Legal groups acting for businesses suing Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (LON:RBS) over allegations of deliberate mistreatment have slammed the conclusions in a report published yesterday by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The UK financial regulator said the most serious allegations were not upheld - reiterating findings from its “high level” summary published last year, but FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey added that it was still investigating whether there were grounds for action against the bank.
Accused of pushing businesses to brink of collapse
RBS subsidiary GRG, now closed, has been accused of forcing hundreds of small business to the point of collapse so that it could take over the assets at a knockdown price.
READ: RBS maintains potential bill for claims against small business unit at £400mln after FCA dismisses misconduct allegations
The taxpayer-owned bank has already paid out £115mln in compensation and repeated yesterday that it expects the potential bill to be about £400mln.
RGL Management Ltd, a company formed to take action against RBS over the behaviour of GRG, said that the FCA was ‘making excuses’ about why it cannot bring the bank to justice.
A number of other groups are calling for the full report to be published rather than yesterday’s summary, something that has been rejected by the FCA.
The watchdog said the report was prepared by a “skilled person”, in this case consultants Promontory, but added it can still take action against RBS or specific individuals and was seeing what it could do within its powers.
Last week Police Scotland said it would look into how the bank had treated small businesses, but the FCA made no mention of whether any police investigations were ongoing yesterday.
Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee has hired a barrister to check whether the detailed summary published is faithful to the full report.
GRG Action Group, which represents more than 500 businesses, urged the FCA to publish the report in full, a call echoed by the Federation of Small Business, which said a decade was too long to wait for justice.
Ross McEwan, RBS’s chief executive, said the bank had dealt with over 900 complaints in that time and pointed out that the most serious allegations made against the bank were not upheld.