Andrew Tyrie, Treasury Committee Chair, Warns Big Banks Have Yet To Clean Up Their Act

Andrew Tyrie: 'Bank Juggernauts Have Yet To Clean Up Their Act'
|
Open Image Modal
Conservative MP for Chichester, Andrew Tyrie at the Houses of Parliament where he gave a press conference about Labours involvement with the Hinduja brothers.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Archive

Big banks have yet to start cleaning up their act following a string of mis-selling scandals and controversies like the fixing of Libor lending rates, Treasury select committee chairman Andrew Tyrie has warned.

The Tory MP, who also chaired the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, told the Huffington Post UK: "We've had interest rate swap misselling, several cases of Libor, with many more cases of being investigated as we speak, we've had PPI [mis-selling] and on top of that we've had money laundering and sanctions busting.

"You have to say that while the top of these organisations have got the message, it's not clear that the juggernauts they're steering have yet to change course."

Tyrie spoke to HuffPostUK after the government dramatically caved in and added many of the tougher banking reforms proposed by the commission to its banking bill, including jail sentences for bankers convicted of reckless mismanagement of a bank.

Despite most of the public supporting jail sentences for reckless senior bankers, the Treasury committee chair warned it would be a "mistake to assess the effectiveness of this legislation on the basis of how many prosecutions are made".

"Criminal sanctions are a last resort. It may concentrate the minds of a number of people before they take decisions that might otherwise have taken and if it does, it may turn out to be a power rarely if ever used."

Tyrie pointed to jail sentences for reckless management of a bank as "one of the range of tools" needed to improve banking standards and usher in a "restoration of individual responsibility".

"Senior bankers should know what they are responsible for or not. Saying the audit committee or this committee [was responsible] will not be good enough", he added.

See also:

Reasons Why The Banks Aren't Yet In Order
Barely Anyone Thinks Banks Are Well Run(01 of07)
Open Image Modal
They're Still Not Lending To Businesses (02 of07)
Open Image Modal
The big banks have been battling to get money out of the door to help British SMEs but are still struggling as business lending has fallen in most parts of Britain. An investigation by Lawrence Tomlinson, the business department's entrepreneurial adviser, found that government-owned banks were "crucifying" firms in the way they managed their financial support.
PPI Mis-selling Drags On(03 of07)
Open Image Modal
Banks are still paying out millions for mis-sold payment protection insurance.This has led to a peak in complaints too.
Credit Card Theft Insurance Mis-selling Surfaces(04 of07)
Open Image Modal
Over a dozen high street banks and credit card firms have agreed on a compensation fund of more than £1 billion for potentially for seven million people who had been mis-sold credit card and identity theft protection.It all stems from card insurance policies supplied by York-based CPP Group.
Was There Gilt-Rigging?(05 of07)
Open Image Modal
Did the Bank of England miss an attempt by traders to rig the gilt market too? Tory MP Andrea Leadsom thinks so.Financial regulators are investigating. Meanwhile one of the Bank officials said such an attempt at a dodgy trade would be "reprehensible" if proven.
Bank Bonuses Are On The Up (06 of07)
Open Image Modal
Banker bonuses effectively increased by 4% over last year to £38.6 billion, after banks deferred bonuses to take advantage of George Osborne's 50p income tax rate coming in.Osborne's introduction of the lower 45p income tax band, announced in his Budget last year means that the taxpayer lost out on an estimated £85 million as banks deferred £700 million of bonuses to April this year.Also, we have three times more millionaire bankers than the rest of the EU combined.
Oh Yes, And The Libor Rigging (07 of07)
Open Image Modal
Regulators are still looking into the Libor interbank fixing scandal, bringing charges against traders they have managed to single out.

Tyrie said it was "clear" that the state-backed bank's culture had been "inimicable to good quality servicing of SME lenders", admitting that "we cannot be confident" that such abusive practises will not happen again.

The Treasury committee chair blamed a "terrible misalignment of incentives" for leading to "large payments encouraging poor standards and behaviour".

Critics warn that excessive banking regulation could jeopardise the City of London's competitiveness and financial primacy, however Tyrie said banks would not want to prosper in areas with "poor" regulation.

"It's not true that the environment that is most attractive for banks to locate and prosper is in zones of very weak or poor regulation.

"People want to have confidence in their counterparties, that requires the right level of regulation, the level of regulation that can give people a confidence in their counterparties and a legal framework that sits behind it.

"If Britain gets this right - the new sets of rules and better regulatory performance together can make Britain more attractive, not less."