MP triumphs as watchdog is set to publish and be damned
MORE than a year after the City regulator released a paltry 298-word statement summarising its investigation into RBS, the publication today of a fuller report marks a victory for Andrew Tyrie, the chairman of the Treasury select committee.
Tyrie led the public outcry when, last December, the Financial Services Authority cited legal reasons and refused to release more details of the probe, which took no action against the former directors of RBS.
Today Tyrie says: “The public was being brushed off with a single page of explanation from the FSA about the failure of RBS in exchange for the billions of pounds taxpayers put at risk to save the bank from collapse. This was unacceptable.”
Former banker David Walker and lawyer Bill Knight are also due to publish their own independent review of the report, a 20-page document that could also emerge tomorrow.
Tyrie’s committee wants to ensure the FSA’s final account of what went wrong at both RBS and on its own turf – which has been much-delayed and cost a reported £7m – is a fair and balanced summary of evidence gathered by the regulator and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).