Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (LON:RBS) has said the potential bill for claims against its small business restructuring division will remain at £400mln after misconduct allegations against it were dismissed by Britain’s financial regulator.
The Financial Conduct Authority on Monday published a detailed summary of a report into RBS’ Global Restructuring Group (GRG) which followed an investigation after customers accused the unit of pushing ailing firms into bankruptcy to pick up their assets on the cheap.
READ: FCA consents to Treasury Select Committee's request to allow barrister to check RBS report
The FCA last year effectively cleared RBS of the many of the allegations by customers, and the bank set up the £400mln scheme to reimburse fees to customers who say they were mistreated.
The FCA’s summary said the most serious allegations were not upheld in the report - reiterating findings from its “high level” summary published last year, the watchdog said in today’s statement.
But FCA chief Andrew Bailey added that it was still investigating whether there were grounds for action against the bank.
RBS – which reports its third quarter results later this week - said it welcomed the FCA’s confirmation that the most serious allegations have not been upheld, and that the steps it announced in November to put things right for customers remained appropriate.
The FCA has rejected calls from UK lawmakers to publish the full report that was undertaken by a “skilled person”, in this case consultants Promontory.
Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee has hired a barrister to check whether the detailed summary published is faithful to the full report.
The FCA said a final version of the detailed summary would be published once the Committee’s barrister has reported back.