Sir Fred Goodwin: Ex-RBS boss is a step closer to losing knighthood

By
Becky Barrow, James Chapman and Tim Shipman

Last updated at 11:27 AM on 25th January 2012

  • Deleted reference said ex-RBS boss lacked experience
  • Cut described as ‘Maxwellisation’ after crooked tycoon
  • MPs deciding if Sir Fred should lose his knighthood

Shamed: Sir Fred Goodwin

Shamed: Sir Fred Goodwin

Senior Whitehall officials are to meet within days to discuss stripping Sir Fred Goodwin of his knighthood.

The move comes after an  independent expert overseeing a report into the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland confirmed it amounts to a ‘censure’ of the  disgraced banker.

The explosive verdict by Sir David Walker, one of the City’s most respected veterans, adds to pressure for Sir Fred to have his honour, granted for  ‘services to banking’, revoked.

Sir Fred, 53, steered the banking giant to the biggest corporate disaster in British history, leaving taxpayers with a £45billion bill for its rescue.

Deputy Tory chairman Michael Fallon, who sits on the Treasury select committee, asked during a Commons hearing yesterday whether the report by the Financial Services Authority ‘amounts to a censure of Sir Fred’.

Sir David – who was appointed to be an ‘external reviewer’ of the FSA’s long-awaited investigation – replied: ‘Yes.’

Mr Fallon said this crucial  evidence should be passed to the Forfeiture Committee, which is responsible for ensuring the honours system does not fall into disrepute.

Fred the Shred

Fred the Shred

Senior Whitehall sources revealed that
the secretive body, made up of senior civil servants including Cabinet 
Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, is likely to meet later this week to
consider Sir Fred’s case.

But they are expected to delay a decision until they have gathered more evidence.

Sir David’s intervention is hugely
significant because senior civil servants have suggested a censure from
Sir Fred’s professional watchdog would be necessary to justify stripping
him of his knighthood.

Bill Knight

Sir David Walker

Revelation: Lawyer Bill Knight and City grandee Bill Knight, who were appointed by Parliament to monitor the FSA report, were quizzed by the Treasury Committee

THE OTHER THINGS THAT SIR FRED SHREDDED

Sir Fred Goodwin earned the nickname Fred the Shred after gaining a reputation for cutting costs – and staff – without flinching.

The deal he is most famous for was RBS’s £23.5bilion purchase of NatWest, the biggest in UK history.

He ruthlessly set about cutting costs, axing thousands of jobs in the sleepy NatWest branch network, merging the banks’ computer systems and forcing managers to embrace ambitious expansion targets.

He set his eyes on broader horizons, gobbling up Charter One in the U.S. for £5bn in 2004 and buying a stake in the Bank of China for £800m in 2005.

In 2007, as the credit crunch first hit the financial markets, he embarked on a disastrous takeover battle with Barclays for control of the crumbling Dutch bank ABN Amro.

When the going became too hot for Barclays – which withdrew from the auction – Goodwin led a break-up bid in which he paid a top-of-the-market price of nearly £12bn for the Far Eastern and investment banking arms of the Dutch bank.

In the process he took on to the RBS balance sheet billions of pounds of toxic loans, based on sub-prime mortgage debt.

Goodwin was so focused on turning RBS into a world leader which could challenge HSBC and Citigroup that he committed the cardinal banking sin of over-stretching his balance sheet.

He had left the bank desperately short of capital.

Ultimately, the bank had to be bailed out by British taxpayers.
So the last thing he shredded was his reputation.

Though the rules around the removal of honours are shrouded in mystery, traditionally honours have been removed if a recipient has been jailed for more than three months or if they were condemned by a professional body in the area for which they received the honour.

Mr Fallon said: ‘The official adviser has now confirmed that the FSA report amounts to censure, so there is now an official trigger to look at Sir Fred Goodwin’s knighthood. It is now for the committee to decide.’

David Ruffley, another Tory MP on the Treasury committee, said: ‘Sir Fred Goodwin is a poster boy for corporate excess and financial failure.

‘Now that the Treasury committee has received evidence Sir Fred has been censured by the Financial Services Authority, his case must be referred to the Forfeiture Committee.’

A senior civil service source said: ‘The Forfeiture Committee is likely to meet this week but they will then go away and ask for more evidence to consider before making a final decision.’

Labour leader Ed Miliband has said his party had been wrong to nominate Sir Fred for his knighthood and called for its removal.

Sir David also revealed the massive amount of money paid by RBS to the investment bank, Merrill Lynch, which advised on its takeover of the Dutch bank, ABN Amro.

When quizzed about how much they got, he said it was ‘a very substantial sum’ which was ‘north of 100million euros certainly’ [£83milion].

When RBS bought ABN Amro, its research into the deal in 2007, which proved to be disastrous, amounted to just ‘two lever arch folders and a CD’, according to the FSA.

 

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

What exactly has he done wrong? The Lords is full of incompetants, liar, crooks and people who have mercilessly milked the system for their own personal benefit whilst fraudulently purporting to represent the public. I would say Fred the Shred is well down the list when compared with the rest of them. Sooner that self serving army of greedy overpaid ageing pompous mannequins are replaced with an elected chamber the better.

Lets weed out the rest of the people who need to be striped of their knighthood’s

Doesn’t go far enough. What about Lord Archer and others? Sorry, they are all part of the British ruling class and cannot be touched.

Don’t worry he won’t lose his dodgy Knighhood, he has to many friends like him in high places.

GET THIS LOUT STRIPPED OF HIS SIR,AS SOON AS POSSABLE,ANOTHER OF GORDOBN BROWNS CRONIES,WHAT WAS THE RBS DEBT £27 BILLION,REWARDED FOR FAILURE,I ASK YOU.
I SEE HE IS A SHOOTING MAN,THE WAY THE RAN THE BANK,ITS WEATHER HE COULD SHOOT A BULL IN AN ENTRY.
WHAT A COMPLETE FAILURE WHAT EVER DOES HIS WIFE THINK !!!
ALAN SIMPSON SHROPSHIRE

Why does the DM still refer to him as ‘Sir’? What’s wrong with ‘Mr Goodwin’?

“Sir Fred has been censured by the Financial Services Authority” . Is that enough now for lawyers to start proceedings to recover the trillions of debt he incurred by crashing the bank, and, oh yes, recoup his pension and past bonuses too.

Why all the hand wringing about removal of honours for this this self obsessed obnoxious git – he should be jailed for his “services to banking”, his knighthood removed and stripped of his inflated pension

And what about all the nee’r do wells who have these pompous titles who have in the past been in court and or served time ? are they going to be looked at as to whether they are worthy of their silly honours , I am not sticking up for the like of Goodwin, but as they say , he who has not sinned cast the first stone

“if a recipient has been jailed ” What about Archer he went to prison and still kept his title,

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