Panorama (BBC 1) tonight threw its hat into the ring in an attempt to find someone responsible for the mess that RBS are in. In a clearly 'thrown together at the last minute program' they wildly point the finger at whomever they can see in their line of sight.
ABN Amro were up first...with Gordon Brown claiming "Almost all losses were in US Sub-Prime and [were owned by ABN]".
Meanwhile Sir Fred is telling the Treasury Select Committee, that "there were no missed siren calls [with respect of the acquisition of ABN]"
Cut then to a 'mysterious RBS' insider who is quoted as saying "We said no to the deal because the numbers have not come through, but they went ahead and did it anyway". He later suggests that they had seen the numbers but that they "did not look good" - Come on Mr Mystery Man, some consistency please - You either saw them or you didn't!
It was then suggested that because RBS's takeover bid was hostile, their due diligence was undertaken predominantly using information in the public domain, and this was the reason they didn't fully understand the toxicity of the ABN loan book. Am I missing something here? Barclay's were also in the race to purchase ABN Amro, which, billed as a 'merger of equals' meant they had access to internal ABN information. Barclays discovered no bones in the ABNcloset during their due dilegence. And anyone remember who lit the touch paper under the whole ABN purchase thing? It was a letter by Christopher Hohn of the Children's Investment Trust who claimed ABN were under performing. For "under performing", read "conservative"?
Meanwhile across the pond in Sandiego, a firm of lawyers are putting together a class action claiming that on 22 June 2007, RBS raised $2.5bn in preference shares "with full knowledge that [they] were in poor financial health". So here we see more inconsistencies. The class action is being fort on the premise that RBS was in poor financial health in June 2007, a full 4 months before the ABN deal became unconditional. And yet Gordon Brown states "Almost all losses were in US Sub-Prime and [were owned by ABN]".
So, then the finger turns to the FSA who make perhaps the most pathetic statement of the night "In the last 18months we have brought criminal proceedings in areas such as insider dealing, money laundering and forgery" - Ok....so which of these offences will you be charging Sir Fred with, as I'm not sure he's guilty of any. In fact, which 'law' has sir Fred broken?
It's clear that there have been a catalogue of errors and mis-judgments in, not only the demise of RBS, but HBOS, Lehmans, Merryl's, Northern Rock, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Goldmans, Citi, HSBC, not the mention 10's of US regional lenders.
But now I say "It's time to stop the finger pointing - enough is enough, l;ets focus our energies positively" No more programs like this please BBC!
Rant Over
The AtticMan
