RUTH SUNDERLAND: Curse of the bad bankers

Why is Britain cursed with bad banking bosses? Alison Rose’s defenestration is a shock because until she had no judgment on Nigel Farage, she was one of the good guys.

She delivered the numbers and showed an admirable determination to break with NatWest’s toxic past. Claims have been made in the leftist press that Rose was a victim of sexism and that her offense was relatively minor in the pantheon of sins.

It may seem small beer compared to the reckless arrogance of its predecessor Fred Goodwin. But any CEO who breaches customer confidentiality must leave and cannot be excused on the basis of gender. However, the standards of behavior of the bosses of Britain’s top banks were worryingly low, not only before and during the financial crisis, but also afterwards.

The culture of impunity persists. Individuals seem to suffer insufficient consequences. Andy Hornby, the CEO of HBOS when it had to be bailed out, remains at large and is now the boss of The Restaurant Group.

Antonio Horta-Osorio kept his job at Lloyds after being caught liaising in a hotel with a mistress. He subsequently became chairman of Credit Suisse, where he was removed for breaking Covid rules. These things are important because banking is based on trust. Expectations of behavior and judgment are rightly very high.

Many Barclays customers, including myself, are troubled by the friendship between former CEO Jes Staley and the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Staley is embroiled in a US lawsuit over Epstein, a former private banking client at his previous employer, JP Morgan. Staley has denied involvement in Epstein’s crimes. The Barclays board knew from the start that there were question marks over Staley’s relationship with Epstein.

The Barclays board appointed him despite the reputational risk and stood by him in 2018 when he was fined more than £640,000 for trying to expose a whistleblower. At the time, city regulators determined that “his conduct fell below the standard we demand,” but he kept his job for three years.

No wonder the NatWest board thought they could keep Rose. While Staley’s issues have received relatively little attention here, NatWest has been caught up in Britain’s ongoing Brexit preoccupation.

But why is the number of casualties among British bank bosses so high? One answer: these are tough jobs, subject to brutal oversight, and bankers are only human.

Another is the fact that one cannot concentrate on the basics of banking: providing customers with the services they want and supporting businesses. A third consists of inadequate plates, filled with too-rans and selfish grandees. They should spend less time defending indefensible executive behavior and vigilance and more time thinking about what customers really want.

The common thread in banking debacles is losing sight of a lender’s real purpose, which is customer service. One of the problems with Coutts seems to have been a misunderstanding of the nature of a private bank, whose aim is to be exclusive and elitist.

Why did bosses try to portray it as a half-baked activist organization?

If I were a wealthy client I’d like to be greeted by servants with gold frogs on their frock coats, my statement served on a silver platter and pelted with violet petals, not lectured about being awake.