Barclays is in the news again for all the wrong reasons. Those reasons are laid bare in ‘The Bank that Lived a Little’ which tells of its excesses in ‘The Age of the Very Free Market’ (funnily enough, the age of the last Labour Government!) For instance, in 2005, PPI sales made up 42% of its profits. And in 2006, the new boss of Barclaycard was offered a £7m signing on package. Barclays survived without a Government bailout by getting a mega loan from Qatar and, in that part of the world, mega loans come with a few conditions. Those now coming home to roost.
“Bank of Scotland fined £45.5m over fraud failure”
Unbelievably, in its pomp and at the height of its powers, RBS’s balance sheet was larger than the whole of the UK economy. Little wonder that its management lost control of the worst of its staff or (depending on your viewpoint) felt they were so big and powerful...
