Ian Fraser, journalist and author of Shredded: Inside RBS, The Bank that Broke Britain, talks to the Centre and the PIR Department about the history behind RBS' nationalisation and the dangerous lack of reform in the banking sector since the financial crisis.
RBS — A rogue bank, in a rogue sector, acting with the connivance of government
Wednesday 5th November 2.00 – 3.30pm
Lower Ground Floor Seminar Room–Sir Duncan Rice Library
Something is rotten in the state of British banking. Six years on from the global financial crisis and the taxpayer funded bailouts of 2008, many customers and staff are still being treated with contempt, flawed accounting still goes largely unchallenged, massive regulatory fines are seen as a cost of doing business and banks like RBS remain “too big to fail”. What caused the rot and how come investors, the UK government, regulators, and banks' board of directors are so incapable of addressing it?
Ian Fraser has worked as a journalist for 25 years, writing for titles including The Economist, Financial Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Independent, Reuters, Dow Jones, Daily Mail, Herald and Sunday Herald. From 1999 to 2006 he worked for the newly launched, Glasgow-based Sunday Herald as financial editor, closely following developments at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Since 2008, he has focused on covering the unfolding banking crisis, working on seven BBC documentaries including the Bafta-nominated RBS: Inside The Bank That Ran Out of Money. He has also taught at Stirling University. Before becoming a journalist Ian worked in the advertising industry in Edinburgh, London and Paris; on a mine in Greybull, Wyoming; and as a jackeroo on a Queensland, Australia sheep station. He was born in Edinburgh, is married with three children, and has a degree in English from St Andrews University.