told shareholders this month that further job cuts could not be ruled out.

An RBS spokeswoman said the 78,000 job losses included 39,000 staff who had worked for Fortis and Santander when the three banks joined forces to launch a takeover of Dutch rival ABN Amro in 2007. This is now seen as one of the most disastrous acquisitions in business history, squeezing RBS's capital buffers to tiny margins and exposing the Edinburgh-based bank to rotten US sub-prime loans.

UK banks have reduced their global headcount by 24% since 2008

HSBC, Europe's largest bank, is down to 254,000 staff, compared with 313,000 in 2008. The bank infuriated unions last month when it described 3,166 job losses as "demising" roles. HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver plans to slim the bank further, cutting staff to 240,000 by the end of 2016 to trim costs and boost shareholder dividends.

An HSBC spokeswoman said the bank had made a net reduction of 1,100 jobs in the UK, once new positions were taken into account.

Lloyds, which received a £20.5bn bailout in 2008, will have cut 31,000 jobs by the end of this year, including 2,340 in 2013. The bank, now 39% owned by the British taxpayer, announced 850 job losses this month to cut costs, but was unable to give figures on how many of the 31,000 job losses were in the UK.

Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins, appointed to clean up the bank after the Libor-rate rigging scandal, has said it may axe 40,000 roles in the coming years. Barclays will have cut 20,800 jobs by the end of this year since the start of the crisis. This includes about 5,500 jobs lost in the UK between 2008 and 2012.

The figures come after three of the four banks reported sharply improved profits. Last month, Lloyds posted first quarter profits of £2bn, up from £288m at the same time a year ago. HSBC this month said it made a quarterly pre-tax profit of $8.4bn, almost double the $4.3bn it reported at the same time last year. RBS swung to a £826m profit after a £1.4bn loss last time. Barclays last month reported adjusted first quarter profits had fallen 25% to £1.8bn, partly due to the cost of the bank's restructuring programme.

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Royal Bank of Scotland recruits former FSA regulator

Jon Pain, who worked at Financial Services Authority until 2011, takes new role overseeing regulatory affairs at bailed out bank

A former regulator is joining Royal Bank of Scotland in a newly created role overseeing regulatory affairs and conduct as part of the effort by the bailed out bank to clean up its reputation in the wake of the Libor rigging scandal.

Jon Pain, who was at the Financial Services Authority for four years until 2011, is joining the bank in August as head of conduct and regulatory affairs. He will become one of the most senior executives at the bank, joining the executive committee (just below board level) and potentially earning millions of pounds a year.

Stephen Hester, the RBS chief executive, said: "The creation of this position sends a clear message about how we want to do business – serving customers well, completing our return to a safe and conservative risk profile, and generating sustainable returns for shareholders.

"If we achieve these objectives, and do so in the right way, RBS will become a really good bank." Hester is keen to oversee the privatisation of RBS, possibly next year.

Royal Bank of Scotland has recruited former FSA regulator Jon Pain in a new role to oversee conduct. The appointment is part of the bank's effort to clean up its reputation in the wake of the Libor rigging scandal.

Pain is joining from accountants KPMG where he was partner for financial services after leaving the FSA as a managing director of supervision in 2011. Before that he had worked for Lloyds from 1973 until 2008.

Pain is among a number of officials who left the FSA before it was carved up in April to become the Financial Conduct Authority overseeing most elements of City behaviour, allowing the new Prudential Regulation Authority to regulate the biggest banks.

His appointment comes in the wake of big banks are facing damage to their reputations from mis-selling scandals and penalties for bad behaviour, such as the £390m fine RBS received for rigging Libor.

Barclays recruited the former FSA boss Hector Sants into a top role overseeing regulation at the start of the year while HSBC has also made changes to its compliance and regulation divisions since it was fined a record £1.2bn for money laundering by US authorities.

Pain's appointment is the latest in a string of management changes by Hester as a result of the decision to move finance director Bruce van Saun to run the US operation Citizens ahead of its partial stock market flotation next year. Van Saun is being replaced by head of risk Nathan Bostock.

In 2010 when Sants had quit the FSA – before changing his mind and then finally quitting last year – Pain had reportedly been expecting to have replace him, on an interim basis.

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HSBC faces court threat as deal on money laundering charges stalls

Judge may take action that could leave HSBC facing a criminal prosecution and threat to its ability to do business in the US 

HSBC's controversial $1.9bn (£1.6bn) settlement deal with the US authorities over money laundering charges has stalled after a row between the justice department and the judge overseeing the case.

The deal – known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) – meant HSBC was exempt from prosecution and triggered a storm of criticism. Judge John Gleeson is now believed to be considering rejecting the deal, a move that could leave HSBC facing a criminal prosecution and the threat that its charter to do business in the US could be revoked.

The bank will hold its annual meeting in London on Friday and is expected to be asked for an update on the agreement.

US authorities reached the deal with HSBC last December after uncovering evidence that the bank had illegally conducted transactions on behalf of Mexican drug lords, terrorists and customers in Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Burma – all countries that were subject to US sanctions.

Gleeson, a former assistant attorney general, made his name prosecuting drug rings and organised crime, most notably securing the conviction of John Gotti, the Gambino crime family boss. The justice department is believed to be challenging the need for Gleeson's approval after failing to get a quick signature while the judge is upholding his opinion that he must sign off on the DPA.

Court officials would not comment on the case. The judge last referred to the case on 15 February, noting solely that he had not yet approved or disapproved of the settlement. Last December Gleeson said there had been "much publicised criticism" of judges rubber-stamping DPAs.

The agreements are an increasingly common settlement which allow a company to pay a fine to stop a criminal prosecution.

John Coffee, Adolf A Berle professor of law at Columbia University, said judges were increasingly unhappy with DPAs.

"There is a serious disconnect between judges and prosecutors about whether prosecutors are doing anything meaningful," he said.

Senator Chuck Grassley lambasted the justice department over the settlement last year and said it was "inexcusable" that they had not brought a criminal prosecution against the bank. "What I have seen from the department is an inexplicable unwillingness to prosecute and convict those responsible for aiding and abetting drug lords and terrorists. I cannot help but agree with an editorial in the New York Times that 'the government has bought into the notion that too big to fail is too big to jail'," he wrote in a letter to attorney general Eric Holder.

At the time of the deal's announcement Stuart Gulliver, HSBC chief executive, said: "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again."

HSBC has been seeking a deferred prosecution agreement.

 HSBC has undergone a drastic management overhaul since the issues came to light and has strengthened its compliance policies and procedures. It is continuing to implement those changes as the US authorities work on a resolution to the DPA disagreement.

Stuart McWilliam, senior campaigner with lobby group Global Witness, said: "News that the DPA hasn't yet been signed off gives the justice department a clear opportunity to reconsider the penalties HSBC should face for its widespread money laundering failures.

"Given that over 35,000 people were brutally slain in Mexico at the hands of drug traffickers while HSBC laundered at least $880m of their money, it's shocking that the current system of sanctions does not include senior executives being held personally responsible for the actions of their institutions. Is HSBC too big to jail?"

Gleeson would not be the first judge to challenge a DPA in recent months. Last year Jed Rakoff refused to sign off on an agreement between Citigroup and the Securities and Exchange Commission over the sale of "toxic" mortgage bonds. In his opinion the $285m settlement was "neither reasonable, nor fair, nor adequate, nor in the public interest". That dispute is ongoing.

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Article source : http://www.guardian.co.u

Royal Mail profits surge ahead of planned sell-off

Annual profits rise to £324m as the government prepares to sell the 497-year-old postal service

Royal Mail has reported a 60% increase in pre-tax annual profits to £324m, as the government prepares to sell off the 497-year-old postal service in the most ambitious privatisation since British Gas in 1986.

The company, which ministers hope to float on the London Stock Exchange within a year, said its pre-tax profits in the year to the end of March increased to £324m from £201m a year earlier. Sales, which were boosted by a 30% rise in the price of first class stamps to 60p, increased by more than £500m to £9.3bn.

Moya Greene, the chief executive, said: "Our strategy is delivering. The transformation of Royal Mail is well under way."

Speaking publicly about the privatisation plans for the first time, she said a sale of part of the business would allow Royal Mail to "combine the best of the public and private sectors".

She promised that the sale would not affect Royal Mail's universal service obligation to deliver to every address in the UK six days a week for the same price. "We are honoured to provide the universal service to more than 29m addresses across the UK," she said. "[It] can only be changed by a vote in both houses of parliament."

Greene pleaded with her staff, who have rebelled against the sell-off plans, to "continue to drive our business forward as we seek to realise our collective objectives".

"These are times of significant change and we are asking a lot of our people," she acknowledged.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents postal workers, has vowed to fight the sale, which it says will lead to a "worse deal for customers, staff and thousands of small businesses dependent on the Royal Mail". Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said the positive results were "more compelling evidence of why Royal Mail should be kept in the public sector".

Royal Mail privatisation is pushing ahead as profits are up.

 "Privatisation isn't necessary and it would destabilise the workforce and the good progress being made. The support of the workforce is crucial to the success of the company."

Michael Fallon, the business minister, has warned the union that the world's oldest postal service could be sold to sovereign wealth funds or other foreign buyers if the CWU continues to fight its flotation. He said the government was "committed" to the sale and Tuesday's results were "another encouraging step" towards it.

The business secretary, Vince Cable, said there was "no alternative" to privatisation, and Royal Mail still faces a "fundamental threat" from email, texts and social media.

Greene, a Canadian who joined Royal Mail three years ago from Canada Post, said she has held discussions with a number of "high quality investors" in Canada and the US and said it would be "foolhardy" not consider the sale of the company to foreign buyers. "The IPO [initial public offering] market in the past few years has been quite unpredictable," she said. "It would be foolhardy not to consider other options."

She said she was disappointed with the union's "philosophical" stance against privatisation. "They believe government ownership should continue even though it fell into a very deep hole," she said.

Greene said that before Royal Mail embarked on its transformation plan, the company was "20 years behind" postal services in other countries.

She indicated that Royal Mail workers will face further rounds of redundancies as the company "has to be sized appropriately for the [declining] traffic we have to process". She declined to state how many more jobs are likely to be lost, but said more than 50,000 have been cut over the past decade.

Staff are due to collect 10% of the shares in the company, which could be worth £1,500 for each employee, when it is privatised.

However, the union said the government could not "buy off" postal workers with the vague offer of shares in the privatised company. "That's not going to cut the mustard," said Billy Hayes, general secretary of the CWU. "Our members don't want £1,500 if it is going to result in depressed terms and conditions and another five streets on a delivery."

Greene said profits would have been as high as £440m accounting for "transformation costs" of redundancy payments and other costs in reshaping the business, which is switching its focus from letters to parcels.

"Just over three years ago, our core UK business had significant cash outflows [ie was making losses]," she said. "Now, despite the challenging UK economic conditions, UKPIL [UK Parcels, International and Letters] contributes the majority of group operating profits."

She said the boom in online shopping had boosted the company's parcel business, to account for almost half of revenues. The number of parcels delivered last year increased by 70m to 1.4bn.

However, she said the letters business was suffering a "structural decline". On average 58m letters are sent every day, compared with 63m in 2011-12.

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IMF urges Treasury to speed up sale of Lloyds and RBS

Fund says disposal of £65bn bank stakes should be priority as Lloyds shares reach level considered as break-even for taxpayer

Speculation about a government sell-off of Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group was escalating on Tuesday night amid reports that the International Monetary Fund is urging the Treasury to accelerate its disposal of the £65bn stakes in the two bailed-out banks.

As part of its annual health check on the UK economy, the Washington-based fund is said to be telling the government that disposal of the share stakes should be a priority.

Hopes of a sell-off of the 39% stake in Lloyds and 81% stake in RBS have risen in recent days as their share prices have climbed. On Tuesday shares in Lloyds closed just above 61p, the level which the Treasury has signalled it now regards as break-even for the taxpayer, while RBS was at 342p, still below any break-even targets set by the government.

The City has been focusing on 61p as a potential price at which to sell off Lloyds since March, when the bonus for the bank's chief executive, António Horta-Osório, was linked to selling off a third of the taxpayers' stake above this price. It is lower than the targets the City had originally been expecting of 73p, and the chancellor is yet to make public pronouncements on his intentions to sell off stakes in any banks.

The chancellor, George Osborne, has made it clear he does not want to put yet more taxpayers’ money in to fully nationalise RBS.

He has made clear that he does not want to plough in more taxpayer funds to fully nationalise RBS, to enable it to be split into a good and bad bank before being sold back into the private sector, as championed by some members of the parliamentary commission on banking standards.

The Treasury would not comment last night on the speculation about a possible IMF view on the stakes, which came amid expectations that more information would soon be provided about how major banks intend to plug the £25bn capital shortfall identified across the banking industry by the financial policy committee earlier this year.

A number of banks could soon provide information about how they intend to fill any discrepancies highlighted by the FPC. It was not immediately clear how many banks would be able to provide information or what their plans were to fill any shortfalls in announcements that could come as soon as on Wednesday .

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Unions condemn RBS job cuts

Royal Bank of Scotland cuts 1,400 jobs in its high street banking arm

Royal Bank of Scotland is axing 1,400 jobs in its high street banking arm in a move that unions described as "brutal and irresponsible".

Less than 48 hours after the bailed-out bank's chairman Sir Philip Hampton had indicated job cuts were on the cards, the 81% taxpayer-owned bank said it was restructuring its retail head offices in the UK, largely in London and Edinburgh. The 1,400 jobs will go in the next two years.

The swingeing cuts – the support functions being targeted employ 3,600 staff – are being masterminded by Ross McEwan, the new boss of the retail division.

Some 37,500 roles have already been lost at RBS under the group chief executive, Stephen Hester, who was appointed after the £45bn taxpayer bailout in 2008, and Unite, Britain's biggest union, said 700 of the latest cutbacks had been outlined to affected staff.

"This is brutal and irresponsible behaviour from RBS which is almost entirely owned by the taxpayer," said Unite national officer Dominic Hook.

RBS is cutting 1,400 jobs

"It is high time that the banks took their social responsibilities seriously. Since the start of the year RBS, HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds have announced plans to slash about 6,900 jobs. The industry almost caused the economy to implode in 2008 and now it is contributing to a jobs crisis."

HSBC warned on Wednesday that another 14,000 jobs would be lost in its operations around the world while Lloyds will have cut 40,000 since its £20bn bailout by the time its latest restructuring is completed at the end of this year.

McEwan said RBS, which last June was paralysed by a computer meltdown which stopped customers accessing their accounts, was investing £700m in improving services.

"Regrettably, we can only do that by restructuring the way we work in head office so that every effort is concentrated on supporting our customers and the frontline staff that serve them. This is clearly difficult news for our staff and we will do everything we can to support them, including seeking redeployment opportunities wherever possible to ensure compulsory redundancies are a last resort."

The union said the biggest impact would be on staff in the Gogarburn head office on the outskirts of Edinburgh with the rest of the cuts spread across the country. Two departments providing support to frontline staff are being cut by 80%, the union said.

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Article source : http://www.guardian.co.uk